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‘How do you even know him?’ Poor Mark—her heart went out to her twin’s ditched lover—he wouldn’t stand a chance.

‘Mum and Pa said his private secretary seemed very nice when they spoke.’

‘Nice?’ Elsie exclaimed, staring at her twin. One of them was insane and Elsie was pretty sure it wasn’t her. ‘They spoke to… You’re marrying his secretary?’ Another layer was added to Elsie’s confusion as she tried to make sense of her twin’s comments.

‘No, I’m marrying Leandro Soares. It was his secretary who ironed out the details of the contract.’

‘Are you saying you haven’t met this man in person? This is about what…phone sex…you fell in love with a pretty face and a sexy voice?’ It was hard to imagine a man with such physicality being satisfied with an online romance.

‘Pretty face…? He’s not pretty!’

Too right, Elsie conceded as her sister’s shoulders quivered in a delicate shiver, which she wished she hadn’t seen. For some reason, the idea of the Playboy Prince making her twin shiver made acid rise in her throat.

‘And phone sex…ugh!’

Ugh seemed a bit excessive to Elsie, who could still hear that rough velvet voice in her head, but definitely not to be compared to up close and personal.

Like you’d know, the mocking voice in her head sneered.

‘I’m sure he’s very…’ Emily’s voice trailed away.

Elsie appreciated her twin’s struggle to find words to describe the innate sexuality of the man she was apparently marrying.

That would make him my brother.

Icy fingers of horror and disgust curled in her belly.

‘How long has this been going on?’ she asked, hearing the judgement in her voice.

‘We, well, Mum and Pa were contacted last week and the timing…it seemed as if it was meant to be.’

‘Contacted?’

‘As I said.’

‘The nice personal private secretary? He outsources his love life?’

Emily appeared to have regained her normal composure as she stopped her erratic pacing and slumped back down on the window seat, though a light flush of embarrassment washed over her twin’s warm-toned skin, tinging her cheeks with rose that contrasted with the bone-white of the interlaced fingers in her lap.

‘Oh, there’s no pretence of that…love, that is,’ she said, her chin lifting as a hint of defiance crept into her voice. ‘And I respect that this is just contractual, a business arrangement. Royal families have been arranging marriages forever.’

‘Are you on something?’ Elsie asked faintly. ‘This is the twenty-first century and don’t tell me that Mum and Pa agreed. They know you and Mark are a couple.’

Emily’s eyes opened wide in alarm. ‘They don’t know we got back together, and you,’ she added fiercely, ‘can’t tell them… Promise, Elsie!’

‘Why not tell them? This is crazy, Em.’

‘Not crazy, practical. He needs to marry to secure the succession. He’s King now, you know.’

Elsie said nothing. She wasn’t going to admit even to her twin, especially to her twin, that her online search history was very full of Leandro Soares…not an obsession, obviously, just an unhealthy interest!

‘He actually comes across as someone who is very patriotic and aware of his responsibilities.’

Elsie snorted. ‘Oh, yes, his patriotism really shows when he is falling out of a nightclub, off his face with some half-naked blonde draped all over him. And since when did you care about royal politics…? What happened to true love and soulmates? Look at me, Em. What is really going on here?’

‘Things have happened while you’ve been away and off-grid, Elsie. While you were climbing…Mackay’s…’

‘Bagging Munros, Em.’ Her twin did not share her love of the outdoors. She enjoyed a view so long as it didn’t involve physical effort and Elsie had long ago given up trying to explain the joys of being alone in the great outdoors.