Crowning His Unlikely Princess (Mills & Boon Modern)

by Michelle Conder

  ‘Not from my perspective.’

  ‘Well...’ Starting to feel nervous now that the adrenaline rush of having him in her home had worn off, Cassidy fidgeted with her shirt. ‘You’ve said your piece so you can go.’

  ‘I haven’t said anything.’ He gave her a hunted look and ran his hand through his hair. ‘I need you to come back to Arrantino.’

  ‘Why? If you’re looking for a replacement, Margaux will be perfect. She knows everything.’

  ‘I know. She might even eclipse you in some areas.’

  Cassidy force a smile, trying not to let him see how much that hurt. ‘Great. Excellent.’

  She moved to straighten the twins’ homework, which had been left haphazardly on the coffee table. Anything other than having him see how upset she was.

  ‘The problem is,’ Logan said softly coming up behind her, ‘she’s not you.’

  Swallowing heavily, Cassidy straightened and turned to face him. ‘That’s nice, I suppose, but I can’t come back to work for you. Is that why you’re here? Because I thought—’

  Logan clasped the tops of her arms, staying her words. ‘That’s not why I’m here. I don’t want you to work for me. Did you not read the notice I put out at all?’

  His eyes met hers, the usual arrogant sparkle in them missing. Cassidy swallowed heavily. ‘Of course I read it. And I suggest you fix the typo pretty quickly if you haven’t already.’

  ‘It wasn’t a typo.’

  ‘You referred to me as your fiancée—ah!’ Cassidy nodded, finally catching on. ‘Clever.’

  Logan frowned. ‘What’s clever?’

  ‘Your strategy.’ She nodded, wishing he’d used the phone instead of coming in person because she was struggling not to wind her arms around his waist and lean into him. She had thought that with time she’d get over never seeing him again but with him here now, larger than life, she knew that had been a fool’s dream. ‘Rather than deny that we had a fling, you’re trying to make it look more serious so that the scandal factor is removed. But, honestly, with my history I wouldn’t have gone with that, not to mention that your mother—’

  ‘Cassidy.’ He gave her a little shake. ‘Be quiet.’

  She blinked up at him, not sure if she should be offended or not.

  ‘Sometimes you talk too much. The notice isn’t a strategy. It’s a plan. A plan you would have known about before the statement was released had you done what I asked and stayed at the palace.’

  ‘A plan?’ Her brow furrowed, her brain sluggishly stuck on how good it felt to have him touching her. ‘I don’t think—’

  ‘Dios mio!’ His hands lifted to her face as he brought her body up against his. ‘How I convinced myself for two years that I didn’t want you I don’t know.’

  Instant desire slammed through her when he kissed her, her hands gripping his shoulders as she held onto him.

  ‘Logan...’ She was panting as she pulled back from him. ‘You can’t kiss me any more. It feels too good and I—’ She shook herself out of his arms, shocked at how close she had come to revealing how she felt about him. The words I love you had been about to tumble from her lips.

  ‘Mi precioso amor, look at me.’

  Cassidy shook her head, resisting the hand beneath her chin as he tried to get her to look up at him.

  ‘Don’t hide from me,’ he rasped. ‘I don’t ever want you to hide from me because I don’t ever want to hide from you.’

  Confused, she risked a glance up at him. The look in his eyes made her breath catch. ‘You don’t have to hide from me.’

  ‘Good.’ His hand stroked her hair back from her face. ‘Because I love you and I want you to come back to Arrantino with me, as my Princess, not my EA.’

  Cassidy blinked up at him, her brain still on a go-slow. ‘You love me?’

  His eyes scanned her face, his thumb tracing over her lips. ‘So much I feel like it wants to burst from me.’

  ‘But you don’t do love. You said—’

  ‘I’ve said a lot of things in my life that turn out not to be true. Love always seemed like a burden that was best avoided and I arrogantly assumed that I had control over how I felt. But I don’t...’ The emotion in his eyes was spellbinding. ‘What I feel for you is beyond logic and control. It’s like a part of me is missing when you’re not beside me.’ His smile turned soft. ‘You make me smile even when you’re not there.’

  Cassidy felt tears well up in her eyes, spilling down her cheeks. ‘Logan, I...’ Clumsily she reached up and pulled his head down to hers, half laughing and half crying as she kissed him. ‘Do you mean it?’ she whispered. ‘Do you really mean it?’

  ‘You doubt me?’

  ‘No.’ She shook her head, a glorious laugh leaving her throat at his affronted look. ‘I don’t doubt you. I love you back.’

