Page 3 of Some Like It Royal

“I know this because you’re a popular urban legend—well, your father was. His father lost all of his investments to bad gambling debts and a propensity for alcohol. His family cut him off, and he ran away to America to remake his fortune and they lost track of him. Rumors circulated in inner circles speculated about his son and his granddaughter. But they were dismissed as rumors. Until now.”

Rumors. Why did he have to sound like he believed this bedtime story? Sure…Shewas a princess. A princess with four years of college debt, low prospects and an acting career on the fast track to nowhere. Hell, she slept in her ten-year-old Volvo because it was all she could afford. “Look, I appreciate that you think you’ve hit the mother lode. But I don’t have any money. I sure as hell don’t have a title, and I wouldn’t know a grand duke if I tripped over him on the street—thanks for the titillating story, but no, thanks.”

Thinking about her parents made her nostalgic for those mornings when she’d woken up and run into their room to bounce on the bed. Or better, the breakfasts her mother had insisted on cooking every morning and the way her father would slide his hands around her mother’s waist and hug her from behind before twirling her into a dance.

Grief fisted around her heart.

She missed them.

Every day she missed them. She’d seen happily ever after.

And worse, she’d seen what happened after the last page of the fairy tale. She didn’t want to think about it now.

Daniel sighed and took two steps forward, but remained on the other side of the vehicle. “I don’t think you have any money, Pri—Miss Dagmar. But I do. A lot of money. More money than I could ever spend. I want to give you money. I want to help you claim the title and position that you should always have had.”

“All so I can help you get your software company access to EU markets?” Skepticism poured thick on the words. No one did anything for nothing. And he was asking her to believe he just wanted her name—a name that frankly didn’t mean anything.

She’d gone to school with a man named Brad Pitt—he didn’t benefit from sharing the actor’s moniker and heaven knew neither did Tina Fay, who was only one letter off. Just having the right name wasn’t a game changer, particularly in her case. No one had heard of her—yet. She planned to change that. All she needed was the right part, the right role, and she could launch her acting career. Until then it was nights at Roughy’s Steakhouse and days at lessons and auditions.

“Exactly. It’s a more than fair and equitable trade.” His mouth compressed, frustration knitting his brows together. It added a darker, more attractive layer of intensity—and he wore it well. Her stomach clenched and she was glad that a car separated them. She’d never been attracted to insanity before and this didn’t seem like the best time to get started.

Reaching into a pocket, Daniel pulled out a card and slid it across the roof of the vehicle. “Think about it. I have all the proof at my attorney’s office—including copies of your birth certificate, the obituary for your grandfather, photographs of your great-grandparents and a detailed report from the private investigator I hired.”

That gave her a jolt. She stared at the card like it was a snake—or worse, an apple from a snake. Talk about an invasion of privacy.

“Can you do that? Can you think about it?” His fingers were steady on the card’s edge and his gaze compelling. She made the mistake of staring into those too-blue eyes. Her gut said she could trust him, but her mind shrieked like a bad heroine racing away from an axe murderer in a horror movie.

Nothing good ever came from trusting a stranger.

But he didn’t seem to be going anywhere. She fisted the Taser in right hand, ready to zap if he did anything funny, and reached for the card. Her fingers brushed the edge, but he didn’t let it go.

“Call me. Anytime. I’ll meet you anywhere you want. Anywhere you feel safe.” The words unlocked the band of suspicion winding around her chest.

“Okay. I’ll think about it and I’ll take your card.” The admission cost her nothing and promised even less.Thinkingabout it wasnota commitment.

He nodded and let go of the card, watching until she picked it up. But he didn’t leave, standing there and staring at her.

“Princess, I know you think I’m crazy and maybe I am. But if you do this for me, I can promise you, you won’t regret it.” Shivers chased over her skin at the quiet, solemn oath. He gave her a tight smile and a little salute, and then finally retreated to his black Lexus. She said nothing, watching him slide into the driver’s seat. The engine rumbled to life with a smooth purr and he donned sunglasses before backing the vehicle out.

She watched him until the car disappeared around the curve and descended into the garage. Fingering the card, she padded over to the wall and glanced down the six stories to the street below. Two minutes later, his Lexus pulled out and turned onto La Cienega and blended into morning traffic.

Surprising herself, she looked down at the card. She should crumple it up and throw it away. That was what logic and common sense told her to do. But she wanted coffee—she opened the door and tucked the card up under her sun visor. Climbing back into the car, she put her keys in the ignition and started the engine. No way in hell could she contemplate sleep at this garage—not after her visitor and his wild proposition. Her mind hummed with the possibilities of it all, but it didn’t matter.

Fairy tales weren’t made of common sense and logic—they were leaps of faith.

Chapter2

Daniel

Stupid. Impulsive. Dumbass.Daniel smacked his hand against the steering wheel.What the hell were you thinking?He wanted to yell, not like anyone would notice. They would think he was just like every other dick driving in L.A. traffic. But it wasn’t traffic that’d tied him up in knots, it was the look of utter confusion and refusal on the princess’s face that did it.

He shouldn’t have approached her at the car, but the impulse to follow her from the restaurant the night before had been too strong to resist. It didn’t hurt that the private investigator he’d hired reported that she slept in her car. Believing that to be a mistake, he’d followed her into the garage and up to the near top, parking around the corner. He waited to see her leave via the stairs or the elevator, but when two hours passed without a sign of her, he’d driven the rest of the way up.

Sure enough, she was not only in her car, she was sound asleep in the back. He’d pulled up next to her, thinking the engine would rouse her. When that didn’t, he’d sat there for nearly an hour on that empty desolate parking garage roof. The sexy redhead was exposed, choosing to rest in such an insecure location. Leaving to go get the coffee had been an impulse, but he couldn’t get the image of her in her car—alone—out of his head. He’d ordered the extra coffee and croissants and decided on a bonehead maneuver.

“I toss making a reasonable approach for coffee and end up scaring the shit out of her. Brilliant move, Voldakov, brilliant.”Not that his plan didn’t have its flaws, he’d just asked a stranger to move in and marry him five minutes after waking her up. Her white-knuckled grip on the Taser had never relaxed. Why the hell would it?

His body tightened at the memory of her sleep-rumpled face, tousled hair and husky voice. It didn’t matter that she’d rolled out of a backseat and not his bed, he knew exactly what he wanted from her right then and it had nothing to do with contracts, access, or bloodlines.

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