The Champion Read Online Free PDF

she had more reasons to be afraid than she knew. A long abandoned harem girl, who happens to know the Sultan’s current plans—the infamous reshaping of Ruman— and can verify the existence of the war machine…not even the real Letoures would fall for such a blatant contradiction.
    “Wait for me,” he whispered.
    Leaving her standing alone, he crossed the room, turning down the oil lamps until the room went completely dark. He counted his steps, navigating by memory until his eyes adjusted to the gloom. Focusing past the black outline of low tables and wooden columns, he found her standing in a pool of moonlight under the windows, her dress glittering faintly in the glow.
    If she heard him approach, she gave no sign of it, her gaze fixed on the distant glint of stars, her hand pressed against her lips. He paused for a moment, catching the bewildered stroke of her fingers, as if she were rediscovering the places he’d kissed her.
    He watched her in silence, remembering her sharp intake of breath at the first touch, the tremble under his hands. Whoever she was, she’d been made to suffer in her role. That was, he assumed, the most truthful thing he knew about her, perhaps the only thing he knew.
    She turned her face toward him, as if he’d made a sound, though he knew he hadn’t. He stood in the darkness, beyond the silver veil of moonlight that surrounded her, a figure she couldn’t possibly see.
    Her lips parted, her expression almost otherworldly, with thin, dark brows that tapered to points and almond colored eyes lined in black kohl, their depths heated by determination, by pain.
    He grimaced, knowing there was no part of him left untouched by that look, and what a complete fool he was for that. He moved out of the shadows, hating himself for the part he was about to play. “Nadira.”
    She didn’t resist as he drew her close, his hands sliding around her beaded waist, urging her forward until she moved with him, lovers swaying out of the light and into the darkness. Lowering his mouth, he whispered against her ear. “Where is the machine?”
    “Secured, in the Star Tower of Abu Quardan, in the Red Desert.”
    The Red Desert. He narrowed his eyes, as if he could see it in the distance. It was a day’s ride from the city, but tantalizingly close to his primary mission extraction point, which meant there was a Sinclair Airship already on its way there.
    Nadira shifted in his arms, trying to read him in the dark. “The royal retinue is being organized as we speak, so that we may take the diamond in the morning. You will be paid well if you—”
    “The Sultan is going to deliver the stone personally?”
    “Of course, but you don’t understand—”
    “Then tell His Majesty that I would be honored to join him.”
    She stopped short at that, struggling to recover what she had intended to say. “You agree?”
    “How could I refuse such a rare opportunity?”
    “I—I am grateful.”
    He gave a half-shake of his head. “You shouldn’t be.”
    “You will be well paid.”
    “His Majesty is too generous with his wealth. You must tell him that I found you beautiful, and that you pleased me.”
    She hesitated, her attention drawn to the shadows around them. “The lamps. You put them out so that you could hide us from those who could be watching, give the appearance of a servant pleasing the guest of the Sultan.”
    “Or a man pleasing a woman,” he corrected swiftly. “An easy deception in the dark.”
    “I thought you intended to make the deception real.”
    “My seductions only involve ‘willing participants’, remember? And now that you have my agreement on the matter of the machine…”
    A moment passed in silence. Then he felt the cool touch of her fingertips along his jaw, studying his chin, the small lines at the corners of his mouth, as if seeing someone new. She stroked her fingers over his lips, a soft touch he felt spear straight through him. His mouth opened to her without thought,