Prince: Royal Romantic Suspense (Billionaires in Disguise: Maxence Book 5) by Blair Babylon (best ereader for comics .TXT) 📗

“I think he’s rather enjoying his life. His wife is an absolute delight.”

“Marriage can be so good for people of our status, don’t you think?”

The whole conversation with Nora felt forced. “I have some business to attend to, Nora. It was so lovely to meet you here tonight.”

“Yes, well, I heard that you are back in Monaco after one of your extended missions, and I wanted to be one of the first to welcome you back to society.”

“I can’t say I’m back in society,” Maxence said. “I’m only in Monaco for a few weeks, a few months at the most. I’ll have projects lined up all of next year, I dare say.”

She blinked again, but this time it was less fluttering her eyelashes and more trying to expel the grit of astonishment. “But you won’t be able to go away on extended charity projects when you’re the sovereign prince of Monaco.”

Her motives became clear. “Nora, I’m not sure who you’ve been talking to, but I have no intention of allowing myself to be crowned the sovereign prince. I have a vocation to the Catholic priesthood. I will be following that path. I am only back in Monaco to make sure that the succession is a peaceful and successful one.”

Nora’s eyebrows flinched downward, and her voice lowered in disgust. “You’re throwing away a throne?”

“Not throwing away a throne so much as dodging a bullet.”

Nora glanced toward the upper corners of the room with what seemed to be an aborted eye roll. “If Antonius got out of my way, I’d jump at the chance. I don’t know why you’re walking away.”

Maxence swallowed hard. “We have different priorities. I wish you well, and do say hello to everyone from Le Rosey at the next yacht party for me.”

Maxence shook off Nora’s hand and resolutely made his way toward the blazing rectangle of the exit.

Chapter Twenty

Downstairs

Dree

Dree was sitting on her bed in the dorm-style room deep in the Prince’s Palace, looking at social media on her phone, when her door rattled faintly with a hesitant knock. She wiped her eyes and yelled, “Come in! It’s open!”

Chiara Diallo pushed a small serving cart into the room, placed her feet perfectly together, and pressed the door closed. The rolling cart held a teapot and two delicate cups. “I thought you might like some tea. It’s herbal. No caffeine, because it is late.”

Dree dropped her phone face-down on the nightstand and grinned her brightest I’m-not-crying smile. “I appreciate that.”

Chiara precisely tipped the teapot and poured dark pink liquid into the two cups. “Sugar? Lemon?”

Even Dree’s dolls hadn’t played at this fancy of a tea party. “One lump, please?”

Chiara added the sugar and handed the cup to Dree. After they had both sipped, Chiara sat on the small sofa and asked, “Are you quite all right?”

“I’m fine, fine,” Dree said, waving off her concern. “I’m just homesick.”

Chiara studied the cup she cradled in her hands. “There were social media posts concerning Prince Maxence?”

Dree snapped her eyes shut. “I’m being stupid. Don’t coddle me.”

“It is not ‘stupid’ to have feelings for one of the royals here. Many girls get caught up in the pageantry. Too many of us read Cinderella when we were little.”

Sadness leaked through Chiara’s epic discretion.

Dree asked her, “You, too?”

Chiara sipped her tea and positioned the cup on the small coffee table between them with the handle pointing precisely to the side. “Prince Pierre was a magnetic man. I worked closely with him for several years.”

Dree caught her breath. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

Chiara’s shoulder rose in an instant of asymmetry that resembled a shrug. “It’s not uncommon to find an office romance has happened, but the broken hearts are always below stairs.”

Dree had watched enough PBS to get that reference, but barely. “Chiara, I’m sorry for your loss.”

Her shoulder rolled again. “His memory is a blessing.”

“Are you all right?”

She nodded. “The other staff were sympathetic.”

“Yeah, the secretaries always know everything.”

Chiara nodded quietly. “The housekeeping staff changes their sheets, and they are not fooled by a condom hidden under a tissue.”

Dree fell back on the couch, her hands over her eyes. “Oh, my God. Everybody knows.”

Chiara’s voice rose in distress. “I did not mean to alarm you. I am only stating that it’s no use trying to hide such things, and we are here for you. We are cohesive, below stairs.”

Dree grabbed her phone off the nightstand. “I started following Marie-Therese’s Insta after I met her the other day.”

Chiara nodded, seeming to follow along but not particularly approve.

“I grew up in America on a sheep farm. I’ve never seen clothes and jewels like that. I just wanted to follow her and see what their life is like.”

Chiara’s chin dipped. “And tonight, you saw too much.”

Dree held out her phone, where Maxence was kissing the cheek of a beautiful blond woman. “I have no illusions. He’s a rich guy, and rich guys get hit on. I’m not a rich girl, so I can’t expect him to care about what I think.”

Chiara regarded the photo dispassionately. “He is only greeting her, but that is Princess Kira of Prussia. Her family has more noble genetics than money. She used to come to Monaco to visit Marie-Therese and lie around the pool all day in a bikini, and then she turned up wherever Pierre was entertaining that night.”

“So, wait. This woman used to date Max’s older brother?”

Chiara tilted her head, studying the blonde on Dree’s phone. “Not dating so much as stalking.”

“Oh, my God! That’s weird!”

Chiara shook her head. “Royals are traditional. Some see work as beneath them or humiliating, or at the very most something to do until they marry one of their own kind who has a sufficient income.”

Dree shook her head hard, her curls bouncing off her cheeks. “Max isn’t like that. He worked so hard while we were in Nepal.”

“I understand that is true. However, he is one of them, not one of us. You’re going to see more