LITMIR.BIZ

      Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Epilogue

      One

      “You’re absolutely right, Kaj,” Joffrey Dunstan, Earl of Alston, said in his usual thoughtful way. “She’s even lovelier than I remembered.”

      Glancing away from the slim, auburn-haired young woman who was the subject of his observation, the earl retreated a step from the balcony railing overlooking the grand ballroom of Altaria Palace. Though more than two hundred members of Europe’s elite milled down below in their most elegant evening wear, they might not have existed for all the attention he gave them.

      Instead, with a bemused expression on his face, he turned to stare at his companion, who stood in a pocket of shadow, hidden from casual observance. “But marriage? You can’t be serious.”

      Sheikh Kaj al bin Russard raised an ink-black eyebrow in question. “And why is that?”

      “Because… That is…” Always the diplomat, Joffrey cleared his throat and tried again. “Surely you’re aware that Princess Catherine has a certain…reputation. And Sheikh Tarik’s will was quite specific—”

      “That I marry a virgin of royal blood.” Kaj grimaced. “Have a little faith, cousin. I haven’t forgotten my father’s unfortunate directive. I’d simply remind you that for all Catherine’s reputedly wild ways, there’s a reason she’s known as the ice princess.”

      “I suppose you have a point. Still…”

      Kaj took one last look at the woman he intended to marry, his hooded gray gaze admiring her auburn hair and slim white shoulders before he turned his full attention to his favorite relative.

      He was quite aware that, despite the fact their mothers were sisters, there was no physical resemblance between himself and Joffrey. His cousin was five-ten, with a slim build, blue eyes, cropped blond hair and a fair, exceedingly English face. In contrast, he was a trio of inches over six feet, with a distinct copper cast to his skin and ink-black hair long enough to necessitate pulling it back for formal affairs like tonight’s.

      Yet for all their outward differences, he valued Joffrey’s opinion above all others.

      It had, after all, been his cousin’s matter-of-fact friendship that had eased Kaj’s crushing homesickness for his homeland of Walburaq when he’d been sent away at age eight to attend English boarding school. Just as it had been Joffrey’s steadying presence and astute counsel that

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