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“I will not marry you.”
“Then you will enjoy prison.”
The look on Samarah’s face nearly destroyed what little was left of Ferran’s humanity. A foolish thing—to pity the woman who’d just tried to kill him. And she might have succeeded. He had no illusion of her being a joke just because he was a man and she a woman. He had no doubt that the only thing that had kept him from the end was her moment of hesitation. Seconds had made the difference between his life and death.
He should not pity her. He should not care that he’d known her since she was a baby. That he could clearly picture her as a bubbly princess who had been beautiful beyond measure. A treasure to her country.
That was not who she was now. As he was not the haughty teenage boy he’d been. Not the entitled prince who’d thought only of pursuing pleasure.
Life had hit them both, harsh and real, at too young an age. He had learned a hard lesson about human weakness. About his own weaknesses. Secrets revealed had sent her father into the palace in a murderous rage … one that had, in the end, dissolved a lineage and destroyed a nation.
She was a product of that, as was he. And her actions now had nothing to do with that connection from the past. He should throw her in a jail cell and show her no mercy.
And yet he didn’t want to.
USA TODAY bestselling author MAISEY YATES lives in rural Oregon, USA, with her three children and her husband, whose chiselled jaw and arresting features continue to make her swoon. She feels the epic trek she takes several times a day from her office to her coffee-maker is a true example of her pioneer spirit.
In 2009, at the age of twenty-three, Maisey sold her first book. Since then it’s been a whirlwind of sexy alpha males and happily-ever-afters, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Maisey divides her writing time between dark, passionate category romances, set just about everywhere on earth, and light, sexy contemporary romances set practically in her back yard. She believes that she clearly has the best job in the world.
To Defy a Sheikh
Maisey Yates
To Megan Crane, who said “Obviously you have to write this book” when I told her about my idea.
There are few things that are more valuable than the encouragement of friends.
Contents
SHEIKH FERRAN BASHAR, ruler of Khadra, would not survive the night. He didn’t know it yet, but it was true.
Killing a man was never going to be easy. But that was why she’d trained, why she’d practiced the moves over and over again. So that they became muscle memory. So that when the time came there would be no hesitation. No regret.
She waited by the door of the sheikh’s bedchamber, a cloth soaked in chloroform in one hand, a knife stowed securely in her robe. There could be no noise. And she would have to surprise him.
How could she have regret? When she knew what his legacy had brought onto hers. Tradition as old as their kingdoms demanded this. Demanded that his line end with him.
As hers had ended with her father. With one lone, surviving daughter who could never carry the name. With a kingdom that had lost its crown and suffered years of turmoil as a result.
But now was no time for emotion. No time for anything but action. She’d gotten herself hired on at the palace a month ago for this very purpose. And Ferran had been no wiser. Of course he hadn’t. Why would he ever look at her? Why would he ever recognize her?
But she recognized him. And now, she’d observed him. Learned him.
Sheikh Ferran was a large man, tall and lean with hard muscle and impressive strength. She’d watched him burn off energy in the courtyard, hitting a punching bag over and over again. She knew how he moved. She knew his endurance level.
She would be merciful. He would feel nothing.
He would not know it was coming. He would not beg for his life. He wouldn’t wait in a cell for his life to end, as her father had. It would simply end.
Yes, unlike him, she would show mercy in that way at least.
And she knew that tonight, she would win.
Or she would be the one who didn’t live to see morning. It was a risk she was willing to take. It was one she had to take.
She waited, her muscles tense, everything in her on high alert. She heard footsteps, heavy and even. It was Ferran, she was almost positive. As sure as she