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She would rather pick up on nonverbal clues And she was convinced there were some

So that responded to the ache deep in her henever he was around But he had never acted on it and they had been seeing each other for three weeks now They hadn’t had any dates per se, but he’d been around pretty much constantly since she’d run into him in the quad

Since he did not sees she’d never before seen him at or rallies she was pretty sure he had no personal interest in, she had to ume she was the reason he showed up Which ht?

It amazed her, really That a man like Sebastian would be interested in Lina Maras pretty incredible She was accusto drawn by her royal status, but like the rest of the students at the university, he had no way of knowing she was a princess But he liked her…maybe…

He was everything she had drea in a boyfriend, not that he was actually her boyfriend

She sighed Sebastian gave her a questioning look She sed Thankfully he didn’t ask her what she was thinking She ht just blurt it out and embarrass herself unbearably

He was so gorgeous; he was ertive without being do He listened to her, maybe even better than her brother He was s for an MBA showed that And he was intense in this really, super sexy way Was it any surprise she was falling for Sebastian Hawk in a big way?

The problem was that sometimes she was convinced that all he wanted was friendship

She was so bad at this wholeHer lack of practical experience was becoirls who attended the female-only academy she had, she would have at least had a chance when not in school to oodness sake Though she had to admit that even if she had the opportunity, the male dominant nature of her family had made her wary around men and she probably would have shied away from any sort of interaction

That caution combined with the reality that in order to date it would havesubjected to not only a bodyguard, but a chaperone as well, had also kept her frouys since she’d arrived at university Until Sebastian

Of course, it helped that he illing to spend tied for involvement in

Only…for this man, she would do whatever it took to see him personally She just wished she knehat to do with him

Not that lack of experience had ever stopped her fro that she wanted to She was not the demure, ornamental—aka useless—piece of feminity her father believed her to be

Sebastian was so different frohts as unimportant simply because she wasn’t heir to a throne or provincial position He wasn’t surprised by her intelligence and he didn’t seem to think her political science major was a waste of her time Not that he knehy she had chosen that major, but he acted like he believed she could, andvaluable with her education

That was her hope

She’d spent her childhood separated fros one week out of the year when she flew to Marwan and stayed in the royal palace with the her with affection, and knew for a fact her father had never once given her any recognition as anything but his inferior fe

She refused to spend her adult life feeling and being insignificant She wanted to make a difference in the world and not e on some man’s arm

“You’re pretty quiet over there,” Sebastian said

“I was thinking how different you are from the men in my family”

“Yes?”

“Yes”

“In ay?”

“You don’t discount me simply because I’m female”

“Who does that?”

“My father To some extent my uncle Others”

“Your brother?”

She didn’t re her brother, but she ave one of the rare sht of her family “My brother is different He has been raised to be just like my father, but he’s not You can’t tell on the surface, but he does special things to let me know”

“Like what?” Sebastian’s obviously genuine interest encouraged her to be more open with the truth than she would have normally

“He spends time with me”

“Don’t your parents?”