Prince's Son Of Scandal

“Your grandmother requests a meeting to discuss...” Fill in the blank. Those were routine and benign. She listened to her grandson’s opinions and they worked together on a strategy for whatever event, negotiation or dignified visitor stood on the horizon. They were equals, more or less.

The second, more ominous type of appointment began with “Her Majesty invites you to join her at...” Fill in the meal. Those were more dictatorial instructions on how she wanted something handled. A parliamentarian or ambassador needed massaging. A high-level staff member needed firing. He was doing her dirty work.

Then there was—

“The Queen is in her receiving room. She expects you.”

Mario entered with that missive on the heels of Xavier’s Personal Assistant, who still stood before him, his speech bubble of grim news dissolving in the air above his pleading don’t-shoot-the-messenger expression.

“Of course.” Xavier rose from his desk. It was the appropriate response. One didn’t refuse the Queen. One certainly didn’t leave her waiting.

Still, his agile brain leapt to all the triage he needed to accomplish in the next few minutes, not least of which was to reassure his new fiancée, Patrizia, before she saw the headlines herself.

Switched Before Birth!

Future King an Expectant Father?

Trella Tricked Everyone—Including the Prince!

He should have said something a few weeks ago, of course, when the first bomb went off. Trella Sauveterre, lately returned to the public eye, had turned up pregnant. The reaction had been loud enough to shake the world off its axis, forcing him to reach out to her, again, much to his dismay. He didn’t want anything to do with her after realizing how thoroughly she’d duped him.

Why had she done it?

The sting of chasing her to Berlin a week after Paris, like a fool with his first crush, came back hot and fresh under his skin. He’d had a very real duty to meet with Patrizia, but he had put it off, stealing an extra few days of bachelorhood, inventing excuses so he could...what? Have sex with a stranger once more?

Sex was sex. He’d had many lovers over the years and experienced varied degrees of pleasure. He put down the better experiences to chemistry, the less satisfying ones to inhibitions and incompatibility.