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‘Really?’ Lukas had been stunned ‘That’s perfect I ratulations!’

‘Thank you,’ Marko had said, his lips quirking upwards

‘Who is she? I didn’t know you were dating anyone’

Because, of course, he hadn’t been Marko searched his mind and the room for some titbit about this mystery woman he could share with his brother On the wall of the saze fell to the right-hand corner ‘She’s Australian,’ he said, thinking fast ‘I o How about she comes with me to Vela Ada, next week, so you can meet her?’

‘Yes—’ Lukas had said, sounding like hiain ‘I’ll announce my illness this week and then have a ball a few days later to reassure everyone I’m not about to keel over, and to reposition you as a stable, responsible, engaged caretaker head of state I like it’

‘A ball, Lukas? That’s really not —’

‘It is for the next three et used to it’

Marko’s gaze slid from the view to the people before him Ivan sat neatly in his ever-present pinstriped suit, listening intently and studiously taking notes Beside hi of safe rooht’s schedule

‘Your Highness,’ she said, her tone suddenly steelier ‘This is iain later, but for your safety—and for the safety of my team and everyone in the palace—you need to pay attention’

Now his gaze sharpened Before he’d simply been aware that a woman in a jet-black pantsuit sat across fro attention He hadn’t even really looked at her This week had been such a blur of bad news, upturning his life and coordinating his impulsive ‘fiancée’ lie, that he’d siher Personal Protection Services based on the recoht little more about the woman who headed the company

Now he properly considered her

She was quite tall—obvious even when seated thanks to her long, crossed legs and the fact that her shoulders sat almost level with Ivan’s Her hair was dark, and tied back sleekly fro the curved line of her cheeks and straight edge of her jaw Right now, that jaas firm as she studied him with intense brown eyes

No, hazel eyes, he corrected as he continued to just look at her, and as the sun that streaaze

She had great eyes, he realised—large and framed with thick lashes and neat eyebrows as black as her hair And sharp—as if she

Which would come handy in her job, he supposed