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I pulled a face.
“Oh, okay. I don’t get to bring that up?”
“I’m a monarch! It’s impolite.”
He sighed and shook his head. “Fucking hell. Alright, Your Majesty. You’re not hideous and you’re too young to deny yourself pleasure. I wouldn’t tell you no if you’d give me the same levity.”
“Alexandra, please. Just… Alexandra.”
I didn’t want to respond to his prior comment. The wordpleasureflustered me. I tried not to think about it.
“I will stick around for a bit. I must. Pappa is… well, he’ll skin me alive if I go back there without making it look like I’m trying.”
“Cool, cool. Brilliant.” I was nervous.
Why did I expect him to jump at the chance to enter a sham marriage? We stared at one another awkwardly. If it was true that my parents were in an arranged marriage gone well, I must believe it started better than this. It wasn’t that Rick was hideous. He was objectively handsome. I loathed the way he could make me blush. He was fit. It was his attitude. He was cocky. Heknewhe was hot and acted above the law. Furthermore, he didn’t seem the type to physically hurt me or control me.
“She really keeps you locked up?”
I nodded.
“Why?”
“Because as soon as I can free myself of her control, I will do whatever I please, and she can’t imagine that. She spent her life torturing my father and mother. She never broke my mother the way she did my poor father, but things were not good. And when Grand-Papa died, it broke something inside her. It made her even worse. She went on a power-hungry campaign to ease her grief and she hasn’t given up. Without me under her control, she thinks she will lose everything when I take over. And if she can break me before then—break my spirit—I will always let her exercise undue influence.”
“Don’t you… worry… she will?—”
“She has spies everywhere. But there is little she could do to me at this point that would surprise me.”
There would be retribution when any of my reasoning made it back to my grandmother, but I was to be paraded around like a horse for sale as an engaged young woman, she couldn’t smack me around. She was slowly losing control. I didn’t understand why she gave me this much power to begin with. I guessed she hoped to tie me to someone and pop out babies who would dominate my life. I needed to make it her idea so we could be free.
“Okay, so, a princess in a tower—a relatively brave one at that—needs saving.”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Rikard,” I said, flatly. “I engineered this plan. I will save us. You will assist.”
He rolled his eyes. “Let’s not debate semantics. Look, I’m considering it if only to throw a big middle finger at both sets of families, but I think the reaction to a divorce will be worse for you than it will be for me.”
“I can handle anything as long as I can eat an unlimited number of pastries, Rick.”
He chuckled. “Okay, okay. Let me think about it. I’m not saying no. I will give you a chance if you do the same for me. Let’s put our first meeting behind us. Can you grant me that? Give me a clean slate?”
I nodded. “You have yourself a deal.”
Eight
Rick
Ididn’t expect Alexandra to proposition me. I thought the call was coming from my parents. No, it was inside the house! Marry her? Was she insane? I left the meeting reeling, pacing until I decided to take a walk. Martin followed but I walked to walk.
“Martin, what do you know about the girl’s mental state?” I asked. “She just propositioned me in a ridiculous marriage plot!”
“Mental state, sir?”
“Alexandra. Crazy Crown Prince Christophewasher father. They locked him up—that’s the story. She’s told me that everything is a mess here. As in she is held captive by her grandmother—a little old lady! Come on!”
“I don’t know much, sir. These people keep everything buttoned up. They are known for their eccentricities. I know little about Her Majesty, but her father was… disturbed.”
“Yes. I cannot imagine a sane girl would propose something out of a regency costume drama.”
