Her Billionaire Bellboy
Sophia Summers
Contents
Read all books by Sophia Summers
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Epilogue
15. Chapter One: The Heir
16. Chapter Two: The Heir
Read all books by Sophia Summers
Read all books by Sophia Summers
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Other books in the Vacation Billionaires Series
Her Billionaire Lifeguard
Her Billionaire Professor
Her Billionaire Bellboy
Her Love and Marriage Brides Series
The Bride’s Secret
The Bride’s Cowboy
The Bride’s Billionaire
Read all the books in The Swoony Sports Romances
Hitching the Pitcher
Falling for Centerfield
Charming the Shortstop
Snatching the Catcher
Flirting with First
Kissing on Third
Her Billionaire Royals Series:
The Heir
The Crown
The Duke
The Duke’s Brother
The Prince
The American
The Spy
The Princess
Her Billionaire Cowboys Series:
Her Billionaire Cowboy
Her Billionaire Protector
Her Billionaire in Hiding
Her Billionaire Christmas Secret
Her Billionaire to Remember
Her Single Holiday Romances
Taming Scrooge
Chapter 1
Today, Tess wished to abdicate her throne.
The throne of Pantos which would pass to her upon her father’s death seemed more often a curse than anything else. She could think of many times in her life when she had wanted the crown to pass her right on by. This past month particularly weighed on her determined shoulders. Being the almost-queen meant her mother could pull out the excuse of queen-preparation for almost anything, including how to spend her social life. Tess didn’t think all the power in the world would make up for the past twenty-five years of servitude to her well-meaning but controlling parents.
She had arrived at the resort in Majorca days before the Regatta and its associated events. The pool was blessedly quiet except for a group of bellboys in a back corner. She was grateful for the mostly empty patio this morning to make her calls. Even though she had the entire top floor of the Spanish resort hotel, her suite felt confining. The sparkling, empty pool beckoned, but her to-do list kept growing the longer she sat. So she sucked in her breath, counted to five, and then made the first call. To Damien.
Thinking of her assistant Damien brought a measure of calm into her agitated sense of well-being. The conversation with him would be the easiest she’d have in the next twenty minutes.
“Your Highness.” His voice made her smile. All business.
“How are you?” she asked.
“Well. There are a few items.”
“There always are.” She cleared her throat. “But how are you?” Trying to humanize her marvelously efficient assistant had become a personal quest.
“How I am is of no consequence. But if you must know, I’m planning to feel much better as soon as we have a few of our items checked off. First, the queen would like a word regarding the gala.”
“Yes, I’ll call her next.”
“Would you like to hear the personal matters or the matters of state first?”
“Personal.” She wasn’t sure what to expect for personal matters. Like, a friend? She laughed at the irony.
“Prince Tehan Paixao would like to know if you have any open evenings while in Spain.”
“Could you please move Prince Tehan to the matters of state category?” Her mother had turned him into a matter of state as soon as she began orchestrating time for them to spend together.
An alliance with Tehan might benefit her country of Pantos, but as yet, she didn’t have a personal interest in knowing him outside of matters of state. They were at one time on friendly terms, but considering his overbearing and dull personality, she saw little hope for anything warmer to develop.
“What else do you have?” The bellboys were taking note of her. She could feel their gaze and see them pointing out of the corner of her eye, but she could hear nothing.
“Prince Tabias would also like to discuss a time to meet up while you are in Spain.”
She sighed. “How many personal notifications do I have similar to the last two?”
“Princess, there are quite a few. I would suspect that every prince is hoping for a moment with you. Ten have called so far.”
“Ten?” Tess couldn’t even think how to respond. She shouldn’t be surprised. Every Mediterranean royal family had RSVP’d that they were coming. “I don’t have ten evenings in Majorca.” She frowned. “Nor do I wish to spend any of them with a prince who hopes to ingratiate himself with me just to further the interests of his country.”
“Forgive me, but you know I am your friend first, your assistant second. Won’t you have to choose one at some point?”
“Mother continues to make her choice abundantly clear.”
“And your own?”
Tess was silent. If she were to force herself to analyze the royal men of her acquaintance, she didn’t know who she would choose. It felt too contrived. And she was losing her patience, wasting valuable brain cells thinking about it. “How about you don’t tell me about any calls from princes unless I ask specifically.”
“Noted. Would you like to hear the matters of state next?”
They went through details of the events she had planned for their week. Right before she hung up, Damien made her smile. “Relax a little. Date someone who would never be a prince. Let loose and enjoy yourself.”
“You act as though I try to avoid such things.”
