Prince of Scandal

Raul preferred his women sophisticated and well groomed.

What sort of woman didn’t take the time to style her hair?

Pale and damply combed off her face, it even looked lopsided. Anyone less fitted for this—

‘I can’t be his heir!’ She sounded almost accusing.

His brows rose. As if he’d waste precious time here on a whim!

‘Believe me, it’s true.’

She blinked and he had the sense there was more going on behind her azure eyes than simple surprise.

‘How is it possible?’ She sounded as if she spoke to herself.

‘Here.’ Raul opened the briefcase Lukas had brought. ‘Here’s your grandfather’s will and your family tree.’

He’d planned for his secretary, Lukas, to take her through this. But he’d changed his mind the moment he saw Luisa Hardwicke and how unprepared she was for this role. Better do this himself. The fewer who dealt with her at this early stage the better.

Raul suppressed a grimace. What had begun as a delicate mission now had unlimited potential for disaster. Imagine the headlines if the press saw her as she was! He wouldn’t allow the Maritzian crown to be the focus of rabid media gossip again. Especially at this difficult time.

He strode round the table and spread the papers before her.

She shifted in her seat as if his presence contaminated her. Raul stiffened. Women were usually eager to get close.

‘Here’s your mother.’ He modulated his tone reassuringly. ‘Above her, your grandfather, the last prince.’

She lifted her head from examining the family tree. Again the impact of that bright gaze hit him. He’d swear he felt it like a rumbling echo inside his chest.

‘Why isn’t my uncle inheriting? Or my cousin, Marissa?’

‘You’re the last of your family.’

Her brow puckered. ‘She must have been so young. That’s awful.’

‘Yes.’ The accident was a tragic waste of life. And it altered the succession.

She shook her head. ‘But I’m not part of the family! My mother was disinherited when she fell in love with an Australian and refused to marry the man her father chose.’

She knew about that? Did that explain her animosity?

‘Your grandfather blustered but he never disinherited her. We only discovered that recently when his will was read.’ The Prince of Ardissia had been an irascible tartar but he had too much pride in his bloodline to cut off a direct descendant. ‘You’re definitely eligible to inherit.’

How much easier life would be if she weren’t!

If there were no Ardissian princess he wouldn’t be in this appalling situation.

‘I tell you it’s impossible!’ She leaned forward, her brow pleating as she scanned the papers.

The scent of lavender wafted to him. Raul inhaled, intrigued. He was used to the perfectly balanced notes of the most expensive perfumes. Yet this simple fragrance was strangely appealing.

‘It can’t be right.’ She spoke again. ‘He disinherited me too. We were told so!’

Startled, he looked down to find her eyes blazing up at him. Her chin was angled in the air and for the first time there was colour in her cheeks.

She looked … pretty. In an unsophisticated way.

And she knew more than he’d expected. Fascinating.

‘Despite what you were told, you’re his heiress. You inherit his fortune and responsibilities.’ He summoned an encouraging smile. ‘I’ve come to take you home.’

‘Home?’ Luisa shot to her feet, the chair screeching across the floor. ‘This is my home! I belong here.’ She gestured to the cosy kitchen she’d known all her life.

She fought a sense of unreality. This had to be an appalling mistake.

From the moment he’d mentioned Ardissia and Maritz bitter recollection had cramped her belly and clouded her brain. It had taken a superhuman effort to hear him out.

‘Not any more.’ Across the scrubbed table he smiled.

He really was unbelievably good-looking.

Until you looked into those cool eyes. Had he thought her too unaware to notice his smile didn’t reach his eyes?

‘You’ve got a new life ahead of you. Your world will change for ever.’ His smile altered, became somehow more intimate, and to her surprise Luisa felt a trickle of unfamiliar warmth spread through her body.

How had that happened?

‘You’ll have wealth, position, prestige—the best of everything. You’ll live a life of luxury, as a princess.’

A princess.

The words reverberated in Luisa’s skull. Nausea rose.

At sixteen she’d heard those same words. It had been like a dream come true. What girl wouldn’t be excited to discover a royal bloodline and a doting grandfather promising a life of excitement and privilege?

