Page 23 of The King's Fake Bride

Xander takes me by the hand, giving it a squeeze, fingers lacing with mine. “We can do this, okay? You have nothing to worry about. I’m going to be with you every step of the way.”

Atticus rolls his eyes. “Save it for the wedding day. We have work to do if your American is going to be ready in time.”

CHAPTER 9

XANDER

Amy paces beside me, starting to pick at the nail polish on her thumb before stopping herself. “An engagement party. I’m having an engagement party.”

I chuckle and glance at the suit hanging on the back of the door. “Yeah, we are. Which means that you need to go get ready because we’re supposed to be downstairs in the next two hours.”

“It’s only been two days since the announcement was made. Don’t you think we should’ve waited longer?”

“This is all going to move fast.” I step into her path and cup her face in my hands, trying to smother a smile at the deer-in-the-headlights look she gives me. “You can handle this. Daphne has been training you on what to say and how to behave. Everything is going to be fine.”

“Until I trip on my dress. The last time I wore a gown was my high school prom.”

My hands drop. “I don’t know what prom is.”

Aunt Meri walks through the door, her skirt trailing behind her. “I thought I heard the two of you in here.”

Daphne scurries in after her. “Come on, Amy. The makeup artist is here and ready to transform you.”

I mouth a thank-you to Daphne as she sweeps Amy out of the room before Aunt Meri can start drilling her with questions.

Uncle Stavros enters, sitting down in one of the leather chairs near the door. “You should think about redecorating your chambers. You’re not a bachelor anymore, and your fiancée is going to want to stay in a room that doesn’t remind her of all the women you’ve been with.”

“I haven’t been with any women in this chamber,” I say, voice tight as I sit down across from him.

Aunt Meri takes one of the other chairs, tossing her blond hair over one shoulder. “It doesn’t matter.”

I glance through the doors that lead from the sitting room into the bedroom. Everything is dark and reddish wood tones, suiting Yorgos’s style more than my own.

What would Amy like?

“Really though, Xander. What were you thinking when getting involved with an American? How long have the two of you really been together?”

“We were together for close to a year before we got engaged,” I say, sticking with the story Amy and I worked out together.

A year would’ve been around the time I stopped being seen in public with women I was clearly sleeping with. There would be some tabloid pictures that overlapped, but most of them wouldbe from business trips with foreign dignitaries and their wives and daughters.

Which I had a hell of a time explaining to Amy yesterday after I saw that magazine she bought.

Uncle Stavros’s eyes narrow, zeroing in on me. Sometimes he looks so much like my father that it makes me uneasy. Spending time with him would be easier if it didn’t feel like spending time with a ghost.

He shakes his head, leaning back in the chair. “I don’t know about this. Are you sure that you want to marry an American?”

“I don’t see why you all care so much about where she comes from.” I lean forward, resting my folded arms on the table. “Amy is a good woman, and we love each other. She’s going to be good for Katastinia.”

“You’re young and blind to what the country is going to think.” Aunt Meri reaches out to give my hand a sympathetic pat like I’m a child again and she’s soothing me from something my father said to upset me.

“I’m not that young.” I pull back from her. “Amy and I will be getting married, and you two are going to be happy for us.”

“Of course.” Stavros gets up and goes to one of the bookshelves, browsing through the titles until he finds the fake book filled with cigars that Yorgos liked to keep.

I never developed a taste for them, but most of the men in my family have always preferred to make their decisions around a table with cigar smoke in the air.

He opens the box and takes out a cigar, sliding it into his pocket for later. “You’ll get married, but the pressures of politics are going to be hard for her to deal with.”

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