An Illicit Temptation Read Online Free PDF Page A

where we are.” He went on to describe how to use the shadow of the sun to
determine direction.
    The hidden language of the steppe had once been second nature
to Kwan-Li. He, too, knew how to read the clouds and sky. The rhythm of the wind
across the plains was in his blood. But for the last twelve years, he had lived
in the imperial city of Changan, confined within walls surrounded by more walls.
He had studied a new sort of knowledge that came from scrolls and books. The
same books had proclaimed that his people were barbarians. That they had no
language of their own. That they worshipped the sun like savages.
    At times he had almost believed that his people were ancient
and primitive. The Tang Empire had swallowed his spirit whole and he had come
back changed.
    Before sundown, Ruan navigated them down into a ravine and they
set up camp beside the river. Belu and Ruan took care of setting up the sleeping
tents while Kwan-Li brought the horses to water and refilled their gourds and
waterskins in preparation for the next day’s journey.
    An-Ming came and knelt at the edge of the stream, dipping a
cloth into the water. He watched transfixed as she washed the dust from her
face. Her skin had taken on a warm, golden tint from the sun, with a faint
scattering of freckles appearing on her cheekbones. The Han women he’d known in
the empire had valued pale skin as a sign of beauty. They used powders to appear
like porcelain dolls and hid behind parasols and curtains at the faintest ray of
light.
    When he had first seen An-Ming in the palace, her face was
similarly powdered. Her lips were painted red, her cheeks unnaturally pink. Her
hair was pinned and laced with ornaments and she was encased in silk and gold.
He had only caught a glimpse before she was shut away.
    The princess had been impossible at the beginning of the
journey, insisting on delicacies at every meal, baths at inconvenient times
because she was hot, entertainment because she was bored. Such behavior was
expected of a spoiled princess, but An-Ming seemed to grow weary of it. On the
steppe, where the journey became most difficult, she was no longer willful and
demanding. She’d become curious to learn their ways.
    Her hair had fallen loose as she sat by the river. The ends of
it trailed over her shoulder to tease at her breast. He watched in fascination
as she gathered it up and twisted it into a knot, exposing a slip of pale skin
at her neck. His chest tightened as well as other, more insistent parts of
him.
    “You’re staring at me.”
    She had stopped what she was doing to meet his gaze. The
washcloth was still pressed to her cheek. He was caught.
    “There is not much else to look at out here.”
    Her lips curved into a mischievous smile that once again
revealed her dimple. “Where I come from, there’s a penalty for that.”
    “What would that be?”
    “Twenty lashes.”
    It would be worth the risk. His heart was beating fast from
nothing more than this careless banter. He willed himself to show nothing.
    An-Ming filled a basin with water and disappeared into the
sleeping tent while he forced his attention elsewhere. He turned to find Old
Ruan grinning at him. There was no escape.
    “You need a wife, Tailuo.” Ruan used his name. His true
name.
    He scowled at the elder tribesman.
    “A woman then,” Ruan amended.
    He’d had lovers during his time in the empire. Courtesans who
knew how to smile and speak and sway in ways that made a man burn. This was a
different sort of woman. This heat within him, a different kind of fever.
    Kwan-Li regarded the elder tribesman with a grave look. “This
agreement with the Tang Emperor. Will the khagan to honor it?”
    Ruan’s grin faded. “We have served as vassals of the Uyghur
Empire for nearly a hundred years.”
    “But their hold is weakening. We can be free of them.”
    “By paying tribute to the Tang Emperor instead? Many of the
chieftains of the eight tribes don’t see the difference.”
    The Uyghurs