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Giving the iether

The waitress sered on her as she passed on up the aisle

Did she notice?

Gabrielle felt like secondhand goods for the brief instant it took her to relances—and phone nue—with anyone he wanted

No ether together Nor would they be Even if he fell in love with her, it wouldn’t work His flirting with the flight attendant was a perfect reminder of that And she wasn’t the type of woman who dated casually Which hy she didn’t date much

If she and Liaether relationship and it ended, her heart would be irrevocably broken Things would never be the saain Marie knew it And so did she

They were Threefold A fa between Liaht in thewith them She’d eventually have to choose, and based on Marie’s difficulty in trusting men, she’d choose Gabrielle

Which wasn’t fair, either

Botto him And he needed them, too

For the next several minutes, as Liam’s arh her, Gabrielle tried to concentrate on the pretty attendant parading up and down the aisle, saze had followed her again And told herself, quite strongly, that she wouldn’t ever, ever want to be his woman And when he leaned over and spoke to her, his breath on her neck urging her to turn her head to taste his lips, she forced herself to reht talks in their college years, about being attracted to other women while he was in a relationship

If he was hers, and looked at another woman like he’d just looked at the attendantshe’d never be coain

Sos for him was hard

Losing him as a member of their family would be hardest of all

“LIAM?” THE VOICE was soft Hesitant He heard it, but it didn’t register i, are claiet lost in the busy Florida airport He knew for certain she hadn’t said a word

Fact was, she hadn’t said much to him at all since shortly after takeoff She’d said she was concentrating on the papers in front of her Knowing her as he did, he didn’t question the statee—a biographical report on Donaldson’s real estate deal gone bad—so long he’d practically had it