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9bb3311
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I will give you a little hint," Emma said with a wry smile. "A whore's trick, but a good one. It's a part that you're playing, like a grand actress on the stage. It isn't you. It has nothing to do with you. You're simply using your body in service to something necessary. You can smile and flirt and dance and pretend you're someone entirely different, and it won't matter. You, the real you, will still be safe inside."
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Anne Stuart |
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bc5cd3d
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Besides, the old man was out of shape, smoked and drank--a walking heart attack.
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Anne Stuart |
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4cab375
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She felt hot, strong, alive against him, and he found he had this crazy urge to move his mouth down to the side of her neck, to press it against her, to taste her skin. He wanted to feel her breasts, wanted to pull her T-shirt up and feel her hot skin against his. Damn, he wanted her.
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Anne Stuart |
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9808bf9
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She expected annoyance, tolerance, perhaps even a distant amusement. She hadn't expected his reaction. His arms closed around her like a vice, pulling her tightly up against him. And she didn't have time to kiss him--the touch of her mouth against his seemed to ignite a firestorm. She could feel him through every inch of her body, the lean, deceptively strong body beneath the suit, the heat and lure of muscle and sinew, the sheer intensity ..
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Anne Stuart |
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39dadf4
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He kissed the salty tears from her cheeks, her jaw, her neck. And then he kissed her mouth, slowly at first, tasting her pain and despair. Tasting her desire. He didn't know whether he turned her in his arms, or whether she shifted herself. He only knew she was astride him, facing him, her long legs wrapped around his hips, and the kissing had gone long past comfort.
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Anne Stuart |
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b60bc28
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He slid his arm under her waist, hauled her up, and entered her that way, sliding in deep, so deep, and her guttural cry was a heartbreaking pleasure. He couldn't stop. She wouldn't let him. She twisted her head around and kissed him, and he wanted to keep on and on, to fill her mouth, her body, her soul with him. To have her take everything and then want more.
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Anne Stuart |
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20a1fdd
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A strange stillness had settled over him, as well, a waiting. The earth was shifting beneath him, and he had the hideous suspicion that his entire life was about to change if he didn't get out of there, now. Away from the unexpected, undeniable lure of the dowdy young woman in front of him.
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Anne Stuart |
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d627e16
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She came at him sideways, away from his legs, reaching down to pull the duct tape away. He didn't even notice the pain, spitting out the rag someone had put in his mouth earlier. She turned, and handed him a bottle of water. "You're probably thirsty. The drug I gave you tends to make your mouth dry." "No, I think that was caused by the sock someone stuffed in there," he said. "Your work?"
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Anne Stuart |
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29523c8
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the foundations set up as tax shelters by the wealthy tended to spend as much money glorifying the donors' names and providing cushy jobs for their friends
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Anne Stuart |
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8cfda68
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He would die at her hands. He knew it, with sudden lightening clarity. The man he had struggled so hard to become, the all-powerful, all-knowing Simon of Navarre, would be destroyed by a woman's heart.
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Anne Stuart |
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c2ac60f
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The windows were boarded up, allowing in no light. "I take it this isn't your apartment." "You think I'd take you to my home?" "Hope springs eternal."
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Anne Stuart |
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f33bd3c
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He was lost, captured by an innocent, destroyed by a would-be nun, and there was no way the monster, Simon of Navarre, Richard the Fair's Grendel, would ever be the same.
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Anne Stuart |
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d3cb6e2
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What are you doing, Alys?" He'd turned to watch her, and his expression was disbelieving. She'd emerged from the winding staircase to stand in the open, but she hadn't yet been able to make her feet move further. "Facing my fears," she said in a wobbly voice. "Courting death?" "Are you going to kill me?" "The lightning might." "Are you you going to kill me?" she persisted, flinching when the thunder rumbled again. "Would you ride a horse fo..
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Anne Stuart |
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193227f
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Jilly looked at it with a sinking heart. It was difficult enough when the exotic, undeniably gorgeous creature of her fantasies had turned out to be an obnoxious bully. Of course he had to have a Harley, as well, completing the perfect bad-boy image. With the tattooed teardrops on his high cheekbones and spiky, waist-length, flame-colored hair and his long, leather-clad legs and pointy-toed cowboy boots, he was almost irresistible, despite ..
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Anne Stuart |
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0fa9afe
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She should feel sick. Horrified, stunned. But the horrible truth was, she felt fine. He killed. He killed to protect her. And some ancient, atavistic streak inside her wanted to preen and purr. She was one sick puppy.