Luisa’s heart clutched as she remembered her mother, pale but bravely smiling, seated at this table, telling her she had to make up her own mind about her future. Saying that, though she’d turned her back on that life, it was Luisa’s choice if she wanted to discover her birthright.

And, like the innocent she was, Luisa had gone. Lured by the fairy tale fantasy of a picture book kingdom.

Reality had been brutally different. By the time she’d rejected what her grandfather offered and made her own way home, she’d been only too grateful he hadn’t publicly presented her as his kin. That he’d kept her a cloistered guest during her ‘probation’ period. Only her closest family knew she’d ever been tempted by the old man’s false promises of a joyful family reunion.

She’d been naïve but no more.

Now she knew too much about the ugly reality of that aristocratic society, where birth and connections mattered more than love and common decency. If her grandfather’s actions hadn’t been enough, she only had to recall the man she’d thought she’d loved. How he’d schemed to seduce her when he realised her secret identity. All because of his ambition.

Luisa’s stomach heaved and she reached out blindly for the table, shaking her head to clear the nightmarish recollections.

‘I don’t want to be a princess.’

Silence. Slowly she turned. Prince Raul’s hooded eyes were wide, impatience obliterated by shock.

‘You can’t be serious,’ he said finally, his voice thickening with that appealing accent.

‘Believe me, I was never more so.’

Revulsion filled Luisa as she remembered her grandfather. He’d invited her to join him so he could groom her into the sort of princess he wanted. To do his bidding without question. To be the sort his daughter had failed to be.

At first Luisa had been blind to the fact he merely wanted a pawn to manipulate, not a granddaughter to love.

He’d shown his true colours when news arrived of her mother’s terminal illness. He’d refused Luisa’s tearful, desperate pleas to return. Instead he’d issued an ultimatum—that she break off all contact with her parents or give up her new life. As for Luisa’s begging that he fund further medical treatment, he’d snarled at her for wasting time on the woman who’d turned her back on his world.

That heartless betrayal, so blatant, so overwhelming, still sickened Luisa to the core.

That was who she was heir to! A cruel, ruthless tyrant. No wonder she’d vowed not to have anything to do with her bigoted, blue-blooded family.

She recalled her grandfather bellowing his displeasure at her ingratitude. At her inability to be what he wanted, play the part.

A hand on her arm tugged her from her thoughts. She looked up into a searing gaze. Black eyebrows tilted in a V and Raul’s nostrils flared as if scenting fear.

This close he was arresting. Her stomach plunged in free-fall as she stared back. Tingling sensation spread from his touch.

Luisa swallowed and his eyes followed the movement.

The intensity of his regard scared her. The beat of her blood was like thunder in her ears. She felt unprotected beneath a gaze that had lost its distance and now seemed to flare with unexpected heat.

‘What is it? What are you thinking?’ Gone was the smooth tone. His words were staccato sharp.

Luisa drew a shaky breath, disoriented by the arcing heat that snapped and shimmered in the air between them. By the hazy sense of familiarity she felt with this handsome stranger.

‘I’m thinking you should let me go.’

Immediately he stepped back, his hand dropping. ‘Forgive me. For a moment you looked faint.’

She nodded. She’d felt queasy. That explained her unsteadiness. It had nothing to do with his touch.

The electricity sparking between them was imaginary.

He thrust a hand through his immaculately combed hair as if, for an instant, he too felt that disturbing sensation. But then his dark locks fell back into perfect position and he was again cool, clear-eyed and commanding.

Swiftly Luisa turned to grab a glass. She gulped down cold water, hoping to restore a semblance of normality. She felt as if she’d been wrung inside out.

Finally she willed her scrambled thoughts into order. It didn’t help that she sensed Prince Raul’s gaze skewer her like an insect on a pin.

Setting her jaw, she turned.

He leaned against the dresser, arms folded and one ankle casually resting on the other. He looked unattainably sexy and a little scary. His brow was furrowed as if something perplexed him, but that only emphasised the strength of his features.

‘When you’ve had time to absorb the news, you’ll see going to Maritz is the sensible thing.’

‘Thank you, but I’ve already absorbed the news.’ Did he have any idea how patronising he sounded? Annoyance sizzled in her blood.

