“Done.”
The palace needed to see that Anna was the future queen and her word carried weight.
This was also why he let her negotiate with him beside her today. Anna glanced at him while he opened the door and then he placed his arm on her back to guide her inside.
Once they were back, Anna handed the paper to Francesca, who read all the notes as Anna said, “Francesca, thank you for waiting.”
Francesca met his gaze and asked, “So what did accounting say?”
Anna coughed and projected her voice. “Your numbers are fifty percent too high. However, my husband wants this to end today. So I am being generous and offering seventy-five percent of your asking prices for all of these.”
Again Francesca glanced at him and said, “I deserve what I want, Leo.”
“His Highness,” Anna corrected her. “My husband is not on a first name basis with you, anymore.”
He pressed his hand on his wife’s as he said, “Francesca, my princess here usually gets what she wants.”
Francesca slumped in her seat. “Yes. I realize that about her.”
Anna’s eyebrow raised and she asked, “So seventy-five percent?”
“Eighty-five percent,” Francesca countered.
Anne’s gaze narrowed, and she firmly said, “I’ll go no higher than eighty.”
Francesca nodded fast. “Agreed.”
And just like that, Anna was happy. Her skin had a slight pinkish tone and he knew that color of hers intimately now.
Anna stood and motioned toward the buffet set up behind Francesca. He followed his wife as she said, “Good. Wait and I’ll have the lawyers write this up in contract form. Please help yourself to lunch while the paper pushers take care of the details.”
He stepped toward the door, but Francesca called out, “Anna.”
“Her Highness,” he corrected again. Anna adhered to tradition even more than him and he’d ensure no one disrespected her, for the rest of his life.
Anna placed her hand on his chest, which was covered in his wool jacket and full princely gear designed for him, and smiled at him. “It’s okay, Leo.”
His name from her lips sent a thrill through him—how had he gotten so lucky?
He’d married a wonderful woman. A true lady despite her humble birth.
Francesca rose and spoke to Anna. “How did you… pull yourself up so high, when the rest of us never get those breaks?”
Anna folded the paper and handed it to him to hold as she said, “I… I just try to do my jobs and be a good person. I hope your pregnancy is easy and you get everything you want, Francesca.”
Francesca snorted as she said, “I wanted your life.”
Anna lifted her chin. “Well, besides that. I’m not moving over.”
He wouldn’t let her. A life without Anna wasn’t a life. He hugged his wife’s waist. “Anna is my princess, for the rest of her life.”
Then he walked beside her and opened the door for them.
The second they stepped out, she took his hand and they returned to his office, the nearest place they could be alone.
Pierre kept his gaze respectfully lowered when he passed them by.
Back when he’d worked with Anna as his secretary, he’d never closed the door. Now he locked the door so that nobody would intrude.
She stayed next to him and they kissed the second they were alone.
Finally he had everything he wanted. Right here, in his arms.
Chapter 19
A few weeks later…
* * *
Anna Camila scanned the clear blue ocean surrounding their yacht. The morning sun glistened on the white, turning it to pearl.
The ship gently bobbed in the water as they were anchored for the night in the middle of nowhere.
Later today, they would continue to sail on their adventure. Memories of her parents as they sailed on their small skiff laughing together rushed through her mind right now.
They’d like this honeymoon on a yacht.
The stillness of the air as she took a few breaths to cleanse her palate helped steady her thoughts.
Anna returned, barefoot, to the bedroom and slipped back beneath the covers next to her husband.
Leo moved as if her cold legs disturbed him, but then he rested and she settled back into the white sheets to stare at him.
Her husband was absolutely the most handsome man she’d ever met.
She took a deep breath and hoped he would like what she had to say. He batted his eyes so she knew he was awake, and before he even had a chance to say good morning, she hugged her pillow to her chest and asked, “Leo, what are some names you’d want if you had a son or daughter?”
His nose lifted as he sat up beside her, tugging at her pillow. “I don’t want to talk about Francesca. It’s not like I get a choice there.”
She let the pillow go “I wasn’t talking about Francesca.”
And then the pillow fell beside the bed as he asked, “What?”
Guess that wasn’t clear. Her heart beat a little faster as she stared at his muscular chest because his brown eyes always mesmerized her. “Leo, you and I have been intimate since the island…”
He grinned and squeezed her hand. “Antonio if it’s a boy and Maria’s good if it’s a girl.”
Handsome, and smart. She laughed and settled into his waiting arms as she asked, “Why those names?”
He yawned and scratched the short hair at the back of his head. “Well, family tradition requires me to name my oldest Antonio… because my full name is Prince Leopoldo Cosimo Francesco Gastone Giuliano Piero Charles Marcus Lorenzo Antonio Aussa.”
“That’s a mouthful,” she joked, but understood instantly they really didn’t get a choice in a male name. The Aussa family had rules.
Leo explained, “Antonio was a noble king about two hundred years ago and the Aussas recycle the good king names, and let the bad names die. We only get to cycle a new name in when we retire a bad one.”
And if she had a son, Antonio was a good name. “Your family is actually still following that rule?”
