Page 32 of A Princess for Christmas

“I’m sure it is. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t sacrifices.”

His face shuttered. She had said too much. Poked at a topic he clearly didn’t want to discuss. She should have known better—the private life of Leonardo Ricci was none of her business.

She was trying to decide if apologizing would only exacerbate matters, but he cleared his throat and said, “You’re not too bad on the ice yourself, Your Royal Mostness. I suppose everyone in Eldovia has to learn to skate, like a citizenship requirement?”

She smiled, thankful for the new topic. She picked up speed, and he matched her. “Something like that, but I did have lessons as a girl.” Somehow, they’d taken in a way the dancing lessons hadn’t. It made no sense that she should be lighter on her feet onice than inside in a ballroom. Perhaps the difference was that no one ever watched her skate. No one wasjudgingher skating. “I’m actually fairly accomplished at most winter sports.”

It was her turn for a trick. She skated away and built up speed for a single axel, which was as far as her lessons had taken her. She wasn’t sure she would land it—it had been years since she’d attempted one, and she was just as likely to land on her... booty, to use the American term she’d learned this week. But she was successful. She enjoyed a sharp prick of satisfaction, entering her like a needle and diffusing like a drug, as her blade sliced against the ice as she stuck the landing.

Leo whistled and clapped as he caught up with her. They grabbed hands. She wasn’t sure if he grabbed hers or she grabbed his, but something like a shiver ran up her arm when they made contact, even though she was wearing gloves. It was awarmshiver, though, which should have been a contradiction but somehow wasn’t. He spun them around once before letting go and saying, “You’re really good.”

“My mother loved skating.” Marie took off on a lap around the rink, a slower one this time, and Leo fell in beside her. “We had this pond in the woods near... our house.”

“You were going to say ‘the palace’ or something, weren’t you?”

“I was not!” she lied, but her laughter was giving her away.

“No?” he teased, his brown eyes twinkling. “Thecastlethen?”

Now she couldn’tstoplaughing. There was something about the crisp, cold air, the familiar, comforting zing of metal blades on ice, and Leo’s good-natured teasing that made her... laugh.

“Theestate?” he continued, physically poking her this time,lightly against her side. She batted his hand away and tried to skate away from him, but he was too fast, too light on his blades. He caught up with her so they were both racing around the rink. “Thegrounds? The... I don’t know. I fold. I’m not a thesaurus.”

She stopped suddenly, and he hadn’t been anticipating it, because he crashed into her.

“Shit!” He grabbed her before she fell. She was still laughing, though, and he must have realized she wasn’t hurt. And after some to-ing and fro-ing where she wasn’t sure if they would tumble to the ice, he stabilized them and joined in her laughter, his knowing chuckle a bass line that snaked through her, alchemizing her amusement into... something else.

They stopped near the center of the rink, staring at each other, both of them breathing hard.

Gradually, she realized other people were staring, too. At them.

At her?

She stood by what she had said before. She was almost certain no one was looking at her thinking,There’s the princess ofEldovia. But theywerestaring at her. She stood out. She was visually identifiable as someone who did not belong. She hated that.

The last vestiges of laughter left her body like helium out of a balloon with a pinprick in it. She looked down at herself. This silly coat. New Yorkers wore big, puffy parkas that said “Canada Goose” on them. She needed to get one of those.

“Hey.”

Leo’s fingers came to rest under her chin. They were warm, even though he wasn’t wearing gloves. He tilted her chin up and forced her to make eye contact with him.

“It’snotthe clothes.”

It wasn’t the clothes. It was the dimples.

Leo had been thinking about them all afternoon, on the drive back home to get Dani and Gabby as well as on the train ride back into Manhattan—without a princess for a passenger, they’d done the sensible thing and taken the subway in.

That smile, the way it lit up her entire face to such an extent that you couldn’tnotlook at her. He wasn’t the only one. That was why, as they’d twirled on the ice, people had watched. Yes, she wore kind of fussy clothing. That bright pink coat drew the eye. But still, that wasn’t why people stared. It was her face in its delighted state.

It was those dimples.

And here they were again as she greeted them at the door to her suite.

But they weren’t the real ones at the moment. She was smiling, but only with her mouth. The dimples were there, but they were only physical indentations in her cheeks. The mechanical result of her moving the corners of her mouth upward.

She was nervous. His interpretation was verified by the way she opened the door to her suite only a foot, stood there stiffly, and mouthed,I’m sorry.

The door swung fully open to reveal theequerry—Leo had in fact looked up the word and learned it referred to a kind of fancy personal attendant. He didn’t get how that was different from a butler, but whatever. “Good afternoon, Mr.Ricci. MissRicci. Ms.Martinez.”

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