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‘Yes, but the situation is more complicated that that You see, I had promised you to Vere’ Drax felt her stiffen and try to pull away frohtly, keeping her close to him

‘You mean that you acted as a piely

‘No Let me explain’

Quietly and openly Drax started to tell her about the potential probleht have arisen fro states to tie thee

Sadie winced when she heard Drax repeating hisin love with sheikhs, but Drax laughed softly and said, ‘What I hadn’t bargained for was that this sheikh was going to be the one falling in love, and that he would be so overwhelmed by the experience that he’d try to pretend that it wasn’t happening

‘Vere guessed the truth, though My brother isn’t like me He is more reserved He finds it less easy to talk of what he feels, even to uards his emotional privacy fiercely So he waited for s He tried to encouragethat you would ined that he was telling me that he too had fallen in love with you and wanted you as his wife How could he not love you when you’re so loveable? How could I have so stupid as to not see that for myself the moment I set eyes on you?

‘Because he is my twin, and because of the vow I had ed to step out of your life I had no idea that when he talked about you being perfect wifenot to himself but to me It was the jealous outburst you overheard that enabled him to learn how I hadto hi, a description of what I wanted, but the anger of a bitterly jealousat you, neveryou’

‘But you were still willing to give h you knew I loved you?’

‘I reasoned that since Vere is the better of the two of us you would love him ations to our country Vere and I have always put our loyalty to one another ahead of everything else But now both he and I know that our relationship can never be the saain, because my love for you means that you will now be the most important person in my life’

Sadie could hear the sincerity and truth in his voice

‘I couldn’t bear what I thought I’d heard you say I’d wanted to talk to you To tell you that I wanted to return to England’ She shuddered ‘I shouldn’t have taken the vehicle like that, but I had to get away’

‘And I had to find you’

‘Oh, Drax, we could both die here, and it will be my fault’

He shook his head and s to die Listen’

Sadie looked at him and frowned