“You should have asked me for advice, you know,” Priscilla Strathmore said sagely as she fed herself another forkful of organic salad. She considered Leandro Christopoulos’ tense profile thoughtfully. Her dear second cousin was normally as fun loving as she was, but she supposed one changed after witnessing a parent battle with death.

The thought had her nearly shuddering. She prayed no such drama would occur in her life. She just wasn’t cut out for stuff like that. She preferred her life to be as easy as possible and wasn’t shy at all about admitting it.

Leandro didn’t talk, but she expected that. Like the other children in the clan, Priscilla had spent her childhood summers in Greece and even in those days, Leandro had been very moody. One moment he would be friendly and then something would happen to make him aloof, almost offensively so.

Maybe, she mused idly, it was because he was adopted. His real parentage was no secret. It was pretty hard to keep something like that a secret since Elena had been well past child-bearing age when he had joined the family.

“Are you listening to me?” she asked finally when he still hadn’t said a word. In fact, he had barely said a word the whole time they were in the restaurant.

Leandro made himself look at Priscilla. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”

“I said,” Priscilla repeated patiently, “you should have come to me to ask for advice.”

This time, his lips quirked. “You know I wouldn’t do that.”

“Why not?”

He said truthfully, “Because you’re a twit – a lovable twit, mind you, but still a twit.”

She giggled.

“See?”

She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “I may be sillier than most, but I’m far from being stupid. I have Christopoulos blood running in my veins too, you know.” She wagged her finger at him. “If you really like Roberta Granger---”

Leandro frowned. “Back up a second there. Why are you talking about Bobby?”

“Because I’m going to give you valuable advice about her?”

“I thought you were going to give me advice about Greek politics.”

She was just as incredulous as he was. “Why would I when I don’t even know what position Uncle Orion is running for?”

He grimaced. “Good point.” It was just another sign that he was clearly losing it. Five days. It had been five days since he had last seen Bobby, and here he was, acting like he was a lovesick fool. Wake up, you piece of ass, he told himself furiously. He had wasted enough time thinking about what he could have had with Bobby – and didn’t. He needed to find a woman to replace her and resume his plans for getting back in the good graces of the public.

Priscilla snapped her fingers in her cousin’s face. “Leandro! Pay attention. I’m trying to tell you something important here!”

He flushed. “I’m sorry. I really just have too many things on my mind---”

“If you’re thinking about your Bobby, then you have all the more reason to listen to me. I know her, okay? We’re not like BFFs or anything, but we’re friends.”

“And?” He didn’t see where this was going. After all, Priscilla was friends with everyone. She was one of those rare women who didn’t possess a mean bone in her body, choosing to deliberately let insults intended to hurt her fly over her head instead.

“I know how you can win her.”

He rolled his eyes.

“I’m serious,” she insisted. “We were doing yoga together once---”

“Now I know you’re joking. Bobby’s not the kind to do yoga.”

“She is when she found out that yoga could help deaf kids with anger management issues.”

He considered that and said gruffly, “Go on.”

“And we got to talking about boys.”

He wasn’t so sure now that he wanted to listen to his cousin.

“And she told me shyly that the kind of guy she wanted was someone plain, someone ordinary like her who’d spend lots of time with her, make her feel pretty and sexy even if she clearly wasn’t, and…” she paused, trying to recall the rest that Bobby had to say after that. “Oh, and she wants someone smart. The kind she could talk to about books.”

He asked skeptically, “She told you all that?”

Priscilla rolled her eyes. “I’m a twit, remember? Of course she’s going to tell me everything. Twits don’t backstab.”

A moment passed before Leandro’s lips formed a reluctant smile. “That was indeed helpful.”

“You don’t really look her type, though.”

The words stung. “Well, type or not, she never fails to succumb to my kisses.”

“Oh, that’s nothing! Kisses won’t steal her heart, and that’s what you want to do, right?” She looked at him with uncommon shrewdness. “And it’s because of Uncle Orion, isn’t it?”

He nodded reluctantly.

She considered his answer and continued thoughtfully. “I do see it happening. Even though she’s terribly brazen, she’s just as old-fashioned in most other ways as girls normally are in Greece. She’ll definitely win the public and especially since she’s so active with charities. Yes, I can definitely see it. But first…two things.”

Leandro raised a brow. “What is it?”

“First. You need to wear glasses.”

“My eyes are fine.”

“Then wear non-prescription ones. The point here is to make you more human, less billionaire, and more like an accidentally hot kind of nerd.”

He choked out, “Accidentally hot?”

Priscilla took another forkful of salad, feeling like she needed to increase her intake so her brain would work more effectively.

She had cleared half of her plate already when Leandro demanded, “The second thing then? What is it?” A part of him couldn’t believe he was seriously asking Priscilla for advice. She was a lovely girl, but there was no denying she was also as smart as a board.

“Tell Bobby that you’re in love with her,” she said finally. “She told me that she’d never go to bed with someone she’s not in love with, and since I doubt you can survive being her boyfriend without having sex, well, that’s what you have to do.”

Pretend that he loved Bobby?

It felt like a terrifyingly easy thing to do, and that was what made Leandro uneasy.