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“No, I’ to ignore the fact that his expression was about as welco as an accountant faced with a tax auditor

“I suppose you have sohed on your conscience long enough,” he said in a voice that dripped in ice

She didn’t knohat triggered his hostility, except ed her schedule Claudio didn’t like surprises and he had a worse one co

“You could put it that way” She couldn’t even assure hie like theirs, it was a death knell and nothing less

Claudio went back to what he was doing with cold precision “It will have to wait I have a dinner ”

“Can you cancel it?”

“You ations so you could fly up here and have a conversation that surely could have waited the three days it would take et home?”

“Yes” She didn’t care how he made it sound That was exactly what she wanted

“That’s not going to happen”

“Would it really be so terrible?”

“Obviously you do not consider it so, but I do not appreciate ations and thereforethat ether?”

“Duty must come first At one time, I believe you understood this”

“Is that why you married me?”

“You already knoas one of the primary reasons I decided you would suit me well as a wife Your parents could not have raised you more suitably for the life of a princess if they had been royalty themselves”

That reminder was as unwelcome as it was painful For she better than anyone kne carefully her parents had raised her Her father with the hopes she would pursue a political career and her h her daughter Neither had ever cared what dreams beat in Therese’s heart

“My appreciation for duty was my main attraction to you…and of course the fact that I was physically co out as bitterness