His silence was answer enough.
“I did come out here early just for that purpose.”
He cleared his throat. “Have you considered a date for the gala?”
“I suppose I’ll have to go with Prince Tehan.”
“Now would be an excellent time to make another choice if you wanted.”
“Noted.” Before she hung up, she wanted Damien to know how much she appreciated him. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Oh, and, Your Highness?”
“Yes?”
“We did better. That time we only took five minutes.”
She hung up with a smile. Damien had taken to timing their touch-back conversations to make their working relationship more productive. He was quite superb. She’d never find another equal to him.
She pressed on her mother’s contact info. The phone rang once before her mother picked up. “Darling.”
“Hello, Mother.”
“Are you settled in? I’ve set up appointments for you for the gala, the ribbon cutting, and the Regatta. I sent them to Damien of course, and they’ve been added to your calendar.”
When her mother added appointments to her calendar, they were for things like her hair, facials, manicures, and clothes fittings. She supposed she should be grateful since she gave little thought to those kinds of things. Tess loved to prese
nt herself in a beautiful, classy way, but she knew if it weren’t for her mother or Damien, she’d fail miserably. Her mother prattled on in such a cheerful way, that Tess fell comfortably into their normal pattern and felt some of her concerns ease away.
Then her mother cleared her throat. “I heard Prince Tehan would like to get together with you. Isn’t that quaint. You two were the cutest babies on our trip to the Alps that one Christmas.”
“Yes, thank you, Mother. Sharing the same hotel childcare doesn’t typically lead to romance.”
“But one look at him might.” She laughed. “Did you see him at last year’s royal Christmas celebration? The way his shoulders filled out his tux. He’s not a young boy anymore. It might do you good to notice.”
“Ugh. You can’t talk like that.”
“Why not? Of course I would notice—on your behalf.”
Tess shook her head. “Why are all the princes calling me?”
“Oh, are they?” Her overly pleased tone of surprise did not fool Tess one bit.
“What’s going on, Mother?”
“Nothing underhanded. All your royal friends are in one place at one time. This hardly ever happens. Seems you could be making the most of the opportunity.”
“They’re not interested in me. They want the crown.”
“You don’t have to take all the fun out of it.”
“The fun left as soon as it became a of national interest.”
“Oh come now, your father and I managed to have all sorts of fun even though our parents supported the match.”
“I don’t understand how you abided having your marriage arranged for you.”
“You know your father and I were almost in love already. It was easy to be attached to him in marriage. We are grateful every day. There is no reason it cannot be the same for you. Give it a try. Get to know Tehan.”
Even though her mother sounded sensible, Tess’s irritation rose. “And what if I’m perfectly happy to not date? Or what if I find love elsewhere?”
“This is an old and tired conversation. I really just wanted to tell you your father will be joining you.”
Her heart skipped. “Will he?” His towering frame, the sparkle in his eyes, the light of his presence, and the many, many times she had not been able to spend time with him, all crossed her mind in a second of hopeful fear.
“Yes, he finds himself interested in the results of your summit.”
She choked to hide her emotion. “I see.”
“He’ll be there Thursday.”
“Thanks for letting me know.”
“And he wants to have dinner with you and Tehan after.”
It seemed a small price to pay for a few days with her father. “If he must come, then we will include Tehan.” She could picture the two of them, their broad shoulders matching the strength of their opinions. But time with her father was time with her father.
When she hung up with her mother, she revisited every part of the summit she was planning. A new energy mapped her determination for the summit to succeed.
She made a few more phone calls to double-check that the local caterers were prepared. She knew Damien was handling it, but she couldn’t rest until she verified some of the details herself. The florist wanted to make a couple substitutions, and if her father wasn’t coming, she might have let them slide. “No, that will not do. I’m more concerned with quality and excellence than I am with expense.”
The huge networking gala was one of the most important events of the Mediterranean crowd every year. The gathering of wealth and world leadership was attracting more CEOs and other possible decision-makers from outside their region—potential clients. Her father liked to view them as invading piranha, but he chose to work with some, invest in a few, and invite even fewer into his circle of confidence.
She hung up and leaned back, wanting nothing more than a drink. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the bellboys approaching. At last. Her mouth was parched. And the pressures of her morning had wound her up tightly. Knowing that her father was coming had amped up all of her anticipation. She held up her hand, pulling out the event file to check the details for the hundredth time. “Could you bring me a Mango Tango? A double?”
He stopped, and when he didn’t answer, she lifted her gaze to him for a moment, impatient at the break in her concentration. But what she saw stole her thoughts. Tall and as broad shouldered as her father, he had a sharp jawline and flashing eyes, interest lighting his expression.
