Twice a Princess

Twice a Princess
SUSAN MEIER

Dearest Godmother,I only have one more match to make to break this curse…if only I wasn't utterly distracted by my devastatingly handsome boss, resort owner Alexander Rochelle. I know I should stay away from him–I am betrothed to a prince in my country, after all–but Alexander's kindness, his humor and his sexy kisses are keeping me up at night, in spite of my better judgment.And now Fate has decreed Alexander as the next match to find true love, in spite of his apparent disbelief in tender emotions. If I can convince him forever is a promise worth making, is it too much to hope that the woman he vows to cherish will be me?Your lovelorn goddaughter,Princess Meredith

“All by yourself?”

Hearing Alexander Rochelle’s masculine voice was enough to send a shiver of feminine pleasure through her.

“I had hoped I wouldn’t be,” she said. “This pool is one of my best places for matchmaking.”

He stepped closer. His arms were well shaped and muscular. Black swim trunks revealed tanned thighs. His feet were bare. “It seems your plan failed. It’s just you and me tonight.”

She swallowed and stepped back.

He gave her a curious look. “Are you afraid of me?”

“You’re my boss. You could fire me.”

“There’s no reason to be concerned about your job.” He smiled. “Stay. We can get to know each other.”

That wasn’t the response Princess Meredith was expecting. Worse, his voice sounded sexy and seductive. “I don’t think so,” she said.

He stared at her. And the sensual timbre of his next words sent quivers of awareness cascading through her. “What if I promise to be a perfect gentleman?”

The atmosphere was charged with a sizzle that hummed along her skin. It was enough to take her breath away….

Twice a Princess

Susan Meier

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

SUSAN MEIER

is one of eleven children, and though she has yet to write a book about a big family, many of her books explore the dynamics of “unusual” family situations, such as large work “families,” bosses who behave like overprotective fathers, or “sister” bonds created between friends. Because she has more than twenty nieces and nephews, children also are always popping up in her stories. Many of the funny scenes in her books are based on experiences raising her own children or interacting with her nieces and nephews.

She was born and raised in western Pennsylvania and continues to live in Pennsylvania.

The Tale of the Cursed Princess

Not so very long ago there lived a princess with the reputation for being short-sighted, immature and spoiled rotten. Even her betrothed found her to be barely tolerable.

The princess’s temper tantrums and selfishness eventually became too much for her family to bear. Her reaction to her father’s marriage was the proverbial last straw. The king’s only daughter loved being daddy’s little girl, and the appearance of a potential stepmother threatened to change all that. The young princess tried to sabotage the engagement and the wedding. Her schemes were unsuccessful, but they convinced her godmother that the princess needed to be taught a lesson in humility and the power of love.

Her godmother cursed the princess with immediate advanced age, a severe bout of crankiness and exile from her country. The only way the princess could break the curse was to choose twenty-one potential couples and—using stories and a little magic—bring love into their lives, a bond sanctified by marriage. Once the last marriage was performed, she would turn back into a princess and be welcomed home—as long as the last couple was joined before her thirtieth birthday.

If she failed to secure the marriages before time ran out, she would live in exile as a crone until her death. If she succeeded, however, she would return home to marry the prince she had been promised at birth, with a well-learned lesson of what it meant to truly love….

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter One

Nearly purring with joy over making her twenty-first love match, Princess Meredith Montrosa Bessart, known to the guests of La Torchere Resort as Merry Montrose, stood on the sidelines of the dance floor at the wedding reception of Cynthia Rawlings and Rick Barnett. Resplendent in his black tux, typically dark and brooding Rick gazed down at his beautiful blond bride as they glided along the dance floor, Cynthia’s satin gown floating around them.

They looked like Cinderella and her prince, which to Merry was ironic considering that she was the real princess on Torchere Key, though a curse had changed her from a young, beautiful royal into a crone. Even dressed in her pretty blue gown, with her gray hair swept into a twist and wearing the diamond earrings and necklace—part of the collection of jewels belonging to Silestia’s royal family that she’d been allowed to keep to remind her of home—she didn’t look anything like a princess.

“Not dancing, Merry?”

The smooth baritone voice of Alexander Rochelle, owner of southwest Florida’s La Torchere Resort and Spa, flowed over Merry from behind. Tingling with awareness, she took a second to compose herself before she turned around to face him.

Dressed in his black tux, his blond hair casually styled in sexy disarray and his blue eyes dancing, Alexander was so gorgeous, so tantalizing, that the breath in Merry’s lungs disappeared, her chest tightened and her knees weakened. But the first fifteen seconds in Alexander’s company were always like this. Not just because he was gorgeous, but because he had an air of excitement, power and sensuality about him that Merry hadn’t seen matched. Not even in the court of Silestia, where her father was king.

He’d even had that air when he’d posed as a handyman.

“As resort manager I don’t dance,” she said slowly, forcing herself not to flirt with him. As a homely crone she would look ridiculous flirting with a handsome man. Though she had to admit that when she believed he was just a handyman, she had wanted to do more than flirt. He’d disguised himself to discover the secret of the resort’s recent love matches, but he soon revealed himself as the resort’s owner, first to her privately and then at a staff meeting. That same morning, he moved from a cramped employee efficiency apartment into the best villa on resort grounds, and he had been on La Torchere ever since, not really watching over her shoulder, but a hands-on owner to be sure. So, any thought she had of flirting had long ago died.

Still, that didn’t mean she couldn’t smile. Maybe even joke a little. “But if I did break protocol and dance at a guest’s wedding, I certainly wouldn’t do it in front of the boss.”

Alexander laughed. Again, the smooth sound of his voice seemed to pour through Merry, touching her when she didn’t want to be touched—

Well, that wasn’t precisely true. She’d like nothing better than to be touched by this man. Tall and broad shouldered, with a deep and masculine voice that reminded her of dark liaisons and whispered secrets, Alexander Rochelle was so physically male that Merry couldn’t imagine anything more feminine than being his lover. Just once in her life, she yearned to experience romance as intense, as perfect, as she was sure it would be with this man.

But she couldn’t. Rick and Cynthia’s marriage made their commitment official, finalizing the twenty-one matches that would break Merry’s curse. She didn’t know what would happen next. Literally! Right now, she stood before Alexander as a twenty-nine-year-old princess in a crone’s body, but any minute now her physical appearance, regal bearing and comportment could be restored. Then Alexander Rochelle might be attracted to her, but it was her duty to return to Silestia to marry Prince Alec Montclair, the man to whom she had been promised.

That was one of the lessons she had learned during this curse. To respect and appreciate her life—including her duties. As a member of a royal family she had responsibilities. She was a leader, a ruler and one of the guards of the benevolent magic passed down through her lineage. She could be a tyrannical monarch—but because being a crone for seven years had shown her that being born a princess was a gift, not a curse—she had decided to fulfill her lot in life with joy.

And her lot in life was to marry Prince Alec.