His Princess on Paper by Nina Milne

Author:Nina Milne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2024-01-15T21:47:45+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

ROHAN WOKE UP, stared up at the ceiling and realised he was smiling, realised too that he was looking forward to seeing Elora. With a frown, he swung his legs out of bed and headed to the bathroom. Yes, dinner had been enjoyable, but this was ridiculous. All of this was part of a plan, an agenda.

Half an hour later, he walked down the majestic treelined avenue, the chinar trees covered in a dense foliage of verdant green, followed Elora’s instructions and soon saw her kneeling under one of the trees, spreading a blanket on the ground. A picnic spot, chosen in the hope that one or more of the gardening staff would spot them and release a picture to social media.

As she saw him approach, she opened the wicker basket next to her, pulled out a container and opened it.

‘That smells incredible,’ he said.

‘I’ve made dosas with a potato filling and to follow I’ve made a fruit salad. Hopefully, the kitchen staff will also have taken note and plenty of speculation will be swirling.’

‘Good. I think so far, so good?’

‘I hope so,’ she said as she handed him a cup of coffee. ‘But perhaps we should do a social media check.’

He nodded, pulled his phone out and started to scroll as he bit into the dosa. ‘This is delicious.’

When she didn’t respond, he turned and saw that she was intent on reading something.

‘Elora?’

The sharpness of his tone penetrated her concentration. ‘There’s an article on Celebchat.’ A massively popular site that covered hot celebrity gossip.

Quickly, he found it and started to read.

How does Princess Elora measure up? Let’s check the Dateometer!

Rohan scanned the article under the headline, wondering how the reporter had unearthed the series of photographs, all of him on a series of first dates. A grainy old photo of him aged eighteen with a girl he barely even remembered, and then his first date with Caro. His twenty-three-year-old self was staring across a table, a ridiculous look on his face of adoration, obsession, utter absorption, and he flinched as he looked at it.

Caro had been two years older than him in age, and at least five years older in experience, already a well-known actress, a near household name, a friend of his sister. Marisa had asked Caro to ‘look after him’ and so she’d contacted him, then asked him out for dinner, and then everything had spiralled. She’d reeled him in, revelled in her all too easy conquest of him, used her undeniable ability to entice and promise and pull back and it had left him a quivering mess ruled by his hormones.

He pulled himself back from this trip down memory lane and turned his attention to the next photos. There he was, opposite a woman he’d dated for about six months, just after the divorce, a Hollywood actress. The next photo showed his most recent relationship, a model he’d gone out with for three months.

His expression in those photos was clearly posed for effect, his smile assured and charming, and his dates had been equally playing to the camera.

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