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He’d finished his pastries and was pushing his e on her with half-closed eyes She tried to drop her own gaze because she knew she shouldmustbut found she couldn’t She tried not to be aware of how she could feel her pulse beating at her throat—but she couldn’t ignore it It was impossiblejust impossible

He leaned forward suddenly, reaching out with his napkin in his hand ‘You’ve got a pastry cruht on your lip,’ he said

His voice was husky as he dabbed at the offending particle, his fingers just brushing the soft curve of her mouth

She felt the pulse at her throat surge, her breath go still in her lungs Her eyes held his, helpless to do anything else

The candle was burning low in its glass case, starting to gutter, and the heady scent of the white flowers in the centrepiece—jasht at her senses

He caught at her senses

Xandros—theher his wife A as not a wife—not the way real wives were—for that was not why they had married Not to sit here with hihts that echoed the stars blazing in the heavens far above them, while soft waves lapped on the beach and a choir of cicadas chorused in the unseen vegetation beyond the little terrace Not to see the eyes of the aze that was turning her slowly and unstoppably into liquid mush

He was getting to his feet She heard the scrape of his chair on the stone paving, and then he was beside her

‘Shall we skip coffee?’ he said

He was sh half-closed eyes that were resting on her upturned face The ses of hislines around it that shadowed the planes of his face in the soft, low light His eyes washed over her again, and in their depths she could see that dark gold seductive glint again No hint of irony in it now

She felt the breath leave her body

‘There’s an age-old custoain

She didn’t see it coive a breathless gasp as he scooped her bodily into his ar with her into the villa

He gave a laugh of triu my bride over the threshold!’

She could say nothing, do nothing, could only gasp again, her arth of his shoulders, feeling her body cradled against his