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Slowly, the tension in her lithe fra a hand up, she pushed a lock of hair away froh Stefan, finding a vulnerable spot

Her htened and then relaxed Slowly, she pulled herself back and looked around “I just wanted some time to think”

Stefan hooked their ared her away from the festivities

When she didn’t budge, he turned around

There was a wariness in her eyes that he didn’t like Kneas there because of him, because he had kept her at a distance the past couple of weeks

“I want to stay back for a little while more”

Fighting the first urge to let her be, because there was so in her tone, in the look in her eyes that prickled his skin, he clasped her face “I told a guard I was looking for a woman with hair the color of fire, and eyes like emeralds and skin like the softest rose Told hi woold dress that floated with every step she took and that she looked like a queen”

Shaking her head, Clio laughed “Flattery will get you nowhere withand yet it had a forced quality to it “And it’s Nadia that’s the Sheikha a us I’m the pauper, remember”

“The guard reminded me of that, the part about Nadia at least But said he could also understand why I would come to that erroneous conclusion And then pointed me toward you”

As they reached one of the tents that were erected away fro her heels in

“Coer, like a schoolboy, yet he couldn’t control it

It had been so long since he had looked forward to anything soin life beyond another business deal

“I have already seen it, Bianco And as ree that it’s spectacular, I don’t think a tent amidst a crowd of festive and raucous Gazbiyans is the place or the tiet it on”

Laughter poured out of hiued further, he lifted her and brought her into the tent

When Stefan finally put her down, Clio looked around the soaring, tented structure with her eyes wide

The interior walls were decorated with lush Persian rugs and priceless silks Low-slung divans with a nuolden tassels sat on three sides On the fourth was a four-poster bed with a sheer veil resting around it