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‘There is no job, is there? Just like there is no brother,’ she challenged hiht me here—’

‘For what purpose?’ Drax stopped her even while he reflected inwardly that it was just as well Vere wasn’t here to witness her outburst Vere was emotionally controlled, often remote, and very much aware of his position and ed to him Sadie’s emotional fury would only have added to his brother’s conviction that she was not a suitable candidate to become his teht it was a very different role Drax had in mind for her

When she didn’t answer hiave aout each and every word ‘I thought I had already made it clear to you that I have no sexual interest in you It is well known that there is a certain type of over-excitable foreign woman who seems to assume that men of my country are unable to resist her charave a s ‘One sees it in their eyes There is hunger and stupidity…It takes no great intelligence to know that such wo sex with a robed lover’

He gave another shrug ‘There are, of course, so these wo at them when their backs are turned It occurs to ns on you, youyour own sexual curiosity’

Sadie gasped in outrage ‘That is not true! There is only one reason I came here with you And that is because you virtually forced me’

‘I offered you a job, which you accepted’

‘Because you virtually blackmailed me into it! You refused to return my passport, and you still have it’

‘Indeed I do, and I intend to keep it until you have coreed on And let me warn you—this is the second tiainst me that no man bears unpunished Just remember that, if you should be tempted to repeat them a third tient business However, I have spoken of you to hirees with me that you will be perfect for the position we have in mind’

It was the truth, after all—even if Vere had rejected her and proposed that Drax should be the one to have her He was ale and tame the wild cat she had just proved herself to be—in his bed, where he wouldand spitting as she was doing now She had certainly angered and aroused hih for him to want to punish her for her audacity There was unexpected spice beneath the outerexposed it, like any man worthy of the name he naturally wanted to explore it And to conquer it, and her?

Drax ht that had somehow insinuated itself into his mind He could find hih, but Vere was not like him Vere had a tendency to withdraw and hold himself aloof, which e relationships with those outside the rarefied atmosphere in which they lived The truth was that the kind of arranged inter-Royal fa for them was probably the kind that would best suit his brother—although Vere himself was not likely to ad his hand forced—they both had a fierce determination to be masters of their own fate—but Vere, once he had set his , could not be swayed and would not compromise

He had said that he did not want

to be inveigled into a diploe, and that suited him, Drax admitted, because at the moment he did not want to marry full-stop While he knew that his way of life and his s seeid adherence to protocol, Drax had his own strong sense of where his loyalties lay and how he felt about them

For all that Vere was the firstborn, and carried about a certain sternness and an air of discipline, as if it was his duty to take on board ht of their shared responsibility, Drax often felt as though he was the more senior He was the one as more in touch with the realities of modern life and who had lived out in the world He also knew that sometimes he protected his brother But it was, to Drax, part of what their twinship ive this service of care to his brother without re on it

In deciding that Sadie wouldwhat he had done all his life—he had seen Vere’s need and potential vulnerability and had stepped in to ensure that his brother was protected He did not want to acknowledge, neverabout Sadie that washiry for her Sadie was merely a woman who fitted a specific purpose, and she would be adequately recompensed once it came to an end As far as Drax was concerned there was very little difference in paying off a no longer wanted er wanted temporary wife Both should be removed from one’s life with speed and efficiency and the e in the folly of ‘falling in love’, but Drax knew that he would never allow that to happen to him

Their parents’ death, especially the loss of their mother, had left both Vere and Drax exposed to the old-fashionedbut rather traditional royal advisers With no wooverned to develop a somewhat dismissive attitude towards romantic love