Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 97633 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97633 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
And like an idiot, I felt myself smiling back at her.
Get a hold of yourself.
“Ugh.” I coughed and reached for my water. “You don’t need to search for anything. You are free to ask me any questions. I shall be honest.”
She eyed me like she didn’t believe me.
“I swear, I shall. So long as you swear you do not speak a word of what I tell you to anyone else.”
“Deal.” She turned her body around and faced me again. Odette raised an eyebrow, and I turned and did the same thing.
“Ask away.”
“Why in the h—why does the royal family of Ersovia want me to marry into it? Are you all lacking women or something?”
“The current population is actually fifty-one point seven percent women—”
“Then, why me? An American. Let alone an African American.” She was just as blunt as her mother. “Don’t give me that look. It’s Europe.”
“Ersovia has gotten very diverse over—”
“You aren’t answering,” she interjected. “Of all the women in the world you could have—”
“You are extremely rich,” I replied, just as blunt.
“Money? That’s the reason.”
I nodded.
She had a right to the truth. Once the public found out, there was going to be no way to ignore it, anyway.
“This world is full of millionaires. But a monarchy prefers more security than that. What are the odds of finding a woman worth billions, who is currently unmarried and young enough to marry? So the truth is that I am here as a gold digger.”
“You wouldn’t be the first one,” she said, not in the least bit surprised or fazed.
“Is there a line of eligible suitors I skipped in front of?”
“Eligible suitors?” She laughed. “You speak as if you came out of a Jane Austen novel.”
“Is my English wrong?”
“No, it’s just very proper. But I guess that’s how they taught it to you so...anyway.” She shook her head, causing her curls to spin out around her. “You’re not the first of your kind, Your Royalness, though you are the first to admit it straight to my face like this, so good for you...I guess.”
“So, what does my honesty get me?” I asked, looking her over. I didn’t know why I was enjoying this, but I was.
“It definitely doesn’t get you marriage.”
“Of course not. But there was something else I wanted for it.”
“What?” she asked skeptically.
I stretched out my hand. “An introduction.” I watched her realize neither of us had actually been introduced to each other. However, for some reason, she grinned.
“Hello, I’m Cinderella.”
Cracking my jaw to the side, I nodded. She didn’t want to get that close yet. She wanted us to be strangers still. Fine, I would play along.
“Hello, Cinderella. I am your Prince Charming for the night.”
Chapter 7
I couldn’t help but laugh. His reply was cheesy, even though I was being a bit immature by not properly introducing myself.
“You are laughing at me.” He pouted, and it was wrong how cute he looked. “Meanwhile, I was forced into this costume for your sake.”
“My sake?” I repeated and then remembered who was responsible for the outfit I was currently wearing. “My mom forced you to be my prince charming tonight.”
“Forced is an understatement.” He shook his head. “Your mother is...very queen-like.”
“What?”
“She gives no room for argument or disagreement and possesses the ability to leave you absolutely tongue-tied while maintaining a pleasant demeanor.” He described her so clearly I could automatically see it.
“Please don’t tell her that,” I said, leaning onto the side of the couch. “She’ll only say, ‘of course, because I am a queen.”
“She means her beauty titles?” he questioned.
I nodded. “It doesn’t matter how many years have gone by. She still acts as if she won them yesterday. I used to joke that she was prouder of those titles then she was of me.”
“And what was her reply to that?” he asked like he knew my mother wouldn’t let me win that argument. He was right, but he shouldn’t have picked that up so quickly.
“She said if not for those titles, I wouldn’t be alive, so I should be grateful.” I snickered to myself. Then I paused, sitting up quickly, frowning.
“What is it?”
I was so overwhelmed by him being here that I didn’t have time to process and think over what my mother was doing. “I shouldn’t be talking to you!”
“Why—”
Shifting, I faced him again. “Don’t you see what she is trying to do? She trapped us in here because she knew we would have to talk. And by talking, we would end up getting to know each other. In other words, she’s trying to force us to make a connection right now.”
He stared back at me, and I noticed his eyes weren’t pure blue. They had specs of green in them, and depending on how the light hit and how he held his gaze, they shifted from being too blue to green.