He didn’t move but his big body was no longer relaxed. His folded arms with their bunched muscles drew her eyes. Suddenly he looked predatory rather than suavely elegant.

Her skin prickled.

‘The money doesn’t tempt you?’ His mouth compressed. Obviously he thought money outweighed everything else.

Just like her grandfather and his cronies.

Luisa opened her mouth, then snapped it shut as her dazed brain cells finally revved into action.

Money!

In her shock that hadn’t even registered. She thought of the looming debts, repairs they’d postponed, Sam’s outdated milking machine and her own rattletrap car. The list was endless.

‘How much money?’ She wanted nothing of the high society position. But the cash.

The prince unfolded his arms and named a sum that made her head spin. She braced herself against the table.

‘When do I get it?’ Her voice was scratchy with shock.

Did she imagine a flash of satisfaction in those dark green eyes?

‘You’re princess whether you use the title or not. Nothing can alter that.’ He paused. ‘But there are conditions on inheriting your wealth. You must settle in Maritz and take up your royal obligations.’

Luisa’s shoulders slumped. What he suggested was impossible. She’d rejected that world for her own sanity. Accepting would be a betrayal of herself and all she held dear.

‘I can’t.’

‘Of course you can. I’ll make the arrangements.’

‘Don’t you listen?’ Luisa gripped the table so hard her bones ached. ‘I’m not going!’ Life in that cold, cruel society would kill her. ‘This is my home. My roots are here.’

He shook his head, straightening to stand tall and imposing. The room shrank and despite her anger she felt his formidable magnetism tug at her.

‘You have roots in Maritz too. What have you got here but hard work and poverty? In my country you’ll have a privileged life, mixing in the most elite circles.’

How he sounded like her snobbish grandfather.

‘I prefer the circles I mix in.’ Fire skirled in her belly at his condescension. ‘The people I love are here.’

He scowled. ‘A man?’ He took a step closer and, involuntarily, Luisa retreated a pace before the fierce light in his eyes.

‘No, my friends. And my father’s brother and his wife.’ Sam and Mary, almost a generation older than Luisa’s parents, had been like doting grandparents through her sunny childhood and the darkest days. She wouldn’t leave them, ageing and in debt, for a glamorous, empty life far away.

The sharp-eyed man before her didn’t look impressed.

Had her grandfather once looked like Prince Raul? Proud, determined, good-looking and boy, didn’t he know it!

Standing there, radiating impatience, Raul embodied everything she’d learned to despise.

Determination surged anew.

‘Thank you for coming to tell me in person.’ She drew herself up, level with his proud chin, and folded his papers with quick, precise movements. ‘But you’ll have to find someone else to inherit.’ She breathed deep. ‘I’ll see you out.’

Raul’s mouth tightened as the chopper lifted.

Thrilled! Luisa Hardwicke had been anything but. Just as well he’d told her only about her inheritance, not the more challenging aspects of her new role. She’d been so skittish it was wiser to break that news later.

He’d never met a more stubborn woman. She’d all but thrown him out!

Indignation danced in his veins and tightened his fists.

Something motivated her that he didn’t know about. He needed to discover what it was. More, he had to discover the trigger that would make her change her mind.

For an instant back there he’d been tempted simply to kidnap her. The blood of generations of warriors and robber barons as well as monarchs flowed in his veins. It would have been easy to scoop her up in his arms and sequester her till she saw reason. So satisfying.

An image of Luisa Hardwicke filled his mind. She stared defiantly up with flashing cerulean eyes.

Raul recalled her shirt lifting when she reached for a glass, revealing her lusciously curved bottom in snug jeans. The feminine shape outlined by her shirt when she moved. A shape at odds with his original impression.

Fire streaked through Raul’s belly.

Perhaps there would be compensations after all.

Luisa Hardwicke had a wholesome prettiness that appealed far more than it ought. He’d made it his business these last eight years to surround himself only with glamorous, sophisticated women who understood his needs.

He grimaced, facing a truth he rarely acknowledged. That if he’d once had a weakness it had been for the sort of forthright honesty and fresh openness she projected.

The sort he’d once believed in.

