‘I do?’ Evanthia asked, picking one of the suitcases up.

‘I can do it,’ Alessandra answered with a smile. ‘Thank you for the offer.’

Evanthia started talking, gesturing wildly.

Not having the faintest idea what the housekeeper was saying or what her gestures meant, Alessandra smiled and nodded politely. Eventually Evanthia bustled off after making gestures Alessandra thought might have indicated food.

As soon as she was alone in her room she set about unpacking, hanging her clothes in the empty dressing room.

A dressing room that would only ever contain feminine clothes.

Silly little Alessandra, she thought, folding into drawers the new underwear she’d brought expecting her husband to remove them.

She could wear bloomers and he would neither know nor care.

preceding weeks she’d allowed herself to believe their marriage could be like a small nursery garden that, with some care and attention, might—just might—bloom into

herself to believe that Christian could be someone in whom she could trust, not

them up, a reminder that he’d never wanted the garden in the first place. He’d

her on their wedding night?

love to her because she was there and he could. She

sexual experience that had

expect them to sleep together again or was that

asking that question. The humiliation of his answer would be too

an experience she’d found so special and fulfilling had been all one-sided. Christian had been going through the motions, his tenderness part

with all his lovers in the same way. Why did she think she was so special that Casanova Markos would want to share a bed with her more than once? She’d

eyes and chided herself. Christian wasn’t doing anything they hadn’t previously agreed. She

land surrounding the villa. Flat and one-dimensional and not a

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