Royal Desire (Maid for the Billionaire Prince Vol 4) Read Online Free PDF

nerves, I take French lessons. I
spend a voluminous time with Marie Vassar whenever she has time for
me. Now that her brother is King, their business and social
calendars are filled with engagements and appointments. Marie has
taken over a large chunk of the casinos so that her brother can be
left to tend to more kingly matters.
    My mother came to visit for two weeks. Alex
paid for everything, of course – first class all the way. It was
the first time my mother had ever met Alex, the first time she has
ever been to Moldavia and the first time she has ever flown first
class. In fact, it’s the first time she has ever been out of the
United States.
    Her jaw has not left the ground.
    She has seen the pap photos, of course, and
has been hounded by tabloid reporters to tell her side of the
story. Or rather, my story. How I was as a child. Where I
grew up. If I had any boyfriends as I was growing up.
    Unlike Deanna, she never took the bait. Not
even when they offered her a hundred thousand dollars.
    Mom was like a fish out of the water
everywhere. She never lost her awe of Alex (“But he’s a King! Yes,
I know he’s very young and handsome, but he’s still a King,
sweetheart.”). She had one tea with the Queen and Marie, and she
clattered her way through with the teacups, spilling half her
Darjeeling on her cheese and tomato finger sandwiches. She is
clueless about dining etiquette.
    I know I ought to be embarrassed for her,
but I’d rather have my Mom for a Mom anytime than Alex’s mother,
who is polite and smiling throughout, without the smile quite
touching her eyes.
    “I don’t belong here, sweetheart,” Mom says,
abashed.
    “Of course you do, Mom.” I hug her.
    “No, I don’t. And neither do you, Lizzie, as
much as I hate to say it.”
    I hate to admit it too, but she is
right.
    “I have a bad feeling about this place,
Lizzie.” She shudders as she looks around the grand palace. “It’s
as though we are being watched all the time. Nothing feels safe.
Nothing is private.”
    Those are my exact sentiments, though I have
learned to ignore it. Mom is far wiser than we give her credit
for.
    “I hope you know what you’re doing, Lizzie,
giving up college and all. But Alexander is a good, good man. He
loves you very much.”
    “I know, Mom. I know.”
    I say a teary goodbye to Mom as she leaves
for the airport. The time has now come for another major
confrontation – the announcement of my official engagement to Alex.
So far, the family knows about it and they have been majorly
uneasy, except for Marie.
    But it’s time to make it public now. It’s
time to drag that-which-shalt-not-be-discussed into the
limelight.
    Let the mudslinging begin.
     
    *

     
    The official announcement will be to the
press. Under Madame Fournier’s careful guidance, Alex and I hold
our first interview for Telemonde Moldavia, our local TV station.
But CNN, FOX, BBC. Al-Jazeera and all the big world news reporters
are here too, not to mention the gossip rags.
    I’m dressed in a deep blue velvet dress. It
has a demure neckline and a very flattering waist. My hair is
brushed and coiffed to shining ‘natural’ perfection. I am
bright-eyed and innocent-looking. My face has been touched up so as
not to make me look too young, lest Alex be accused of robbing the
cradle, even though we are only a few years apart in age.
    Alex is so impossibly handsome that I can’t
take my eyes off him. Which is a good thing. He helps me focus on
what we are here to do. We have to sell our love to the world and
come off not looking like the bad guys.
    The interview is conducted in English. Our
interviewer is the most famous talk show host in Moldavia, Yvette
Dupree. She’s the Oprah of her little corner, and we are about to
make her world famous.
    We are seated on her couch together. She is
placed in her usual armchair facing us. There is no live audience
today. A bevy of cameras – more news cameras than I have ever seen
in my entire life – decks