Page 17 of Mistaken as His Royal Bride

Aristedes, clearly frustrated, ran a hand through his hair, messing it up. ‘Shewillbe Queen of her own country.’

‘Yes, but it’ll become just a smaller state—part of Santanger. With the best will in the world, you can’t guarantee that it won’t. She doesn’t want to be Queen of here.’

‘I’m afraid she doesn’t really have a choice. Where is she?’

Maddi was beginning to feel annoyed. ‘I told you—I don’t know.’

At that moment there was apingfrom behind her. She went cold.Her phone.

She turned around and grabbed her bag. She opened it and looked at the screen. All she could see without unlocking it was the start of a message from Laia:

Mads! It’s all cool. I’m safe and very far away in...

She couldn’t see the rest of the message without unlocking the phone.

She looked up. Aristedes was in front of her, holding out his hand.

‘That’s a message from Laia, isn’t it? Give it to me.’

No way.

Maddi clutched the phone tightly in her hand and dropped the bag to the floor. She slowly moved sideways around the King and backed towards the open French doors.

He kept his hand out and turned to face her. He said warningly, ‘Maddi...the phone.’

But Maddi could feel the air behind her now, and before she lost her nerve she turned around and hurled the phone out into the sky that was now dusky.

She wondered vaguely how long it would take for the phone to reach the rocks and smash to bits. Or had she thrown it hard enough to land all the way in the sea?

CHAPTER FOUR

ANHOURLATER, Ari was still pacing back and forth in the private dining room, filled with so many volatile emotions and, worse,desire, that he didn’t know what to unpick first.

He couldn’t get the image of Laia—blast it!—Maddi out of his mind’s eye, when she’d been standing in front of him with huge eyes and biting her lip. In that moment, in spite of her deception, all he’d wanted to do was cup her face in his hands and kiss that treacherous mouth until she was soft and pliable in his arms and—

Mierda.

He’d never been so distracted by his hormones. And for it to be happening now was particularly galling. He needed all his wits about him. Maddi had been returned to her suite of rooms with a guard outside. He couldn’t afford to have her disappear now. Not when she was his only link to Princess Laia.

He couldn’t believe she’d thrown her mobile phone into the sea. But there would be other ways for them to communicate. He just had to make sure he knew when they did.

He left the dining room and went back to his offices and paced some more there. He was about to call for his senior advisor, but at the last moment he stopped when something occurred to him.

He was the only person who knew about this. Who knew that Maddi Smith wasnotPrincess Laia.

The last thing he needed now was a tabloid frenzy if the story slipped out. He had his brother Dax on the case, tracking down Laia. There was no one he trusted more in the world. Dax would find her and return her to Santanger.

In the meantime...everyone believed Princess Laia was here. And that their engagement was progressing. So why shouldn’t he take advantage of that situation? He would have to delay the wedding preparations that had been put into motion as soon as he’d found Laia—Maddi. But he would just explain it as wanting to extend their engagement for a short time. After all, they’d spent hardly any time together.

As it was, the specific details of the wedding date etc hadn’t been made public yet, out of a very small but real risk of rebel elements using the wedding to stoke up unrest in the kingdoms. So, if anything, he could use this to his advantage now.

Clearly when the real Princess Laia did arrive theywouldhave some things to discuss. As much as he would have liked simply to switch the fake Princess for the real one, he could recognise that that wasn’t practical. Laia had certainly made it clear that she wasn’t coming into this marriage willingly.

So, no matter what happened the wedding was on hold. But not derailed. Not as long as he had ‘Princess Laia’ here, sticking to the engagement schedule.

Until the real Princess got here, no one would be any the wiser, and they could get on with planning the wedding.

The thought of Laia shirking her duty sent fresh anger through him. They didn’t have the luxury of shirking their duty. He didn’t. And neither did she. Their marriage was the next step in the process of making Santanger even stronger. Creating a new royal dynasty. Creating the next generation of rulers.