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Sharif parted his lips to do just that, then thought better of it The Spanish duke was the most reckless, irredee about the pot and the kettle But looking back at the soft ht on the houri by the lake, Sharif felt the sudden strange need to protect her, even frolance She seeical—pure

“Neverdown the path toward the shore He heard a low snort of laughter behind him

“Take care you don’t get bewitched by the ht, my friend,” the Duque de Alzacar called “I’d hate to be soon attending one of these events for you”

Sharif ignored hiuards to remain behind, in the shadows of the villa, he went down to the thicket of trees Where was she? Had he lost her?

Had he dreamed her?

He saw a flash of movement and exhaled She had moved farther down the shore He followed silently in his white robes, stalking her like one of the lions that had existed in his Makhtari homeland centuries before

She moved so sensually He heard her softly whispered voice Sharif’s eyes narrowed to see who her to disappear, he ca suddenly clumsy as he stepped on a branch

At the sound, the woman whirled to face him They stared at each other

She wasn’t dressed in white, as he’d first thought, but in a pale pink dress, the color of spring’s first blush Her skin was creamy and s out starkly against her long black hair She was barely over twenty, he guessed, and ofto be conventionally beautiful, with her sharp nose, slash of dark eyebrows and the determined set to her chin; but her fulland wistful and wise And they were full of tears

Looking directly into her face, Sharif caught his breath

“Who are you?” she whispered

Sharif blinked Then frowned “You don’t knoho I am?”

She shook her head “Should I?”

Now Sharif knew the woman had to be from another place or time Everyone knew the playboy sheikh who’d swathed his way through continents of the world’s lamorous women, the Ele evening out with his entourage, who always had six bodyguards close at hand and as rumored to have a bedroom in his royal palace made entirely out of diamonds—false—and that he’d once offered to buy Manchester United on a drunken whim—true

Did she truly not knoho he was? Or was it a pretense, a way for her to play hard to get? He shrugged but watched her closely as he said, “I’uest”