SOPHIE PEMBROKE has been dreaming, reading and writing about romance ever since she read her first Mills & Boon as part of her English Literature degree at Lancaster University, so getting to write romantic fiction for a living really is a dream come true! Born in Abu Dhabi, Sophie grew up in Wales and now lives in a little Hertfordshire market town with her scientist husband, her incredibly imaginative and creative daughter and her adventurous, adorable little boy. In Sophie’s world, happy is for ever after, everything stops for tea, and there’s always time for one more page...
Also by Sophie Pembroke
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Carrying Her Millionaire’s Baby
Pregnant on the Earl’s Doorstep
Snowbound with the Heir
Second Chance for the Single Mum
Italian Escape with Her Fake Fiancé
Cinderellas in the Spotlight miniseries
Awakening His Shy Cinderella
A Midnight Kiss to Seal the Deal
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.
The Princess and the Rebel Billionaire
Sophie Pembroke
www.millsandboon.co.uk
ISBN: 978-0-008-91024-2
THE PRINCESS AND THE REBEL BILLIONAIRE
© 2021 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Published in Great Britain 2021
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
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To Rachael Stewart, Andrea Bolter and Jessica Gilmore—my perfect matches! I’ve loved working with all of you on this series. Thank you for making it so much fun!
Contents
Cover
About the Author
Booklist
Title Page
Copyright
Note to Readers
Dedication
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
EPILOGUE
About the Publisher
CHAPTER ONE
PRINCESS ISABELLA OF AUGUSTA turned her back on the huge, glass-fronted villa, eschewed the view from the decked terrace out over the beautiful Lake Geneva towards the Alps, and glared at her assistant, Gianna, instead.
‘This is a bad idea.’ Unthinkably bad. This was breaking rules that had been drummed into Isabella before she could even walk.
Gianna tossed her highlighted caramel hair over her shoulder. ‘I don’t have bad ideas.’
That was a blatant lie, as Isabella had met some of Gianna’s ex-boyfriends when she’d brought them to the palace.
‘You told me you were taking me to see Sofia.’ Isabella’s cousin, Sofia, would never dream of doing something so risky and ridiculous as this. Sofia followed The Rules.
Of course, The Rules had led to Sofia marrying the love of her life and living in the lap of luxury in Lake Geneva with her husband and three adorable children, while also running her charity foundation for injured donkeys. The Rules hadn’t been quite so kind to Isabella, but they had at least kept her safe and out of trouble.
This plan, she sensed, was a lot of trouble. Especially if her parents found out.
‘This is better than another visit to Sofia,’ Gianna said persuasively. ‘This is a whole week of freedom, Your Highness. One week where you can be Bella for a change.’
‘I’m always Bella with Sofia,’ Isabella pointed out mulishly. She pushed away any thoughts of the one other person outside the royal family who’d been close enough to call her Bella, for a time. It would only make her miserable.
‘Sofia thought it was a brilliant idea,’ Gianna countered.
Isabella paused, blinked, and regrouped. ‘Sofia knows about this plan?’
‘Of course! Who do you think is covering for you if the King and Queen start asking any questions?’
It wouldn’t be her parents, Their Royal Majesties King Leonardo and Queen Gabriela of Augusta, who’d be asking the questions, though, Isabella knew. It would be their private secretaries, or another member of household staff. Someone like Ferdinand, her father’s right-hand man, whose job depended on all the royal children and cousins following The Rules.
His previous right-hand man had been fired after the last time Isabella thought there was a chance to break them. She’d been wrong, of course.
Just as Gianna was wrong now.
Isabella shook her head. ‘Someone will find out.’
‘They won’t.’ Pulling a folder from her laptop bag, Gianna spread out the papers on the high-gloss table in the middle of the terrace. She motioned for the Princess to take a seat and, dubiously, she did.
‘Look.’ Gianna pushed the top page towards her, and Isabella took in the stylised M of the logo, and the words ‘discretion guaranteed’ underneath. ‘This isn’t your usual dating agency, Your Highness. M only works with the rich and famous, and it offers them something they can’t find anywhere else.’
‘A villa on Lake Geneva?’ Isabella said, knowing she was being facetious.
Gianna rolled her eyes, probably hoping her employer wasn’t looking. ‘Privacy. They offer you one week with your perfect match in an ultra-exclusive, completely private and secluded location—they even arrang
e security, at a discreet distance.’
