Cinderella's Prince Under the Mistletoe by Cara Colter

Author:Cara Colter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-07-08T19:10:01+00:00

* * *

Luca could have kicked himself for that anything. Of course this woman would require more of him than some bauble that cost the earth financially, but cost nothing emotionally.

He looked at the gift she had given him—that painstakingly crafted snow family—and felt some resistance in him melt away, just like that real snow family outside was melting away.

“I was supposed to be married,” he confessed. “Two days ago.”

Her mouth fell open. “You ran away?”

He snorted. “No, she did.”

How flattering was it that the look on Imogen’s face seemed to say, Impossible, no one would run away from you?

But then Imogen had coaxed a different side from him, a side that Meribel had never seen, that no one had ever seen. Maybe he hadn’t even been aware he had it himself.

“The whole kingdom was preparing for a huge celebration. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Buschetta ornament this year will commemorate a royal wedding.”

“But what happened to your wedding?”

“I wish I knew. My fiancée, Princess Meribel of Aguilarez, came to me the night before the wedding. She told me she loved another and carried his baby. She confessed she had actually considered marrying me, anyway, passing the baby off as mine.”

“But that’s awful!”

“And yet she’s not an awful person,” Luca said. “Like me, she has been raised with the idea that duty came first. She is a princess from the neighboring kingdom. Our fathers signed marriage contracts for us when we were very young. It was to cement a relationship that has not been without its frictions. It was to secure the future of both kingdoms, to strengthen the alliances between them and to give the people peace of mind.”

“That is no reason to get married!” Imogen sputtered.

“In my world it is. And in the one Meribel was raised in, it is. But in the end, her heart was stronger than her sense of duty.”

“Thank goodness,” Imogen muttered.

“Perhaps,” he said wearily.

“And so you came here just to escape?”

“I announced the wedding had been called off because of irreconcilable differences, and then decided to take my brother’s place on this mission.”

“You protected her,” Imogen breathed. “At great cost to yourself.”

“A prince among men,” he said with dry sarcasm.

“You are,” she said stubbornly. “She must mean a great deal to you for you to take the brunt of the disappointment of two nations for something that was no fault of your own.”

But wasn’t it, at least in part, his fault? For not reading anything correctly? For not paying attention? For not noticing that Meribel was deeply dissatisfied with their engagement? Or maybe for not caring?

But for some reason, instead of admitting all that, he wanted to bask in Imogen’s admiration.

For just a little while longer. His intuition had been humming since the sun came out. It was nearly over.

If he was honest about it, he felt more unsettled, more despairing, about his time with Imogen ending than he had about the end of his engagement with Meribel.

There, his concerns were largely pragmatic.

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