She leaned back and let her gaze travel over him. A tight shirt stretched across his abs, swim shorts covered his thick powerful thighs. This bellboy was not like any she’d seen before. His very essence emanated power. Still speechless, she cleared her throat, waiting for him to do something besides look at her as though she were the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen.
She shifted, and he seemed to at last realize it was his turn to speak or acknowledge her order at the very least.
Did this man really take people’s drink orders? Everything about him, the confidence he wore with the ease of an expensive suitcoat, his tall, strong posture, his daring eyes, belied his role as a servant. Her gaze flicked to the group of bellboys in the corner, to the man across the pool, talking with his back to her. They all wore the same shirt.
He blinked. “I’ll be right back.” His voice drifted over her and settled in a warm happy blanket around her shoulders.
She nodded, breathless. “Okay.”
He walked away, towering over everything around him. How could anyone affect her the way he was? Did anyone else notice how he seemed born to rule? She’d known many rulers, some comfortable with their position, some not. But none like him. Suddenly she wanted to follow him with a clipboard, ready to bow to his every whim or rise to her primal need to win, to beat him.
She shook her head. And that was the man she’d told to go get her a drink? She was being crazy. He was just a bellboy, like the others. She looked over her shoulder again. The group of men seemed more than usually interested in her drink and in her.
They were all built, strong, and handsome. Wow, the resort hired exceptional-looking men for their staff.
He returned, carrying her drink as elegantly as James Bond. How would he measure up with her friends? She tried to envision other princes she knew. The Valdez brothers. Nico—heir apparent to Torren, an island near hers. She hoped to see him this week and valued his thoughts. Side by side with Nico, would the bellboy still fascinate her in the same way?
She could only shrug. All she knew was she’d never been so affected by a man, and she’d met plenty of powerful men. A bellboy. She shook her head. But none like this one.
Chapter 2
Trent approached and held out her drink with a napkin. “Your Mango Tango double.” The trembling in her outstretched arm did not go unnoticed. “Here, I’m tall. Let me sit.”
She nodded.
When their fingers touched around the glass, he felt the surge of interest he’d known was coming. Her gaze flicked to his, wide eyes expectant. He studied her elegant lines, her cheek, jaw, the curve of her lips. “Try it.”
When she lifted the glass to her mouth, he winked. “They say it’s the best.” He raised an eyebrow. “Though, it’s early for a double.”
She tilted her head. “Some days are made for doubles.”
“You having one of those days?” He’d never seen anyone like her. Her open robe, bikini, and tanned skin shouted vacation, while her eyes and voice enticed him with power. She’d been having the kind of conversation he usually dreaded, the kind where he was checking up on his team.
The guys had pointed her out, but he’d already seen her, unable to look away at first glance. They quoted her to him and that had sent him over to meet her. She’d used one of his catch phrases. “Excellence beats out expense.”
And she’d kept him moving. Something about getting her a drink felt personal, intimate. Would she ask for something else? He’d analyze the feeling late
r, snap some sense into himself, but for now, he was intrigued. And watching her sip her double, he didn’t think he could leave if he had to.
“How is it?” he asked.
“Delicious.” Her gaze traveled over his face. “You asked if today was one of those days.” She lifted her cup. “I’ve had some excellent news, some trying news, and a whole ton of work dumped in my lap all in the last hour.” She took another drink. “So I don’t know how to answer that.”
He nodded. “Let’s talk about it.”
Her eyes widened and she looked over at the bar. “Don’t you have to get back to work?” She leaned forward. “I don’t want to get you in trouble or anything. If it helps, I can order some food. I’m starved anyway.”
His mouth fell open, and he wasn’t sure what to say to her. She thought he was hotel staff? “Wait.”
“In fact, let’s just get the food ordered. I’m gonna be starved by the time it’s ready. I’d love one of those burgers with everything. And an order of tapas, just whatever is your favorite kind. And prawns. Get some extra so we can share. If you’re permitted.”
“Permitted?” What was happening here?
“Then let’s talk. I’ll admit I could use a listening ear. Big tip for a few extra minutes when you get back.”
“Big tip…” What did he do with that? He considered her for a half breath more then made a snap decision. “Done. I’ll get you taken care of.” He glanced over his shoulder at the guys who were being way too attentive. Then he went back to the counter to put in her order. While he waited for it, he could feel her watching him. He chuckled. This was a first. And he was pretty certain the guys would never let him forget it. What about him led her to believe he was a bellboy?
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