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“Do you want to be my fiancée?”

“Alex,” Allegra said, “hen I didn’t even want to have adrink with you do you think I’d even entertain…?”

“A million pounds”

She laughed, because these things didn’t happen and he had tobe joking, and when he pulled out a checkbook, she laughed even more, because itwas crazy Except when he handed it to her, his hand was co

“YouI will fly to Santinatoed—soon enough I’ll betold to reverse my foolish decision, to come back to London till the scandaldies down…”

“So what are you paying me for?”

“I can’t just invent soht have to join me inSantina at so on my everyword”

“Until?”

“Until the people dictate otherwise” He gave a shrug “Itht be weeks” He looked to the check and so, too, didAllegra, and she thought about it—hell, she really thought about it He wasn’tasking for her to sleep with him—just to smile and hold his hand And what shecould do with the et a flat, a job Actually she could dowhat she really wanted…

“You could finally write that book” It was as if he hadstepped into her mind She heard his voice as if he was inside it, but it wasmadness, it couldn’t work…

“Is that a yes?” Alex asked and she looked back at hiht not just of the book she could write but of a link to this man, thisbeautiful man who had entered her life—and soo of him

Playing the Royal Game

Carol Marinelli