The Princess and the Rebel Billionaire by Sophie Pembroke

Author:Sophie Pembroke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-04-11T20:48:13+00:00

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Isabella lost track of how long they’d been driving, focused instead on Matteo’s hand on her thigh, and the secret smile on his face under his sunglasses. Was this how normal women felt? Out for a drive with their...no, she wasn’t sure there was a word for what she and Matteo were. Lovers, she supposed, was closest. But somehow it didn’t feel right. It wasn’t...enough, somehow. Which was ridiculous, given that she’d known him all of four and a half days and they’d spent most of that time in bed.

She focused on his driving instead. She’d never taken lessons, or a test, or even sat behind the wheel of a car. She was always in the back, being driven places, never driving there. Never choosing her destination or even her direction herself.

She wasn’t now, either, she reminded herself. She had no idea where they were even going. She just hoped that Matteo did.

‘There it is,’ he said eventually, and Isabella forced herself to pay attention to her surroundings again, rather than just her thoughts. Here she was, in this most beautiful of locations, and she was—

‘Wow!’ She interrupted her own thoughts as she finally took in where they were headed.

There, jutting out over the water of Lake Geneva, was a castle—a proper, fairy-tale castle.

‘I thought it might be rather old hat to you, living in a palace like you do,’ Matteo said, with a grin.

She smiled back. ‘Not one like this, though.’

The palace at Augusta was very grand, filled with tapestries and red brocade and family portraits and all the other things royals seemed to need to prove their place in the world. But the truth was the original palace had burnt almost to the ground in the late nineteenth century, and the rebuilt version, while beautiful, didn’t have the history of a place like this. Or the magic.

‘What’s it called?’ she asked, still wondering at the sight.

‘Château de Chillon,’ Matteo replied. ‘Chillon Castle.’

Fat round turrets climbed towards the bright blue sky, joined by boxier square ones, many of them topped by flags that fluttered in the light summer breeze. She could imagine Rapunzel sitting at the top of one of them, her hair hanging out of the window just waiting for a prince to scamper up it and set her free.

‘Do you want to go inside?’ Matteo asked.

‘Can we?’ She felt her eyes widen. Only strictly arranged visits were allowed at the castle in Augusta, and Isabella had spent the last few years carefully avoiding any of them.

Matteo just smiled.

It turned out that tourists were welcome at the Château de Chillon, and nobody seemed to notice that one of the tourists was actually a visiting member of another royal family. Isabella kept her sunglasses on to hide her face, but, honestly, she didn’t think anyone was looking at her anyway. The castle was full of enough treasures to draw attention away. From the open courtyards to the friezes painted on the walls—not to mention the views out over the lake and the mountains, or towards the vineyards.

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