They were, Isabella had to admit, very much secluded. While the shores of Lake Geneva boasted many small towns and villages—as well as the city of Geneva itself—on both the Swiss and French sides of the border, it was large enough that villas, like the one Gianna had driven her to from the small private airfield where they’d landed, were miles away from any other signs of human habitation. Their nearest neighbour, as far as Isabella could see, was across the lake—far enough away that she could only make out the winking of sunlight on the windows of the building.
As for the rest of it...
‘How could this agency possibly know my perfect match? Some sort of algorithm, I suppose, based on my star sign or my photograph?’
‘No, not at all,’ Gianna said patiently. ‘You fill in an incredibly detailed personality test—’
‘Which I didn’t do,’ Isabella pointed out.
‘I did it for you.’
‘Doesn’t that rather defeat the point?’
Gianna gave her a long, steady look. ‘Your Highness, I’ve been part of the palace since I was a child. I was your friend long before I was on your staff. I’ve seen you grow up, stifled by the court and their rules. I’ve seen you, all these years. Seen you cry. Seen you laugh. Seen you—’
She broke off there, but Isabella knew, instinctively, what her friend would have said. Love.
Gianna had been there the last time Isabella broke The Rules. She knew exactly what that had done to her.
If she wanted her to risk it again...there had to be a good reason.
‘The point is, I know you,’ Gianna went on. ‘I know your hopes and your dreams, your loves and your hates. And I was willing to be honest about them on the form, which I know you wouldn’t have been. You’d have been thinking about what the palace expected from you, what your parents wanted, what The Rules said. Anything except how you actually felt or what you wanted.’
‘You’re right,’ Isabella admitted softly. ‘I would have done that.’ She pulled the brochure from M closer. ‘It says here there’s a video interview required, too? I didn’t do one of those.’
‘Yes, you did.’ Gianna smiled wickedly. ‘Remember that Internet chat you did with that website? The one for young women, seeking their place in the world?’
Isabella frowned. She didn’t do many interviews or royal events these days, if she could possibly avoid it. But Gianna had been insistent about doing that particular one...
‘The one with that woman? The pretty one, from America? Morgan? No, Madison. Madison Morgan, right?’ She’d liked that interview. Madison Morgan had asked her all sorts of interesting questions—much better than the usual stuff she got asked in interviews like that. As the third child of the King and Queen of Augusta she was a princess, but she’d never rule the country—that was down to her brother, Leo, named for their father. She’d never had any real role beyond doing what she was told. So all anyone really asked her was who had designed her dress, and which parties she’d be attending. The answer to the first was usually, ‘Ask Gianna,’ and the second, ‘None if I can possibly avoid it.’
Morgan had asked her things about herself. Who she was, who she wanted to be. What mattered to her most. What her ideal date looked like... How did I not see it?
In fact, there had been a couple of moments that had struck her as odd during the interview—questions that didn’t quite make sense, comments she didn’t understand. At the time, Isabella had put it down to cultural differences, or her being out of practice at interviews, or even the language barrier. Her English was fluent, and she was usually good at picking up idioms, but still, it wasn’t her native tongue and that could cause problems sometimes. And there hadn’t been anything to set alarm bells ringing—besides, Gianna had been there the whole time.
Of course, she had. Because she’d set this whole thing up.
‘Why, Gianna?’ Isabella asked now. ‘Why did you do this?’
‘Why did I risk my career and my future to find you a week of freedom and bliss with a man who might be your perfect match?’ Gianna smiled, softly. ‘Because you deserve it, Bella.’
How long since her best friend had last called her by that nickname? Too long. They’d become employer and employee, not friends, the moment Isabella reached adulthood.
Gianna took her hand. ‘I’ve seen you, fake smiling through every date your family has arranged with a “suitable suitor”. Every boring Augustian duke or lord, even the ones twenty years older than you. I’ve seen you miserable and lonely, because not everyone gets as lucky as Sofia did, and finds their perfect match in the palace. I’ve seen you trying to find a moment to just be you, away from the bodyguards or the cameras or the men who want to marry into the royal family. I’ve seen you withering away in that palace ever since Nathanial—’
‘Don’t.’ Isabella shook her head violently. ‘Not...just, don’t.’
‘Okay. Okay.’ Gianna ran her fingers soothingly over the Princess’s arm. ‘But you were miserable, Your Highness. And I saw something I could do about that...so I did it.’