“Traditions are important.”
She happened to agree, for the most part. Her heart thumped as she wondered about the second suggestion. “Okay, so why Maria?”
Leo eyed her with a smug look. “Maria, because your grandmother’s cookies are really yummy.”
Cookies. Her life had revolved around those cookies for years. Since getting her own staff, her grandmother made her delicious cookies, and Anna didn’t have to worry that she’d accidentally left the oven on.
She poked his rock-hard abs with a laugh. “So you’d name our daughter so you get more cookies sent over from the dower house?”
“Umm… yes,” he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. He dropped the sheets, showing off his nakedness in all his glory. “And I hope she hands over her cookie recipe to my chefs.”
“That won’t happen.” Anna’s hands grazed his chest as he came over her to kiss her and pull her hips lower on the bed.
Leo was hers. She was his. And now they’d have a family. The rest of the world didn’t matter at all.
Not today.
Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed King Leopold and Queen Anna’s love story. My editor and I went back on what kind of technology nobles might have in the 1990s and I provided the tech history of computer and motorola cell phones that super rich people had, even if you and I didn’t quite get in our hands. So much fun writing this one. The next book is Forbidden Bastard where you can catch up on Charles as an adult whose perhaps not as bad as Sheena thought because the bad boy turns good when he falls in love.
If you loved Forbidden Crown, you’ll love the billionaire family drama of the House of Morgan, where romance is the only cure that might heal the past. The first book, Secret Crush, is FREE and available where you can see how the House of Morgan all started.
And if you’re looking for a series with some danger and mystery wher
e all the Bentleys must marry women they’ve never met to clear their names in this exciting family drama. The prequel Irresistibly Lost is available for FREE as well!
And to find out about new books, sign up for my newsletter: https://victoriapinder.com
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Sandi Smith’s heart pounded hard as she rode up the metallic silver elevator of the La Belle Epoque office building located in the high-end business district in Paris.
The last thing she’d expected while on vacation was to be set up, by her own parents, like she was some prized possession.
Sandi was smart, funny, and until today, she’d assumed she’d have a choice in who she married.
The digital numbers climbed higher. Marriage? To a stranger?
Her palms were sweaty but she had zero time to strip off the itchy fake-fur fabric. She’d been stunned by their news, and had immediately reacted—racing from the children’s hospital to stop this fiasco.
Now.
Finally the bell dinged, signaling the twentieth floor. The elevator doors slid aside and Sandi tugged her fluffy white tail out of the way before they closed behind her.
Until now the Easter bunny singing in a foreign country and hopping along for children in a hospital as volunteering in the American Cancer Society had always grounded her.
But she kept her head high and didn’t care what these strangers in business suits thought about her, wearing her costume.
Hopefully she’d never see them again and she could go back to being a tourist, snapping pictures of herself at the museums, or figuring out the rues of Paris’s shopping sections.
Sandi used her rather silly paw to push against the glass door and enter the office, heading toward a woman sitting behind a black glass desk.
The lady was posh with shiny black hair in a bun, thin, pink lips, and a black skirt and blazer. Pretty much the opposite of Sandi, even when not in this get-up. She plopped her fluffy white hip against the slick desk and kept her bunny ears high. “I’m here to see Mr. Esposito.”
The woman’s eyes grew wider but she didn’t even blink as she tapped the blue tooth in her ear. “Your name?”
She folded her hands, unable to ignore the stuffed carrot sewed to her paw. “Sandi Smith.”
The woman's upturned nose twisted as she told someone on her headpiece Sandi's name.
Sandi glanced around the white and black office. The name del Pescatore was emblazed on the wall in bold italics as the only decoration in this sterile gray office place.
The secretary shook her head in disbelief as she said, “You’re… being sent in.”
Good. This was the "business" her parents had set up over the phone but Sandi would rather try and negotiate for her own freedom. The woman with the perfect makeup would never understand being in such a position. Sandi adjusted the orange felt carrot and followed behind her. “Thank you.”
No one talked. The hall was quiet enough to hear the television in the lobby out front. The receptionist stopped outside an office.
Sandi checked that her puffy tail didn’t get stuck in the swinging door as she headed inside.
As her initial anger cooled, she realized that perhaps she should have run back to her hotel room to change into regular clothes before rushing here to confront the man her parents wanted her to marry.
Sandi stared at the muscular back of a man at least a foot taller than her--his tailored shirt accentuated his well-defined body. He turned around and pierced her with brown eyes that made her heart race.
Darn. Men this gorgeous never, ever, noticed her when she'd worn vacation jeans and a t-shirt, and wouldn’t notice her even in her normal semi- casual business attire. She held out her bunny hand to shake his. “Mr. Esposito?”
The posh woman returned to the front desk, leaving them alone.
The sound of the door closing made her breath catch in her throat.
For some unknown reason, her parents had acted completely out of character and chosen a handsome man for her to marry. In the end, that would only make things more awkward. Sandi always thought she’d marry an amenable man who might not be hot, but would at least laugh at the appropriate times. Charles Esposito was severely handsome and seemed a bad boy who probably never laughed.
