Page 28 of Mistaken as His Royal Bride

King Aristedes. She stood up, brushing dust from her black jumpsuit. She’d felt so sophisticated just moments before, but now she could feel her hair coming loose from its low bun and her face was hot.

He arched a brow in question and Maddi burned inwardly with humiliation, remembering his dismissive and cutting words from yesterday. She’d told herself that nothing he said should matter, and she’d thought she’d convinced herself she could stay immune, but within one second of seeing him again she felt as vulnerable as she had yesterday.

At that moment she really didn’t like him.

‘I’ve lost an earring.’ She touched her ear.

He frowned. ‘It’s just an earring.’

‘It’s a pearl earring, and presumably very expensive.’

Hannah had moved away discreetly, to keep looking, but was no longer on her hands and knees.

The King was impatient, and he put out his hand. ‘It’s replaceable. Don’t worry about it.’

But Maddi hadn’t been brought up not to care about valuable items. She knew their worth because her mother had had to work for everything, in spite of the maintenance she’d received from the King of Isla’Rosa.

Stubbornly, she didn’t move, and looked down at the ground again. And there, as if to help her out, she saw something white winking at her between two stones.

She let out a triumphant sound and bent down to pick it up, holding it aloft. ‘See? Found it.’

She grinned and put it back in her ear. The King’s gaze went to her mouth and stopped there. Maddi shut it abruptly, aware of what he’d told her about hiding the gap in her teeth.

His face darkened and he said curtly, ‘Can we go, now that the mystery of the lost earring has been solved?’

He led the way out of the courtyard to where a sleek SUV was waiting. Maddi was sorely tempted to stick her tongue out at his back, but she resisted the childish urge.

Once in the back of the SUV, driving out of the palace grounds and down the mountain towards the city of Santanger, Maddi couldn’t help saying, ‘Apart from this situation, which you’re obviously not happy with, are you usually so grumpy?’

Aristedes’s jaw clenched. He pressed a button and the privacy divider went up between them and the driver.

Maddi was genuinely contrite. ‘Sorry, I forgot.’

He looked at her, stern. ‘What on earth were you doing, on your hands and knees, scrabbling around in the dirt?’

‘I told you—looking for the earring. I know it must be valuable.’

He looked nonplussed. ‘It’s just jewellery.’

She lifted the hand where the engagement ring sat snugly—too snugly—on her finger. ‘Like this isjust jewellery?’

He made a face. ‘That’s different, of course.’

‘So, are you? Always this grumpy?’

And rude, she might have added, if she’d had the nerve.

Something in his demeanour changed for a second, and there was the ghost of a twitch in his lips. So fleeting that Maddi might have imagined it, but it set her heart racing.

‘No,’ he replied dryly. ‘It’s uniquely your effect on me.’

For a moment something shimmered between them. Light and delicate. Then Aristedes’s phone rang from his pocket and he plucked it out, saying, ‘Excuse me. I need to take this.’

He spoke rapidly, in the local dialect, a mix of Spanish and Italian. Much like the language on Isla’Rosa. Maddi had been doing her best to learn it, but she couldn’t keep up with the King’s rapid-fire delivery.

The SUV was now driving slowly through the charming streets of the city and winding its way up another hill, where it came to a stop. The bodyguard in the front passenger seat got out and opened Maddi’s door. She stepped out and realised they were on the top of a hill that overlooked the city and the sea beyond. The views were spectacular.

They walked around a corner and Maddi stopped in her tracks. A restaurant was perched precipitously on the hillside. It was made of glass and wood, on several levels, with massive windows and an outdoor terrace. It was an astounding work of architecture and design. Even she could see that, with no real knowledge of such things.

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