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Anne Stuart |
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fced320
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He turned back, and there was an odd light in his eyes. "Did I ever tell you that I can't live without you?" he said. "No," she said. "You can tell me about it when we survive." She could barely breathe, death was eating its way toward her, and she wanted to laugh out loud with the joy of it."
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Anne Stuart |
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12b0a46
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I knew you'd be wet," he whispered, and gave in to temptation, biting her ear. She quivered. "Now I want you to spread your legs for me. Just a little bit. That's right," he crooned in her ear. "That's perfect. You're perfect. Beautiful." He kissed the side of her neck, because he couldn't help it. He wanted his fingers inside her, wanted his cock inside her, but he couldn't have what he wanted. If he turned her, yanked off her pants and pu..
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Anne Stuart |
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b15e00c
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The original Shiro-sama failed, of course, and was ordered by the emperor to commit ritual suicide in his temple in the mountains. He did, and his followers cremated his body and put his bones in a sacred urn to be guarded until the time he was reborn." "And that's the Hayashi Urn?" she said. "A funeral jar? And I kept my cookies in it?"
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Anne Stuart |
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d716f4f
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Stop it," she said. "Stop what?" Her eyes flew open, filled with rage and betrayal. "Stop pretending. You made your point this morning--you don't have anything more to prove. You don't want me, you can make me do anything you wish, and I'll be pathetically grateful for your attention, while you won't feel a thing..." "You idiot," he said, his voice savage. "How blind are you?" "Leave me alone." He pulled her legs apart, pushing between them..
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Anne Stuart |
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81af8d7
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I'm supposed to trust you?" "No," he said. He picked up the phone. "Put her sister on." A second later he handed the small silver device to her. Summer felt a second of panic--after all, this tiny piece of metal and circuitry unlocked doors, turned off death traps and blew up houses. God knows what would happen if she pushed the wrong button."
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Anne Stuart |
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f65f10f
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Taka reached over and put his hand on hers as the plane began to climb. She didn't look his way, didn't open her eyes, but her hand turned beneath his and caught his fingers, entwining them with hers. Until they were high in the sky over the Pacific and she fell asleep and her hand loosened in his. And still he held it. Until he, too, fell asleep.
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Anne Stuart |
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8390e9a
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Have you not explained to your friend? She seems confused." "I've told her what she needs to know." "I would suspect, Nephew, that she needs to know more. Particularly when I see how you look at her." Taka gave another sudden start, but didn't turn. What did his uncle see when he looked at her? Murderous tendencies? Vast annoyance? Or something else? "And she looks at you the same way," the old man added, and it was Summer's turn to jump. D..
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Anne Stuart |
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666cfae
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Summer Hawthorne was simply more trouble than she was worth. At least as far as anyone with any sense would realize. Unfortunately, Taka's common sense seemed to have deserted him in the last few days.
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Anne Stuart |
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3b766e8
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He pulled the knitting away from her, throwing it in the grass, then sank down on his knees in front of her, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his head in her lap. He was shaking, she realized, and the tears were pouring down her face, onto him, as she stroked his long, silken hair and cried. She didn't care what it sounded like--the hiccupping noises, the choking sobs. Her own body was shaking, racked by the final release, and..
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Anne Stuart |
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3055cc6
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I eat gaijin for breakfast..." His words trailed off as Jilly came out of the house, in her pseudo-frock, her combat boots, her spiky hair and her young, young face. He just stared at her, motionless, as if someone had clubbed him over the head with a mallet. Jilly froze where she was, staring back at the exotic creature in black leather and bright red hair who'd invaded the garden."
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Anne Stuart |
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93a7764
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This man was truly like a scorpion, a poisonous sting when one least expected it.
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Anne Stuart |
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b53f062
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And she didn't want to escape. She wanted to be kissed in the sunlight by a gorgeous man. She just wanted some other man, not this complicated creature who had more secrets than she could even begin to imagine. But it didn't matter what her brain wanted. Her body, her mouth, her soul wanted him, and she heard a quiet little sound of desire and knew that it had come from her.
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Anne Stuart |
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f6a3322
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A moment later he was sent sprawling on a hard wood floor. The idiots left him alone - why they thought a simple bash on the head would keep him immobile for long was beyond him. They wouldn't have much of a career if they made mistakes like this. There were times when the incompetence of the enemy was simply an insult.
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Anne Stuart |
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fdfd1bb
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You've been pinning for him these last three years, God knows why. Admittedly he's gorgeous, but you're hardly the type to be overset by simple beauty. Why?" Because he has sad eyes, she could have said. Because he tries so very hard to be bad, to be mean, to be cruel, and all you have to do is look past the studied ennui to see a hurt little boy trying to emerge. And yes, because he's bloody gorgeous."
