His Arranged Marriage Read Online Free PDF Page A

could kiss his bride if he wanted to, and somehow he’d gotten himself tangled up in this rope, and by jimmy, she could just share his misery.
    Cade put his lips against the startled princess’s. Like beating butterfly wings spreading apart, her mouth opened under his.
    All Cade could think of when he felt her compliant surrender was that after all the years his mother had dragged him to church, he finally understood what King Solomon had been so excited about when he’d written his famous Song of Solomon.
    As impossible as it seemed, as wrong as it should have been to touch the princess intended for his brother, kissing Serena Al Farid made Cade feel like a powerful and wealthy-beyond-measure king.
    Serena Wilson-Al Farid was a treasure.

Chapter Four
    “My spies tell me that the marriage is done,” Layla informed Azzam, “and the fact that we were not invited is insulting.”
    “None were invited,” Azzam consoled her. “Put it from your mind.”
    “I can’t.” Layla was festering inside. Azzam’s lack of concern for the situation distressed her to the point of pressing him. “Azzam, you trust Zak too much!”
    Azzam shrugged. “I truly don’t have the thirst for intrigue that I once did.”
    “I do,” she replied, her voice bitter. “The throne of Sorajhee is the only prize left to me in my old age and I would see the jewel polished more brightly.”
    “You speak like a foolish old woman.”
    Pride mixed with impatience stirred up a vicious cocktail inside Layla. “You would not speak so if you knew everything I have done to protect what isrightfully yours! How can you even speak of allowing Zakariyya to take it from you?”
    Azzam’s eyes narrowed on her. “I doubt the wisdom in not exacting a punishment for your previous schemes. What have you done for me, besides be a choking bone in my throat with your constant demands for more power? More of everything? You wear me out, woman. No wonder I spend more time than ever in the comparative peace of my harem.”
    Layla cloaked herself inside her robe, drawing the cloth tight against her body, a shield against his scorn. The beginning of hatred for her husband ate into her soul. What a blow to her pride that, after all the years she’d worked to make certain no Coleman-El Jeveds made a claim to the throne, one had apparently appeared like a bad dream from the past to do just that. She should have done more than convince Azzam to put Rose into a sanitarium and steal Rose’s one son away from her. She should have demanded to see the bodies of the three other Coleman-El Jeved princes when they were rumored to have died. But she’d been so certain that having Rose shut away would end any future threat to Azzam ascending to the throne. “I will take my leave of you now,” she said frostily as she bowed to Azzam. “If you will grant me so.”
    He shrugged, losing interest in his petulant wife.
    With that cool dismissal, Layla swept from theroom. Fool not to see the danger under your very nose, Azzam!
    But she did. And it was up to her to make certain that nothing stood in between her and the prize she coveted above all.
    Balahar.
    Fortunately, she had a few moves left to her. If the marriage was not consummated tonight, it would not be a legal and biding union. She had learned that the American was on his way to a neighboring country.
    Between now and the time he departed, Serena’s new husband would find it very difficult to consummate the royal marriage.
    She smiled to herself, and thanked Allah for inhibiting potions and loyal spies.
     
    S ERENA AND C ADE sat beside each other at a table draped with a lavish cloth and more food than they could eat. A robed servant stood behind them, anticipating their dining needs. Cade ignored the tea the servant moved closer to his plate. He didn’t need tea, or food for that matter.
    What he needed was to talk to Serena, and she hadn’t uttered more than two words to him so far. Did she plan to ignore