  Her arms tightened around his neck as he lifted her off the floor and her legs wound around his waist. ‘I love you so much I can’t stop crying. But you know that I’m not princess material. That I’m not suitable. That photo—’

  Logan made a dismissive sound. ‘That photo is nothing.’

  ‘I’m sure your mother doesn’t think so. If she knew you were here—’

  ‘She knows. And she will come round as soon as she gets to know you and realises that you’re the most suitable woman in the world for me. You and no one else, mi amor. Eres todo para mi.’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘You are everything to me.’

  ‘Oh, Logan, I feel like I’m dreaming.’

  His brow rose with mocking humour. ‘And I’m not even half-naked.’

  ‘Do not laugh about that,’ she admonished. ‘I felt so embarrassed to walk in on you half-dressed...not to mention totally aroused! I think it changed everything for me.’

  ‘That’s only fair because you have changed everything for me. You have made me a better person. A less cynical person, although I’m sure I’m not completely reformed.’

  ‘I don’t want to reform you. I just want to be with you.’

  ‘Even though your life will never be your own again?’ His expression turned serious. ‘Because the life of a monarch is not for everyone.’

  ‘I know that.’ She stroked the rough stubble on his jaw. ‘I’m not afraid of hard work and as challenging as it might be, as long as you’re beside me I know that everything will be okay.’

  ‘Then be with me, Cassidy.’ His hand spanned her face. ‘As my partner in life, as my Princess, as my wife.’

  Bursting with the kind of happiness she had never expected to find, least of all with a man, Cassidy smiled giddily. ‘Your wife?’ She tightened her legs around him and heard him groan.

  ‘Yes, it’s the only role I’m willing to allow you to have in my life.’

  Not waiting to hear her response, Logan kissed her with all the patience of a man hanging on by a thread.

  ‘Aunty Cass—oops!’

  ‘Oh, my stars, I told you two not to go in there,’ Peta hissed at whichever twin had just opened the door.

  ‘I need my homework. I didn’t know they’d be fooling around like you and Dan do.’

  When her sister squeaked in dismay Cassidy half groaned and half laughed. ‘This is my family,’ she said. ‘Warts and all.’

  Logan released her enough to let her feet slide to the floor. ‘Your family is my family now, mi amor. They’re perfect. Just like you.’

  Cassidy didn’t think it was possible to fall any harder for the man holding her so strongly in his arms, but she did then.

  EPILOGUE

  THE DAY OF the wedding dawned bright and blue. The vintage car had just dropped Cassidy at the entrance to the gothic cathedral in the centre of Trinia and the streets were lined with people waving banners and calling her name.

  Cassidy had to blink back tears as she waved at ev
eryone in return, her throat thick with emotion at the outpouring of support for her after the harrowing media scandal two months earlier.

  Behind her Peta fanned out the train of her wedding dress, while the twins straightened her long veil.

  ‘You look awesome, Aunty Cassidy,’ April murmured, her wide smile full of joy, her hair fashioned in tiny plaits interspersed with white flowers.

  ‘Like a real-life princess,’ Amber agreed.

  ‘You do,’ Peta agreed, coming to stand in front of her, her soft lilac bridesmaid’s gown the same shade as the twins’. ‘You couldn’t look more perfect, which is a surprise considering that your groom rushed the wedding.’

  Cassidy grinned from behind her veil. Logan had told her in no uncertain terms that he didn’t want to wait to make their relationship official and that he considered two months a lifetime to make her his.

  Secretly she’d agreed, but she had wanted to make sure that his mother was completely on board with everything before the wedding went ahead. Family had always been the most important thing for Cassidy, as it was for Logan, and she’d done everything that she could, followed every royal protocol, to prove that she was worthy of him.

  That had paid off this morning when his mother had stopped by her room with two footmen in her wake carrying a very old, very intricate chest. Inside was a diamond teardrop tiara that had taken Cassidy’s breath away.

  ‘This was my mother’s tiara,’ she said. ‘And her mother’s before her. Since I didn’t manage to have a daughter, I would be honoured if you chose to wear it today.’

  Cassidy had felt herself choke up as she’d lifted the spectacular piece from its velvet bed. ‘It’s I who am honoured,’ she said, biting her lip to stop the tears from falling.

  Logan’s mother had shaken her head. ‘None of that. You’ll ruin your make-up.’ She had patted Cassidy’s arm. ‘I knew my son was enamoured of you very early on, but I didn’t think you would fit. I was wrong. And one should never be afraid to admit that. Especially when you make my son so happy.’