The man whose fingers made her tremble, well he… darn it all. This man made her think about sex. “Charles, we’re to be married, it seems.”
He said nothing though he didn't release her paw.
She squared her shoulders and forged ahead. Ending this farce quickly would be better for both of them so she took her hand back, ignored the sparks, and said, “My father might have agreed. My mother might have agreed, but I came here, in person, to tell you that getting married isn't happening.”
His brown eyes held a glimmer of amusement. “It’s not?”
Her skin prickled like he… like he saw straight through her outfit and into her soul, a place no one even knew she had. She stood taller and said, “No. I’m not marrying you.”
He shrugged and lifted his suit jacket off the back of his black leather office chair. “That’s fine then. Please inform your father our deal is off. I have dinner plans.”
The business would fail, and then her parents would blame her, forever. Because of her grandfather’s will, they’d turned over most of the business operating to her when she'd started high school, like business was an extra homework assignment. She hadn’t been ready then and lost a fortune.
She slid in front of him to stop him from leaving his desk. His short dark hair framed his face perfectly, and goosebumps rose and met the fabric of her costume, tickling her arm. Her nose detected a manly cologne that just made her melt.
No. This wasn’t good. Attraction to him was a very bad idea. Her pulse spiked. “That’s it?”
He adjusted his jacket like it mattered more than his supposed email proposal and business proposition that her parents had accepted so they didn’t have to deal with her business decisions anymore. “What did you expect?”
Maybe it was the silly outfit she wore.
Maybe it was how handsome and perfect he was.
And maybe it was how her mind compared the two of them, and she came up short. Sandi exhaled and refused to breathe in that woodsy cologne. She folded her hands in front of her. “You reached out to my parents out of the blue to make the offer in the first place. I thought we should talk.”
He studied her outfit and must have dismissed her lack of figure as he brought his gaze to her face. “We have. You stated what you wanted, and I’m not in the habit of discussing anything with a bunny. This makes it clear you’re not interested.”
His dismissal wasn't a bad thing. It might be to her benefit that she was so out of her element that all she had was words. Her skin was probably red and blotchy from the outfit she'd worn to volunteer for an hour when she went to visit hospitals to volunteer in the cancer ward after she’d talk business to uninterested doctors like she’d done today. “I was helping cheer up children in the cancer ward, as it’s Easter, when I found out what you and my parents had discussed.”
He held out one of the two office chairs that faced his desk and gestured for her to sit. “So you hopped right over.”
Her skin burned. Was that deadpan joke directed at her? She descended into the seat like it was a throne, perching on the edge due to her tail, and waited for him to sit beside her. “Yes. I know you’re rich and can help my family.” And it wasn’t fair he had the whole dark and rugged but rich look down so flawlessly. “You're way more handsome than I would have thought.”
He slid his chair closer and their knees brushed, sending awareness rushing into her veins. “Your parents described you as pretty," he said, "but didn't mention the pink nose.”
She wiggled her nose and peeled off the nose. “Is that better?”
“Yes--I can see you’re passably pretty.” He nodded at her but then checked his watch. “As I said, I have a dinner to get to.”
Passable? He
r heart felt the burn of his appraisal. But if he left and she put a stop to the business deal her parents had struck, she sealed the fact she’d now destroyed their import and export business as no hospital wanted the medical equipment in her warehouses. If he left, she’d have made the family’s dwindling bank account smaller in a short amount of time.
And once again, she'd ruin their trust in her.
Answers would help her make a decision. He stood and she jumped up and asked, “Why?”
He ran his fingers down the length of his tie to ensure it was straight and she got the impression that appearances were important to him as he asked, “Why what? Why do I eat?”
If he left and this opportunity ended, she’d never see anyone half as handsome. Not that looks mattered. Sandi pressed her hand on his hard shoulder to stop him. Desire coursed through her as she clarified, “No. Why did you and my parents agree that you and I should marry like this was business deal?”
He tilted his head and stared at her like he felt sorry for her. She knew her unflattering bunny outfit sagged everywhere but she didn’t move until he stood back. Could he feel something between them too? He motioned toward the chairs again. “Please sit.”
“Very well.” She pushed her fake tail off her backside so she might sit all the way on the chair and crossed her legs.
She couldn't help fidgeting. Would he explain? He was handsome and rich and finding a wife shouldn't be a problem.
On the other hand, she'd always marched to the beat of her own drummer which often didn’t end in lucrative deals. Mostly she ruined deal after deal as she missed some small but important detail.
He leaned closer and folded his hands together. “I agreed to marry you for a couple reasons. One, the deal with your parents means my products will be sold in stores throughout the United States. And while my products have an excellent sell-through online, people still buy what they see.”
A label that read "Made in Avce" only made his products more interesting to her friends and anyone she knew. Seriously, a small European country where all the men looked like this man, a sun-kissed god reborn into perfection? She tugged her ear as heat rose in her face. “My parents and you somehow just threw my hand in marriage in as a means of locking your successful and lucrative multi-product conglomerate deal because they saw your millions.”
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