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Anne Stuart |
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4a5c09e
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Come along, my brave one. Your wife and son want to see you.
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Anne Stuart |
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b37b456
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Mind you she was quite exquisite when she wasn't on a tirade.
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Anne Stuart |
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31a504c
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He slid his hands under her butt and she could feel him pressing against her, hot and hard and sleek. And then he thrust inside, deep, fast, burying himself inside her, breaking past whatever trace of innocence she still had remaining.
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Anne Stuart |
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a4bbc95
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It started slow and hit her with the force of a sledgehammer, a cataclysm of such power she could only hold on to him and let it happen. He went rigid against her, rock hard in her arms, and he probably muttered "oh, shit" again, but she was beyond hearing, lost in some mind-scattered cloud of inexpressible pleasure. She fell back, limp, awash in shimmering sensation, and she knew an odd, faint trace of regret that he'd used a condom. She'd..
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Anne Stuart |
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c6e77b0
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He touched her, and she came again at his touch, her mouth pulling at him. He was beyond gentleness. He shoved her back against the blanket of clothes and moved between her legs. He went in hard, fast, deep, only barely able to control himself. She wrapped her legs around his, and he reached down and pulled them higher, up around his hips, so that he was deeper still, and she was tight, clasping, milking him with the power of her climax, wh..
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Anne Stuart |
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3f73463
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I want to wake up with you in the morning, I want to fight with you in the afternoon, and I want to make love on any and every available surface in this place. And then I want to do it all over again. Come upstairs with me, Sophie. I'll keep you warm. I'll keep the darkness away."
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Anne Stuart |
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b51a479
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Why did you save Mahmoud?" Killian's voice was so low she almost didn't hear him. "Instinct," she muttered sleepily. "I certainly wasn't about to save " His laugh vibrated through his leg, through her body. "Of course not. Mahmoud's grateful."
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Anne Stuart |
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28c293c
|
To her surprise, Jilly appeared to have handed over the telephone and a moment later Taka ended the call. No, maybe it shouldn't surprise her. Jilly would have resisted bullying, but Taka's calm control was very...seductive.
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Anne Stuart |
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1566c16
|
Dawn couldn't come soon enough. He had to get her out of his life as quickly as possible. It was becoming the most important thing--more important than breathing, living. He needed to get away from her, fast. Because he didn't want to let her go.
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Anne Stuart |
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829d85f
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She heard the zip of his pants, and expected him to step away from her, leave her alone in the bathroom to pull herself together. Instead, his hands were very gentle as he moved her out of the way, running water into the tiny sink. And then his hands were between her legs, and he was washing her, and she was too shocked to do anything more than let him. He tossed the paper towels, then took her discarded clothes from the floor and put them ..
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Anne Stuart |
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ed08c68
|
Takashi had no choice, and he'd always known it. This was one reason he'd tried so hard not to care about anyone, one reason why he'd known immediately just how dangerous Summer Hawthorne could be. Because now she was the one he couldn't sacrifice, couldn't walk away from, no matter how high the stakes. He could die for what he believed in. He just couldn't let her die as well.
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Anne Stuart |
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1d3f20f
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He couldn't have known. The moonlight wasn't enough to illuminate the room, and the tears that spilled silently down her cheeks didn't touch him. But suddenly the kiss softened, the hands gentled on her, the lips coaxed and teased and healed. And without any more thought she was kissing him back, reaching for him with her mouth while her hands were held back, seeking him out with her tongue, calling him to her in the only way she could.
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Anne Stuart |
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b28cf18
|
He tightened his grip on her hand and pulled her toward him in the darkness. He knew exactly how she'd respond, her other hand coming up to push him away, her hand touching the bare, hot skin of his chest so that she drew back in surprise, long enough for him to wrap her tightly against his chest, trapping her hand between them. He knew she'd try to jerk her head away when he slid his hand into her hair and tilted her face back for his kiss..
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Anne Stuart |
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5ac8142
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Talvolta bisogna rinunciare a quel che si ama per sopravvivere.>> Takashi le lascio la mano. <> Lui si volto a guardarla per un tempo talmente lungo che sarebbe potuto essere pericoloso, ma sembrava avere una sorta di sesto senso quando si trattava del traffico. <> replico.
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Anne Stuart |
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5101e37
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She might have forgotten names and faces and people and events, but she hadn't forgotten emotions.
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Anne Stuart |