Page 1 of Once Upon a Royal Billionaire

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Rhett thought when he became the king of Aegira, his island country in the Mediterranean Sea, that he would lose some of his close friendships, that he would miss out on anything casual and relaxed, and worst of all, that he would have to give up his place on the world-renowned water ski championship team.

As he spun the ski boat around to pick up his friend Clint, he smiled. He had stubbornly clung for so long to the water ski team that his assistant finally gave in and scheduled time for him to be out on the water with the team. The boat did a full circle, and as he got close to Clint, he called out, “Did you get a good drink?”

“Very funny.” Clint shook his head, flinging drops of water all around him. “I only missed that last one. I gotta go again.”

“Dude, we’re late.” Today he had a meeting to work on his relationship with the princes. They were probably all arriving at his boathouse that very moment.

“Not yet. Come on, I can’t end like this.” Clint reached for the ski rope’s handle and maneuvered the slalom ski out in front of his body. Once he was in the ready position, he yelled, “One more!”

Rhett gunned the boat faster than he should to take up the slack.

“Whoa, whoa!” Clint’s shouts made Rhett laugh as Clint burst up out of the water, spraying droplets all around him. “Yeeeeeeeeeehaw!”

Rhett rolled his eyes. The man thought he was an American cowboy.

“He makes our whole team look good.” Enzo, another prince of the island countries, grinned. “I think we’re gonna win this year.”

“We would if Mountain Blue wasn’t coming.”

“Is that—”

“Emily.”

“We can take them.”

Rhett didn’t say anything, but he knew it was next to impossible to beat Emily or her brothers in anything to do with the water. “I’m gonna drive Clint in towards the dock.”

“What time are we meeting the guys?”

“They should be there already. Upstairs.”

“Are all the princes coming?”

“Yeah, the Valdezes will be late.”

They straightened out so that Clint could take the course one more time. They’d moved the buoys to be competition standard, and they were having a hard time hitting all of them. Their team was composed of a rotation of princes who wanted to participate. Their lives were busy, but they always tried to make sure they had a powerhouse group of five ready to compete. Rhett told himself that’s why he was edgy, not because Emily was coming.

“Hey, remember when Emily finished this course?” Enzo laughed.

Rhett grunted.

“How old were we? Ten?”

“She did not finish the course when we were ten. It was more like fifteen.” How was Rhett going to handle being with Emily if he couldn’t deal with having a conversation about her?

“No, dude, you guys were already snogging when she was fifteen. Maybe not ten, twelve.”

“Do we have to talk about this?”

“I’m just saying, she did it young. We have to beat her.” The boat sped up. “Why’s she coming anyway?”

“Vacation? I don’t know. We don’t talk anymore.”

“Is she fair game?”

Rhett’s scowl silenced Enzo.

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