Sordid reality had cured him of any such frailty. Yet being with her was like hearing an echo of his past, remembering fragments of dreams he’d once held. Dreams now shattered beyond repair by deceit and betrayal.

And, despite his indignation, he responded to her pride, her pluck.

It was an inconvenience that complicated his plans. Yet perversely he admired the challenge she represented. What a change from the compliant, eager women he knew! In other circumstances he’d applaud her stance.

Besides, he saw now, a spineless nonentity would never have been suitable for what was to come. Or so surprisingly appealing.

Raul tugged his mind back to business. He needed a lever to ensure she saw sense. Failure wasn’t an option when his nation depended on him.

‘Lukas, you said the farming co-op is in debt?’

‘Yes sir, heavily so. I’m amazed it’s still running.’

Raul looked back at the tiny speck that was her home. A sliver of regret pierced him. He’d wanted to avoid coercion but she left him no choice.

‘Buy the debts. Immediately. I want it settled today.’

The roar of a helicopter brought Luisa’s head up.

It couldn’t be. After rejecting her inheritance yesterday there was no reason for her path and Prince Raul’s to cross again. Yet she was drawn inexorably to the window. It couldn’t be but it was. Prince Raul—here!

To Luisa’s annoyance, her heart pattered faster as she watched his long, powerful frame vault from the chopper.

Twenty-four hours had given her time to assure herself he wasn’t nearly as imposing as she remembered.

She’d been wrong.

Luisa had searched him on the web yesterday, learning his reputation for hard work and wealth. The reports also referred to discreet liaisons with gorgeous women.

Yet no photos did justice to his impact in the flesh. Her breath caught as he loped up the steps. Good thing she was immune.

‘Luisa.’ He stood before her, wide shoulders filling the open doorway, his voice smooth like dark chocolate with a hint of spice as he lingered on her name.

A tremor rippled through her as she responded to the exotic sound of her name on his tongue. It maddened her that she should react so. She pulled herself together, fiercely quelling a riot of unfamiliar emotions.

‘Your Highness.’ She gripped the door hard. ‘Why are you here? We finished our business yesterday.’ Surely he had VIPs to see, deals to forge, women to seduce.

He bent over her hand in another courtly almost-kiss that knotted her stomach. She had to remind herself not to be impressed by surface charm. Been there, done that.

Yet her gaze riveted on his austerely handsome face as he straightened. The flash of green fire in his eyes sent tendrils of heat curling through her. His fingers squeezed and her pulse accelerated.

‘Call me Raul.’

It went against the grain but to refuse would be churlish.

‘Raul.’ It was crazy but she could almost taste his name in her mouth, like a rich, full-bodied wine.

‘Aren’t you going to invite me in?’ One dark eyebrow rose lazily as if her obstinacy amused him. She bit down on a rude response. He must have good reason to return. The sooner she heard it the sooner he’d go.

‘Please, come in.’ She led the way to the lounge room, ignoring the jitter of nerves in her stomach.

Instead of making himself comfortable, he took up a position in front of the window. A commanding position, she noticed uneasily as premonition skittered across her nape.

She didn’t like the glint in his eye or his wide-legged stance, as if claiming her territory for his own. She stood facing him, refusing to be dominated.

‘You haven’t changed your mind?’

She lifted her chin a fraction. ‘Not if the cash comes with strings attached.’

Desperate as she was for money, she couldn’t agree.

She’d spent yesterday afternoon consulting her solicitor. There must be a way to access some of the money she was in line to inherit without giving up her life here. She didn’t trust Raul, a man with his own agenda, to be straight with her on that.

It was too soon to know, but the possibility she could negotiate enough funds to give the co-op the boost it needed had given her a better night’s sleep than she’d had in ages. It buoyed her now, strengthening her confidence.

‘Can I persuade you to reconsider?’ His mouth turned up in the barest hint of a smile, yet even that should have come with a health warning.

Her breath sawed in her throat and her pulse quickened.

Luisa thought of the enquiries being made on her behalf.

She’d be a fool to give in to his preposterous suggestion. ‘Absolutely not.’ The very thought of accepting made her ill.

