Prince of Scandal

‘You’re the last of your family.’

Her brow puckered. ‘She must have been so young. That’s awful.’

‘Yes.’ The accident was a tragic waste of life. And it altered the succession.

She shook her head. ‘But I’m not part of the family! My mother was disinherited when she fell in love with an Australian and refused to marry the man her father chose.’

She knew about that? Did that explain her animosity?

‘Your grandfather blustered but he never disinherited her. We only discovered that recently when his will was read.’ The Prince of Ardissia had been an irascible tartar but he had too much pride in his bloodline to cut off a direct descendant. ‘You’re definitely eligible to inherit.’

How much easier life would be if she weren’t!

If there were no Ardissian princess he wouldn’t be in this appalling situation.

‘I tell you it’s impossible!’ She leaned forward, her brow pleating as she scanned the papers.

The scent of lavender wafted to him. Raul inhaled, intrigued. He was used to the perfectly balanced notes of the most expensive perfumes. Yet this simple fragrance was strangely appealing.

‘It can’t be right.’ She spoke again. ‘He disinherited me too. We were told so!’

Startled, he looked down to find her eyes blazing up at him. Her chin was angled in the air and for the first time there was colour in her cheeks.

She looked … pretty. In an unsophisticated way.

And she knew more than he’d expected. Fascinating.

‘Despite what you were told, you’re his heiress. You inherit his fortune and responsibilities.’ He summoned an encouraging smile. ‘I’ve come to take you home.’

‘Home?’ Luisa shot to her feet, the chair screeching across the floor. ‘This is my home! I belong here.’ She gestured to the cosy kitchen she’d known all her life.

She fought a sense of unreality. This had to be an appalling mistake.

From the moment he’d mentioned Ardissia and Maritz bitter recollection had cramped her belly and clouded her brain. It had taken a superhuman effort to hear him out.

‘Not any more.’ Across the scrubbed table he smiled.

He really was unbelievably good-looking.

Until you looked into those cool eyes. Had he thought her too unaware to notice his smile didn’t reach his eyes?

‘You’ve got a new life ahead of you. Your world will change for ever.’ His smile altered, became somehow more intimate, and to her surprise Luisa felt a trickle of unfamiliar warmth spread through her body.

How had that happened?

‘You’ll have wealth, position, prestige—the best of everything. You’ll live a life of luxury, as a princess.’

A princess.

The words reverberated in Luisa’s skull. Nausea rose.

At sixteen she’d heard those same words. It had been like a dream come true. What girl wouldn’t be excited to discover a royal bloodline and a doting grandfather promising a life of excitement and privilege?

Luisa’s heart clutched as she remembered her mother, pale but bravely smiling, seated at this table, telling her she had to make up her own mind about her future. Saying that, though she’d turned her back on that life, it was Luisa’s choice if she wanted to discover her birthright.

And, like the innocent she was, Luisa had gone. Lured by the fairy tale fantasy of a picture book kingdom.

Reality had been brutally different. By the time she’d rejected what her grandfather offered and made her own way home, she’d been only too grateful he hadn’t publicly presented her as his kin. That he’d kept her a cloistered guest during her ‘probation’ period. Only her closest family knew she’d ever been tempted by the old man’s false promises of a joyful family reunion.

She’d been naïve but no more.

Now she knew too much about the ugly reality of that aristocratic society, where birth and connections mattered more than love and common decency. If her grandfather’s actions hadn’t been enough, she only had to recall the man she’d thought she’d loved. How he’d schemed to seduce her when he realised her secret identity. All because of his ambition.

Luisa’s stomach heaved and she reached out blindly for the table, shaking her head to clear the nightmarish recollections.

‘I don’t want to be a princess.’

Silence. Slowly she turned. Prince Raul’s hooded eyes were wide, impatience obliterated by shock.

‘You can’t be serious,’ he said finally, his voice thickening with that appealing accent.

‘Believe me, I was never more so.’

Revulsion filled Luisa as she remembered her grandfather. He’d invited her to join him so he could groom her into the sort of princess he wanted. To do his bidding without question. To be the sort his daughter had failed to be.

At first Luisa had been blind to the fact he merely wanted a pawn to manipulate, not a granddaughter to love.

He’d shown his true colours when news arrived of her mother’s terminal illness. He’d refused Luisa’s tearful, desperate pleas to return. Instead he’d issued an ultimatum—that she break off all contact with her parents or give up her new life. As for Luisa’s begging that he fund further medical treatment, he’d snarled at her for wasting time on the woman who’d turned her back on his world.

That heartless betrayal, so blatant, so overwhelming, still sickened Luisa to the core.

That was who she was heir to! A cruel, ruthless tyrant. No wonder she’d vowed not to have anything to do with her bigoted, blue-blooded family.

She recalled her grandfather bellowing his displeasure at her ingratitude. At her inability to be what he wanted, play the part.

A hand on her arm tugged her from her thoughts. She looked up into a searing gaze. Black eyebrows tilted in a V and Raul’s nostrils flared as if scenting fear.

This close he was arresting. Her stomach plunged in free-fall as she stared back. Tingling sensation spread from his touch.

Luisa swallowed and his eyes followed the movement.

The intensity of his regard scared her. The beat of her blood was like thunder in her ears. She felt unprotected beneath a gaze that had lost its distance and now seemed to flare with unexpected heat.

‘What is it? What are you thinking?’ Gone was the smooth tone. His words were staccato sharp.

Luisa drew a shaky breath, disoriented by the arcing heat that snapped and shimmered in the air between them. By the hazy sense of familiarity she felt with this handsome stranger.

‘I’m thinking you should let me go.’