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I must

Theher thinking of anything else Anything at all

And especially, above all, what ‘this’ would actually mean…

She could feel her eyes flickering and ed to replace the coffee cup on the table in front of her, her head starting to loll Her restless, tor up with her

The dream she slipped into was vivid Instant

She was on the island That ical, maquis-clad island, where the azure bowl of the sky cupped land lapped by a cobalt sea, enclosing it in a private, secret world, a world where the outside world ceased to exist, where everything—everyone—was reduced to the elements of which they were ht and dark Flesh and blood

And heat Heat beating up through the rocks, burning down fro in her veins like a fire A fire she could not quench, a heat she could not cool, heat in her skin, her veins, her nerves, her flesh…flushing through her, pulse, after pulse, after pulse…

She woke—eyes wide, staring Heart pounding Terrified

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Words screah her

I can’t do this! I can’t! I can’t! I can’t!

Her hands clenched over the arms of her seat

The plane flew on

Theo listened as Deht him up to date on a dozen different iteenda But his mind was elsewhere

So she had coone either way, he knew—her self-righteous fury was quite capable of cutting off her own nose to spite her face His face tightened It was that, above all, that enraged hi denied what she dared, dared to consider her entitlement to her uncle’s money! The uncle she had insulted and shamed, who even now still felt the burden of what she had done