‘That’s unfortunate.’ He paused so long her nerves stretched taut. ‘Very unfortunate.’ He looked grim.

Finally he reached into his jacket pocket. ‘In that case, these are for you.’

Bewildered, Luisa accepted the papers. ‘You want me to sign away my inheritance?’ She’d sign nothing without legal advice.

He shook his head. ‘Take your time. They’re self-explanatory.’

Confused, she skimmed the papers. Unlike yesterday’s, these weren’t rich parchment. They looked more like the loan documents that were the bane of her life.

Luisa forced herself to concentrate. Hard to do with his stare on her. When finally she began to understand, the world spun around her.

‘You’ve bought the co-op’s debts.’ Disbelieving, she shuffled the papers, eyes goggling. ‘All of them!’

And in one day. Each paper had yesterday’s date.

Was it even possible?

Bewildered, she looked up. The gravity of his expression convinced her more than the typed words.

Luisa sank abruptly onto the arm of a chair, her knees too wobbly to take her weight, her breath choppy.

What strings had he pulled to manage that in a single day? Luisa couldn’t conceive of such power. Yet, staring up at the man before her, she realised he wielded authority as easily as she managed a milking machine.

The realisation dried her mouth.

‘Why?’ Her voice was a hoarse rasp.

He paced closer, looming between her and the light from the window. ‘On the day you sign the documents accepting your inheritance, I’ll make a gift of them. You can rip them into confetti.’

Relief poured through her veins so suddenly she shook.

He was so obstinate! He still didn’t accept her rejection. No doubt he thought it embarrassing that the heir to a royal title was neck-deep in debt.

It was a generous gesture. One she’d compensate him for if she found a way to access the funds.

‘But I’m not going. I’m staying here.’

‘You won’t.’

Had anyone ever denied him what he wanted?

Impatient energy radiated off him. And that chin—she’d never seen a more determined face.

Luisa stood. She needed to assert herself and end this nonsense. It was time he accepted she knew her mind. ‘I’ve got no plans to leave.’

He held her gaze as the seconds stretched out. His expression didn’t change but a frisson of anxiety skipped up her back, like a spider dancing on her vertebrae.

‘Knowing how committed you are to the well-being of your family and friends, I’m sure you’ll change your mind.’ His voice held steel beneath the deep velvet inflection. ‘Unless you want them to lose everything.’

He spoke so matter-of-factly it took a moment to register the threat.

Luisa’s face froze and a gasp caught inside as her throat closed convulsively.

Blackmail?

She opened her mouth but no sound emerged. Paper cascaded to the floor from her trembling hands.

‘You … can’t be serious!’

Slowly he shook his head. ‘Never more so, Luisa.’

‘Don’t call me that!’ The way he said her name, with the same lilting accent her mother had used, was like a travesty of a familiar endearment.

‘Princess Luisa, then.’

She took a furious step forward, her hands clenching in frustration. ‘This has to be a joke.’ But no humour showed on his stern features. ‘You can’t foreclose! You’d destroy the livelihood of a dozen families.’ And her father’s dream. What she had worked for most of her life.

After she’d returned home to nurse her mother, Luisa had never found time to go back and finish school. Instead she’d stayed on to help her father, who’d never fully recovered from the loss of his wife.

‘The decision is yours. You can save them, if they mean as much as you claim.’

He meant it! The grim determination in his granite-set jaw was nothing to the resolution in his glittering eyes.

‘But … why?’ Luisa shook her head, trying to find sense in a world turned topsy-turvy. ‘You can find another heir, someone who’d be thrilled to live the life you’re offering.’ Someone happy to give up her soul for the riches he promised. ‘I’m not princess material!’

The gleam in his eyes suggested he agreed.

‘There is no one else, Luisa. You are the princess.’

‘You can’t dictate my future!’ Luisa planted her hands on her hips, letting defiance mask her sudden fear. ‘Why are you getting so personally involved?’

When her grandfather had made contact it had been through emissaries. He hadn’t come to her. Yet Raul as crown prince was far more important than her grandfather.

He took her hand before she could snatch it away. Heat engulfed her, radiating from his touch and searing her skin even as his intentions chilled her marrow.