‘Do you really think this will change anything?’ Isabella met her friend’s gaze with her own, and found nothing but compassion there. ‘One week with some guy? It’s not like he’s going to magically turn out to be a mysterious aristocrat or something. He won’t be someone my parents would let me marry—I’ve already met every single guy they consider suitable. So it can’t ever be more than this—just one week with someone I might be...compatible with.’
She felt a slight heat rise in her cheeks as she said the words. She hadn’t been compatible with anyone for a very long time. Just once, in fact. With Na—No. She wasn’t even going to think his name.
Did Gianna really think that a week with a man some agency thought was her perfect match would fix everything that was wrong with Isabella?
‘Maybe it won’t change everything,’ Gianna admitted. ‘But it might help. At worst, it’s a week of fun and freedom—no bodyguards, except Tessa from your staff, and the small security team the agency sent to guard the perimeter, and they’ll all be at the cabin on the edge of the estate. No royal obligations, no expectations. Just a guy that you might like...and the chance to have some fun, if you want it.’
‘I’m not looking for that, either,’ Isabella said flatly. How could she? That was definitely against The Rules.
Gianna sighed. ‘Bella, this isn’t some sort of hook-up agency I went to here. It’s M. The premier, most expensive and exclusive dating agency in the business. Whoever they’ve sent to meet you, he’s not here for sex. He’s here to get to know you.’
The knot in Isabella’s stomach started to loosen, just a little. ‘You’re sure?’ Maybe she could come out of this having made a friend. A friend would be nice. A lover would be...trouble. Lots of trouble.
‘Sure.’ Gianna glanced over Isabella’s shoulder, then gave her a mischievous grin. ‘But looking at your Perfect Match, you might want to consider just a little romance this week.’
Isabella’s heart thudded in her chest as she realised she wanted that. She wanted to find someone to talk with, relax with, laugh with, even love with, in a way she’d hadn’t in so long. In a way she’d stopped hoping for.
But what was the point, if it was only for one week?
She shook her head. ‘No, Gianna. A friend is one thing. Anything else is—’
‘Against The Rules,’ her friend finished for her, rolling her eyes.
‘Yes.’ But it wasn’t just The Rules, Isabella realised. It was the risk. To her reputation, her family...her heart. She’d risked it all for love once before. It wasn’t a mistake she intended to make again.
Gianna was still staring blatantly at the glass-fronted villa where Isabella’s perfect match was waiting. If she wanted this week away from reality, Isabella knew she had to turn now. Had to see what sort of per
son M had decided was right for her. Had to open up her mind and her heart to the possibility of a friendship beyond The Rules.
Sucking in a deep breath, Isabella turned slowly to face the villa on the lake, and stared up through the glass to the man standing, one hand on his hip, the other holding a phone to his ear, looking down at them from what had to be the bedroom.
Was he really so tall, or was it just because she was looking up at him? Either way, the glass and the distance between them couldn’t hide his admirable figure—the breadth of his shoulders, the muscles showing through the tight T-shirt he wore, or the long legs with their thick thighs... His black hair was cropped short, his skin as tanned and warm as her own Mediterranean complexion.
He was, she had to admit, the best-looking man she’d ever been set up on a date with. But then, the bar for that had never been particularly high.
Most of all, though, he looked like trouble.
He looked down, and her breath caught in her chest as his gaze met hers.
Maybe Madison knows what she’s doing, she thought as the funny feeling in her chest moved lower, turning warmer. Maybe this guy wasn’t her perfect match, but she couldn’t deny the heat she felt at the idea of a week alone with him.
She pushed it aside. A new friend, that was what she was looking for here.
Even if that new friend looked like sin and risk and everything she’d spent every moment since Nathanial avoiding. She couldn’t imagine what M thought they’d have in common, but she supposed there must be something. As Gianna said, they’d been matched on their personalities, first and foremost.
‘So, you’re going in?’ Gianna asked, a giggle in her voice.
Isabella swallowed. ‘Well, I’ve come this far.’ She’d already left all but one of her security staff at the airport, lied to her parents about where she was, and apparently dragged Sofia in on the deception. ‘What’s one week?’
One small risk—a week away, getting to know a new friend. After that, she’d go back to The Rules. She’d be Princess Isabella again, and everything that entailed.
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