ic wry smile before shaking

to avoid it now,'

nother fraction, then, 'The visitor is

irtight cage, closing in on him with alarming speed. A glass cage where all his emotions were on display. Shock. Sha

like the turbulence coursing through him, than

for dropping this forbidden name into his life. For breathing it into existence in this space of measured contemplation and incis

tried to make the p

arrowed. '

ght times. She knows the protocol well enough not to stray outsid

rse, s

er had a sharp,

his university in England twelve years ago. He'd lingered in the back, watching the woman who

hen the glorious, waist-length tumble of blonde curls he'd itched to sink his fingers into. The slim, elegant hand that ha

oughly engrossing

rn

een he

been enra

because he'd stopped being useful to her. Friends and family alike had treated him like a pariah. His banishment to the desert had be

r looked back from. And if he'd caught traces of disappointment in his father's eyes occ

of Lauren

e centre of the vast Moorish castle that was Jukrat Palace. That way he was protected from people like Lauren Winchester and the many fervid subjects who

lace gates, much to the adulation of her subjects, until a near-assassination attempt had

en Winchester would believe

been...once

vibrated with the unequivocal need to issue the command to turn her away, but when he opened his mo

een able to veri

futile or because she be

ing of it,' he rasped, still half enraged at his aide for dropping this uns