Lucy
“Honey, I’m home!”
What the hell?
I was upstairs in my workspace, in the beginning stages of cutting fabric for Amy’s wedding dress, when I heard someone enter my apartment, loudly announcing their presence. Setting down my shears on the worktable, I closed and locked the door behind me before walking down the stairs to the first floor.
Standing in my entry hallway was Preston, casually dressed in khakis and a cable-knit sweater. Momentarily blinded by my annoyance and the smirk on his face, it took longer than it should have to notice he had a large suitcase in each hand.
Why does he have suitcases?
Crossing my arms, trying to tamp down my panic, I tried to play it cool. “What are you doing here?”
Like a predator, he stalked toward me. With his long legs, it only took three strides before he invaded my personal space, forcing me to crane my neck to look up at him. Even his heightannoyed me. Who needed to be that tall anyway? As long as you could see over a steering wheel and hit the height limit for the best rides at amusement parks, anything over that was just bragging. There wasn’t a trophy to be won for doing the best job growing up.
Smug, he glanced down from above. “I live here now, Princess.”
“The fuck you do!” The words were out like a reflex.
“Language, Princess.” Preston was so calm.
Why was he so calm?
“You’re not moving in here.” Let’s try this again.
“We’re going to be married. I have to move in at some point.”
“Not today! It’s not proper!”
Taking a half step forward, Preston was close enough that my breasts were brushing against his upper abs as my chest rose and fell rapidly, trying to figure out what was happening.
Dropping his voice an octave, his voice was husky. “Since when do you care about proper?”
No. His charm and sex appeal weren’t going to work on me.
Closing my eyes, I took a calming breath. “Youcan’tmove in because it would create a media frenzy. They would eat up the scandal of us living in sin.”
Confident I’d made my point, considering the pictures of Preston seen carting my bags out of every shop in downtown Belleston were still circulating, I was about to open my eyes when I felt his breath hot on my ear as he whispered, “Are you trying to tell me you’re a virgin?”
Eyes popping open, I shoved at his chest to create space. I’d gone from annoyed to panicked to pissed in the span of the five minutes Preston had been inside my home. There was no way I would survive the emotional whiplash he provoked within me for the rest of my life.
Glowering at him from a few feet back, I held my head up high. “That’s none of your business.”
Shoving his hands into the pockets of his tan slacks, he rocked back on his heels. “It will be. Might as well put it all out on the table now.”
“Not if I have my way,” I muttered.
“Just think, Princess, I’ll be so much more accessible the next time you want to go shopping.”
Yeah, he was still pissed about that. Too bad I didn’t care. That was the whole point.
Pulling out the big guns, I tried desperately to end this charade. “Grandfather would never allow this.”
There was that damn smirk again. “Funny you should say that. I had a lovely conversation with our King and your mother, and they both agreed this was a wonderful idea.”
Excuse me? Did he just say my grandfather and mymothersigned off on this? No, that couldn’t be right. Mom would never betray me like this.
Pushing past him, I ran out of my apartment on the verge of hyperventilation. Putting a hand to my rapidly rising chest as blackness crept into the edges of my vision, I tried to calm myself, but it was useless. I wouldn’t be able to calm down until I got to the bottom of why Preston thought he was moving in with me.
