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He went on speaking, changing the subject, and she was glad

‘Maria’s just serving some refreshments You must be thirsty, I’m sure’

She followed hie cantilevered parasol that shaded a table and chairs in front of the villa, where Maria was setting down a tray laden with coffee, fruit juice, water and a plate of syrupy nut-strewn pastries

‘Eat,’ she instructed, and bustled off

Rosalie gratefully poured herself a glass of juice, cut it with iced water, and knocked it back appreciatively

‘Are you going to mortally offend Maria and not eat one of her pastries?’

Xandros’s laconic question interrupted her train of thought

‘They look delicious, but I’ve been eating like a pig sincewell, since I was let loose on gourhtly ‘I’ll be as fat as one too if I keep going the same way!’

Dark eyes washed over her assessingly ‘I think that unlikely’

Xandros’s voice was dry, and there was so about it that made her own mouth suddenly dry She wished he hadn’t looked at her the way he had

He doesn’t understand the is like that

The trouble was, it didn’t help her that he didn’t

I have to make myself not react! I have to! Or I’ll never survive this honey married to him

In her head she heard yet again the brief, stark words he’d said to her last night before he’d walked away

‘This was a mistake’