Going Royal 02 - Some Like It Scandalous Read Online Free PDF Page B

tell me? It’s so romantic.” Penny’s voice crackled with excitement. “So, when did it happen? Last month when you had that ‘conference’ to attend in Milan? Oh, I know, when you were in New York a few months ago and didn’t have time to see me.”
    Her sister’s voice kept climbing, revving up with excitement, and it pierced the fog of sleep clouding her mind, threatening to ruin the rest of her morning’s rest. “Penny. It’s five in the morning. I keep telling you that there’s a three-hour time difference.”
    “Oh my God, are you in bed with him right now?” That ice pick burrowed into her brain.
    “In bed with who? What are you talking about?” Pushing the covers back, Anna sat and grimaced at her sister’s whine. Penny was the worst of her siblings when it came to recognizing other people needed sleep. A night owl by nature, she pounced at the worst hours to ask the most ridiculous things.
    “You and Charlie—I mean the prince—does he mind if I call him Charlie? I am your sister and if you two are back together that means royal wedding and I can be the next Pippa. Oh God—you think I’ll get a spread in People magazine?”
    Awake now, irritation flared through her. “Penny!”
    “Sorry, got a little carried away.” Her sister squealed again. “I’m just so happy for you. And for me, because I’m going to look fabulous on television.”
    “What are you talking about?” And how the hell did her sister know she’d seen the prince the day before? She told no one—least of all her family. They’d been as supportive as they could—her brothers had even threatened to beat him up—but they went through that mourning with her once. She didn’t want to open old wounds.
    “You getting back together with Charlie, it’s so romantic.”
    Her blood went cold. “I am not—we’re not together.”
    “Oh yes you are, it’s all over ACE this morning. ‘Playboy Prince reunites with his first love.’ I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me...” Her sister continued to yammer, but Anna fumbled for the television remote and turned it on. She found the ACE channel by scanning the guide and stared. A commercial offering superstar figures detailed how every woman could look like a model segued into a red studio where the reporter started talking.
    Thumbing up the volume, she waited.
    “...and recapping our top of the hour, playboy Prince Armand Dagmar, titular head of the Andraste royal family, is known for his exotic tastes, but has happily ever after finally rubbed off on him?” Images of Armand cavorting with some blonde bimbo in Majorca punctuated the story. “The grand duke has been seen out and about in the Los Angeles area for months following the fairy-tale reunion with his long-lost cousin, the Princess Alyxandretta. But now sources close to the prince confirm that it wasn’t his cousin that kept him in the City of Angels but the chance to recapture romance with his first love, a woman ACE has identified as Anna Novak...” And then her face was on the screen.
    “See!” Penny’s voice squealed through the phone.
    I’m going to kill him.

Chapter Three
    By eight a.m. the circus parked in front of her little two-bedroom bungalow. Give the paparazzi a bone and they make a meal out of it. She sipped her coffee, staring at the sea of cameras setting up housekeeping on her lawn. Her poor neighbors gawked at the vans sitting crookedly against the curbs. To leave, she would have to push through them to get to her car.
    But they were in her driveway too.
    Three took off with her trash. I hope they like TV-dinner trays and takeout boxes.
    Yesterday’s headache returned with a vengeance. She took her phone off the hook and shut her cell down when neither would stop ringing. She could make them move their cars and leave, but then they might follow her. She wasn’t sure how murder would play on national television, so she kept herself planted in the house. Maybe she could hold out two