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Beside her, Margery projected an air of condescension with only the faintest lift of her brow, soreat deal better before her wedding Cleo didn’t ery, she realized then Not that anyone had asked her

“Your office—” by this Margery racious acceptance to all of the noted events, my lady It would be considered curious, at best, to pull out now”

Curious, Cleo had learned, was Margery’s code word for “completely unacceptable” And “on’t do it your way no matter who you’re married to” It was a word she used a lot

“I can ain,” Cleo said, not sure why she suddenly felt gripped by so, especially when her dinners with Khaled had been so few and far between lately, and they always ended up naked and wild and not eating anyway, “but not every night He wouldn’t like it”

She hated that she felt co chip That she felt coain

Margery didn’t look up from the folder she always held before her like a shield, forevernotes she didn’t share with Cleo

“His Excellency approved your schedule personally,” Margery said coolly

Cleo blinked at that unexpected slap, but by now she knew better than to betray her feelings any further than she already had This new life of hers was divided into the very few private spaces where she could do and say and think as she liked, and everywhere else—and that division had never see as it did now

Margery, she understood suddenly, worked for the palace For Khaled

Not for her How had she failed to notice that before now?

“What part of you is the sultan and which part of you is the man?” she’d asked Khaled while they were still in the oasis They had been lying lazily in that tent near the sheer blueto the rustle of the palh the sands all around them She had been on top of him, with him still deep inside her, their most recent storm just over

The next one had been building, even then It alas