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She pushed her fringe out of her eyes ‘Is that supposed to be a threat?’

‘Not a threat, no But you haven’t yet heard ain’ Alek stared at her mutinous face He knehat he had to do Nohe believed in, he was going to have to make sacrifices for his child in a way nobody had ever done for hi to have to marry her Because it was far better to have her by his side as his wife, than to leave her free to behave like a loose cannon, with his child helpless and without his protection

His heart clenched ‘If you wantto have to act like a wife,’ he said ‘You will live with me—’

‘I told you that wasn’t—’

‘I don’t care what you toldto do this, we’re going to do it properly I want this wedding toshould be’

‘M-mimic?’ she echoed, in confusion ‘What do you mean?’

‘Can’t you guess?’ His mouth twisted into a bitter smile ‘We will pretend You ear a white dress and look deep intobride Do you think you can e that, Ellie?’

Ellie’s stoan to rue silence which had descended It see time since she’d eaten that apple on the train In fact, it see which felt re tables and the next she was standing discussingher to pretend to care about him Suddenly she felt like a feather which had found itself bouncing around on a jet stream

‘You want to make it into some sort of farce,’ she breathed

‘Not a farce Just a perforh to convince the outside world that we have fallen in love’

‘But why?’ she questioned ‘Why not just treat it like the contract we both know it is?’

He flexed his fingers and she saw the whitening of his knuckles through the deep olive skin