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Yet she was

‘Lady Edward, eneral joined the ‘Are there any more Sinclairs for us to wed here in Cairo? We areto continue in this pleasant vein’

Spoken aloud the words sounded even n than in her mind

Lady Edward

In the past that nae of a golden-haired beauty waltzing in Edge’s arirlish hopes for her own e had goaded her into seeking aTheodora Wadhaolden curls and infectious laughter, his pleasure in dancing the night away, his adoration of her She’d been too young to see how much of that pleasure had been fuelled by wine and how much of his adoration fuelled by a need to possess the prize others sought

Ricki’s perfect iht as she lay under Ricki’s heavy body waiting for it to be over, her e’s ar loved in aEventually even those ies faded and she just lay there

Until the day Ricki taunted her once too often with her insipidity and coldness and the truth ca out of her—that she never had or ever would love him, that she’d married him only because she wanted a home and family and could never have that with the atory—her veno out and then the realisation that despite his drunken clu her husband actually cared But it had been too late There had been no taking back the truth

‘More chane, Lady Edward?’

Sa her husband over its rim

Her husband

That tall, handso to Poppy and the vicar with a slight s the sharp-hewn lines of his face Despite his outward calm, he exuded a raw but leashed power She could see the other guests watching hiht watch a wild animal only half-tamed by years of captivity, fascinated but wary that any et his civilised veneer and succue to devour Not that he see man he’d been just as unaware She’d overheard her brothers ribbing him that this hy his mistresses were usually older than he—it took a mature and determined woman to make it absolutely clear they were interested