Elara couldn't breathe.
Christian stood twenty feet away. Alive. Real. Not a ghost. Not a dream.
He looked the same. Same perfect hair. Same expensive tuxedo. Same cold eyes she'd mistaken for love.
"You're alive," she whispered.
"Clearly." His voice was ice. "Imagine my surprise, coming home to find my fiancée married to my brother."
"Your—" She couldn't form words. "You're dead."
"I was hiding." Christian moved closer. She backed up. "From people who wanted to kill me. I was protecting you, Elara. Protecting us."
"Protecting?" Her voice rose. "You let me think you were DEAD!"
"I had no choice—"
"You had a wife!" The words exploded out of her. "In Russia! You married someone else while we were engaged!"
Christian went still. "How do you know about that?"
"Does it matter?"
"Iri
