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motionless.
    “I’m sorry,” he said instead.

    Ellina forced another smile that didn’t lessen the defeated look in her eyes. “My brothers always like to make my life difficult. And I shouldn’t have started anything. I should know better.”
    Jude didn’t think she’d done anything to merit all this, but the twin demons obviously had hair-trigger tempers. He also got the feeling they were willing to do more than make her life difficult; they were dangerous.
    But he said nothing. Warnings wouldn’t help her right now. She was already overwhelmed.
    “Is this research for another book?” he asked, gesturing to the clutter of pages.
    Her eyes remained locked on her desk, then she sighed. “Yes. Hours and hours of it.
    And now it will take me just as long to sort it out.”
    She sighed again.
    Jude couldn’t explain why, but he felt helpless. She looked so forlorn. But he wouldn’t be any help with sorting through her notes. No more than he would be trying to comfort her. And frankly, he was pretty certain she didn’t want either from him anyway.
    Still he asked, “Can I do anything?”
    She shook her head, just as he knew she would. “No. It’s just going to take time to get this all straightened out.” She sighed. “A lot of time.”
    “Okay, well, I’ll let you get to work.”
    She nodded, picking up one of the papers, then dropping it back to the pile as if she didn’t have any idea what to do with it or where to start. He lingered a moment longer, his helplessness making him reluctant to leave. He was a man of action. He didn’t like this feeling.
    Then she began sorting, and he decided it was best to just leave.
    Just when he reached the door, she spoke, stopping him. “Why did you go along with my stupid boyfriend explanation?”
    Jude closed his eyes for a moment at her question. Why had he gone along with that?
    He faced her.
    “I thought it was a good cover so they wouldn’t question too closely who I am or why I’m here.”

    “Oh, they’ll question. They already are. And soon more members of my illustrious family will start asking questions too.”
    She returned to her papers.
    Jude studied her for a moment. Why would her family be so surprised by a boyfriend? Ellina was stunningly lovely. Surely she’d had many male admirers. Maybe she already had a boyfriend, and that was what had her family so shocked. The sudden appearance of a new man in her life.
    Which led him to another question…
    “Why did you say I was your boyfriend?”
    Her fingers paused on her papers.
    “I—I just didn’t want them making fun of the fact Maksim had gotten their silly sister a bodyguard.” She made a face. “Stupid, really. Because they’ll make fun of me anyway.”
    Jude wanted to ask if the they she was referring to was just her brothers or if this was aimed at her whole family, but she was again focused on her work. Something about her stance, her expression, told him she wasn’t in a mood to talk anymore.
    And in truth, neither was he. He needed a moment to process what just happened.
    Ellina could have chosen anything. Why boyfriend? And how were they going to pull that off believably?
    He started to step out of the office when she said, “Sorry for the awkward choice of cover.”
    Could she read his mind? Her thoughts seemed to follow the same track as his.
    “You can’t even stand to touch me,” she added with a dry, humorless laugh.
    Now that he hadn’t expected. Had she noticed his reaction to her when he’d laid a hand on her arm? Obviously.
    It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her that wasn’t why he’d pulled away, but then thought better of it. He’d already learned enough about this woman in a few short hours to know she wouldn’t accept that answer without further questions. Questions he wasn’t prepared to answer or ponder too closely.
    “Well, it’s our cover now,” he said, again wondering why he was sticking with this plan.

    “Bad choice,” she said without