  ‘He makes me happy too,’ Cassidy had said.

  ‘As it should be. And now I will leave you to prepare for the day ahead. But perhaps one night in the near future you could take a stroll with me around my rose garden. I’d be very pleased to show it to you.’

  Cassidy had coloured at that, fervently hoping that there were no cameras in the rose garden to reveal exactly what had happened the last time she had been there.

  Now she stood at the bottom of the stone steps, staring up at the towering church spire, her stomach alive with butterflies.

  Suddenly she wished that Logan was beside her because she couldn’t help feeling intimidated by what she was about to enter into.

  As if her sister sensed it, she touched her arm. ‘Don’t stumble now, Your Highness,’ she warned impishly. ‘You have every camera on the planet aimed at you.’

  ‘Thanks for reminding me,’ Cassidy complained, her fingers trembling as she lifted them to smooth down her veil in the light breeze.

  ‘Seriously, Cass,’ her sister began softly. ‘I know the King makes you very happy and if anyone deserves it you do. You’ve helped me out more times than I care to remember and now it’s my turn to return the favour.’ She held her arm out for Cassidy to take. ‘Lean on me if you need to.’

  Cassidy had asked Peta to walk her down the aisle and now she was very happy that she had. ‘Thank you.’ She placed her hand on her sister’s arm. ‘I love you.’

  She turned one last time to wave to the crowd, before straightening her spine and gazing up at the entrance to the church.

  The twins preceded her, scattering rose petals as they slowly made their way through the wide doors and up the aisle. Cassidy followed, with Peta beside her, her eyes riveted to the tall, handsome man waiting for her. He looked solid and steady and full of love as she made her way to him.

  Barely noticing anyone else in the packed pews, she smiled up at him as Peta took her hand and laid it over his.

  Logan gave her a slow grin. ‘You look incredible, mi preciosa, but for a minute I thought I was going to have to send out a search party.’

  Cassidy felt her whole body relax at his teasing tone, her heart overflowing. ‘Not a chance, my love,’ she whispered back. ‘I’m yours for ever.’

  Coming next month

  BEAUTY AND HER ONE-NIGHT BABY

  Dani Collins

  Scarlett dropped her phone with a clatter.

  She had been trying to call Kiara. Now she was taking in the livid claw marks across Javiero’s face, each pocked on either side with the pinpricks of recently removed stitches. His dark brown hair was longer than she’d ever seen it, perhaps gelled back from the widow’s peak at some point this morning, but it was mussed and held a jagged part. He wore a black eye patch like a pirate, its narrow band cutting a thin stripe across his temple and into his hair.

  Maybe that’s why his features looked as though they had been set askew? His mouth was…not right. His upper lip was uneven and the claw marks drew lines through his unkempt stubble all the way down into his neck.

  That was dangerously close to his jugular! Dear God, he had nearly been killed.

  She grasped at the edge of the sink, trying to stay on her feet while she grew so light-headed at the thought of him dying that she feared she would faint.

  The ravages of his attack weren’t what made him look so forbidding and grim, though, she computed through her haze of panic and anguish. No. The contemptuous glare in his one eye was for her. For this.

  He flicked another outraged glance at her middle.

  “I thought we were meeting in the boardroom.” His voice sounded gravelly. Damaged as well? Or was that simply his true feelings toward her now? Deadly and completely devoid of any of the sensual admiration she’d sometimes heard in his tone.

  Not that he’d ever been particularly warm toward her. He’d been aloof, indifferent, irritated, impatient, explosively passionate. Generous in the giving of pleasure. Of compliments. Then cold as she left. Disapproving. Malevolent.

  Damningly silent.

  And now he was…what? Ignoring that she was as big as a barn?

  Her arteries were on fire with straight adrenaline, her heart pounding and her brain spinning with the way she was having to switch gears so fast. Her eyes were hot and her throat tight. Everything in her wanted to scream Help me, but she’d been in enough tight spots to know this was all on her. Everything was always on her. She fought to keep her head and get through the next few minutes before she moved on to the next challenge.

  Which was just a tiny trial called childbirth, but she would worry about that when she got to the hospital.

  As the tingle of a fresh contraction began to pang in her lower back, she tightened her grip on the edge of the sink and gritted her teeth, trying to ignore the coming pain and hang on to what dregs of dignity she had left.

  “I’m in labor,” she said tightly. “It’s yours.”

  Continue reading

  BEAUTY AND HER ONE-NIGHT BABY

  Dani Collins

  Available next month

  Copyright ©2020 by Dani Collins

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