Paris and the Prince: A BWWM Billionaire Romance (Royal Weddings Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

of times, but when they were drunk and angry? They were unbearable.
    Catriona had always felt terrible that their oldest son had been tied to such a crass family, but when they'd made the deal with Estia, the children had been babies, and they knew little about Estia's Royals. As the years had passed, it had become clear Estia needed Dalvana far more than Dalvana needed Estia, and Prince Alexander was just a means to an end for that nouveau-riche Whitney and her ladder-climbing parents.
    Catriona motioned at Alexander to hang up the phone, but Alexander made it clear he was trapped in yet another of King Leonard's epic tirades. It was going to be a long, one-sided conversation. She watched as Alexander placated and tried to talk Leonard down from his drunken rage; it took an hour and a half, and Catriona had already gone through her bedtime beauty regimen (twice), but Alexander was finally able to convince Leonard that the Prince had been held up at his diplomatic meeting. It was an excuse that wouldn't fly again, and King Alexander knew it.
    Once the phone was safely back in the cradle, the weary king collapsed back onto the mountains of pillows that enveloped the bed.
    “Cat... What are we going to do with our son? I know he's not happy about this marriage, but he knows as well as we do that none of us have an option anymore. Even if he keeps offending those drunken idio ... I mean, our delightful future in-laws, they aren't going to call off the engagement. They're just going to make all of our lives miserable indefinitely.”
    Catriona got up from her vanity and walked over to the bed, curling up next to Alexander and snuggling her head into his shoulder.
    “Al, dearest love, your son has the same independent, fiery streak that you have. We were just lucky enough to have been betrothed to one another. Not every royal has the benefit of being paired with the true love of their life. When Alexander returns from Paris, we will just sit him down and have a talk. He doesn't have to like Whitney. He doesn't even have to spend time with her. He doesn’t even have to have children with her—heaven knows, we can find another heir amongst our other children. He just has to put on appearances for the sake of the treaty, and hope against hope that the liver disease kills Whitney sooner rather than later.”
    King Alexander's laugh filled the room with a warmth that mimicked that of his son's. He pulled his wife close and kissed her on the forehead.
    “You’re right, my love. He will settle down and do his duty, as all royals must do eventually. But I truly am the luckiest man in all of Dalvana, my darling Cat. No one could ask for a better wife.”
    Fifteen-hundred miles away, as King Alexander and Queen Catriona curled together close, another man from Dalvana was counting himself among the luckiest men in all the world...

8
    P aris couldn't help but stare up at Alex as they walked along the river toward his hotel, as the light bouncing off the river Seine highlighted his aristocratic features. He was so tall, so beautiful, and she couldn't believe that he was here with her . The moon was sparkling off the clear water of the river, and the stars were like a thousand little night lights guiding them along the Seine. It felt like a dream within a dream.
    They talked about Paris' transient childhood on the road with her mother, and how difficult it was for her, and Alex's favorite books and movies. Paris couldn't help but notice how evasive Alex was when it came to his personal life, but she wasn't ready to let herself think too deeply about what he might have been hiding. Instead, they walked, and Paris drank in the moment, wondering if she would ever feel so alive again in her life. All of her senses tingled with awareness of the man walking at her side.
    It wasn't as late as Paris had thought it was, and everything in the city seemed to stay open longer into the night than it did in her small college town. First, they stopped