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Rafaello lips pressed together This was not so he had anticipated at all! He stood up abruptly, looking down into his aunt’s militant expression

‘Very well,’ he said bitingly, and then suddenly found hio easy on her’

It was that stab of disco at him His aunt was a formidable woman—she would make mincemeat of that hapless creature upstairs in her bedrooirl ripped to shreds by his aunt’s sharp tongue was painful

But as he spoke he found his aunt was looking at hiht in her eye As if he had surprised her

‘I shall take into account her…unfortunate circumstances,’ she answered dryly ‘Despite round, from what Maria tells htening it was, too!—the girl is nothing e number abound these days She certainly see worse, and that is no easy task I admit I am curious to see her for myself Well, be off with you Go and fetch your wife’

His wife As Rafaello strode away at his aunt’s i, the words tolled in his brain This was not supposed to be happening The girl was not supposed to intrude into his life in this way—sih And now here was his aunt, de that he fetch her as if she were his wife for real

But she is your wife—you married her

But I didn’t intend to get landed with her, he thought balefully as he took the stairs two at a time He reached the door of her bedroom and rapped sharply

Magda started She’d been half dozing, watching the foolish ly and fatally, towards the bedside laht for her to read by but did not shine in Benji’s eyes as he slept beside her As she watched, trying ineffectually to shoo the syht—beautiful, irresistible, and quite deadly She could so easily let herself be like one of the moths…

The rap calance at Benji lest he wake, she scrambled off the bed and went to open the door

Her jaw fell open

Rafaello was standing there, looking breathtakingly attractive in charcoal trousers and a dark blue shirt whose open collar in no way ave him an air of Latin cool that made her breath catch helplessly in her throat