Bound to Seduction Read Online Free PDF

know one
thing.”
    When he only stared at her, she shifted her
feet and forced herself to go on. “Are you here by choice? Or are
you being forced by some…master…to fulfill my wish?”
    Her
heart thumped hard. So hard she was sure it had to be bruising a
few ribs. And under his heated stare, she couldn’t read him. Didn’t
have a clue what he was thinking. Or feeling—if anything. Did djinn
even have feelings?
    “You researched me,” he said slowly, still
staring at her.
    “Yeah. Well, not you specifically,” she
managed, though her throat was thick with nerves. “But your tribe.
And everything I read says those from the Marid tribe keep to their
own realm. They don’t cross over into the mortal world like the
Jinn and Jann tribes do. Like the Shaitans and Ghuls.” She
swallowed back the rising sickness when she remembered what she’d
read about the last two djinn tribes. While the Jinn and Jann were
mostly just curious about humans, the Shaitans and Ghuls preyed on
both the living and the dead, loved to torment and destroy whenever
they could. She’d been so relieved Tariq was not one of them.
    “You researched me,” he said again.
    “Yeah,” she repeated, twisting her hands
together. “Does that bother you?”
    “ No,
Mira,” he said softly. “It does not bother me. It…surprises me. No
one in all my long years of servitude has ever gone to the trouble of trying to learn more about
me.”
    His admission sent pleasure through her
chest, and a smile curled her mouth. But the elation was dampened
when she realized he’d used the word servitude.
    The warmth dimmed. “So you are being forced
to be here with me.”
    He took a step toward her and, before she
could think to stop him, ran his palm across her cheek, cupping her
face and looking down at her with eyes that were soft inky pools
of…confusion.
    Heat rushed in again.
    He brushed his thumb across her cheek, the
simple touch sending tongues of wicked fire licking through her
torso. “You are unlike any mortal I have ever met.” His gaze
drifted down, and he ran the fingers of his other hand across the
opal nestled in the top of her cleavage. “While it is true I am
bound to the Firebrand and am forced to serve, for the first time
in forever, I feel…tempted.”
    Tempted was good, right? It meant at least
part of him wanted to be here with her. Or so she hoped.
    She held
her breath. Waited. His gaze lifted back to hers. And someplace
deep inside her went dark with desire at the longing she saw
reflected in his sinfully wicked eyes. Longing she had put there.
    “Who are you, Mira Dawson? And why do you
have this strange effect on me?”
     
    * * *
     
    Tariq wasn’t sure if he was dreaming,
fantasizing, or just plain finally going nuts after all the years
Zoraida had kept him locked up. But even if this was some
schizophrenic hallucination, he didn’t care. Mira had researched
his tribe. She’d truly cared whether he was forced to be with her
or not. No one—not a single human he’d granted wishes to in all
those years—had once thought of him. What he wanted, what he
needed. Not a single one had looked at him as anything more than a
lowly genie.
    But not her. Right now, staring up at him
with those hypnotic hazel eyes, she was looking at him as if he was
a man.
    Which was a huge misconception he should
remind her of. He was not a man. Had never been a man. He was
djinn. The heir to his kingdom. A lethal warrior who had commanded
armies. One who had eventually been captured, tortured, and
condemned into slavery. But none of that mattered right now—not
even his failures. All that mattered was her. And this tiny moment
of relief he’d found because of her.
    “I’m…no one special,” she said softly,
breaking his train of thought. “I’m just…me.”
    She was more, though. Something in the
center of his chest said she was much more.
    “Tell me your wish, Mira.”
    She looked down at his T-shirt. And again he
watched a blush