Chapter 1

Alexander

One of the best things about Winthorpe Palace, aside from the tens of thousands of square feet of luxurious accommodation, was the ease at which a recalcitrant prince could sneak in after an evening of frivolity.

Of course, I wasn’t really sneaking in. Our security was tight and would never allow someone to stumble past their defenses, but they were also discreet and never said a word to anyone—my family or otherwise—when I rolled up in the dark hours of the morning with bloodshot eyes and messy hair.

One of them let me past his station now, nodding to me as I made my way up the long gravel path to the side of the palace. It was my favorite entrance, mostly because it led past the downstairs staff kitchen where I could relieve my parched throat before heading up to my room on the third floor.

Honeysuckle perfumed the evening air, reminding me of the impending summer and all that would mean for my family. Garden parties, croquet, and fancy hats were on the horizon. Joy.

At the door, I swiped my security pass and entered, checking that the hallway was clear before I let the door whisper shut behind me. Not everyone in the palace was as discreet as our security. If word got around that Prince Alexander was seen sneaking in, bedraggled, at nearly six in the morning, my father would be furious. So too would Edward, since he was determined to prove himself a carbon copy of our father. They knew I went partying, and they knew that if my royal apartment was empty, it likely meant I was up to no good somewhere, but as long as I kept a low profile and didn’t flaunt my hedonism, they often looked the other way.

The sconces cast warm light down the desolate hall, which extended far in both directions. I swung left toward the kitchen. My mouth was dry and I wished I’d remembered to grab a bottle of water before leaving the party. I’d been too busy grabbing something else, a pretty little redhead with more family money than sense.

The kitchen light was on as I approached, and I ran a hand through my hair to calm it and tried to look like I was coming out of bed. I heard soft voices as I approached. Someone was watching a video. I considered heading straight up to my apartment but my thirst nagged at me. I decided to risk it.

Confidence was the name of the game as I strolled into the kitchen. The white-haired figure hunched over the kitchen island glanced up slowly upon my arrival, narrowing her pale blue eyes.

“Where are you crawling in from?” Nana asked in a gravelly voice.

She tapped at the screen of her tablet several times before the video paused.

“Where am I coming from?” I grabbed a glass and furrowed my brow with feigned confusion. “I should ask the same thing. Sneaking around the kitchen at all hours...”

She grunted and picked up the mug of tea next to her tablet, watching as I filled the glass with water.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said. “I came down to make myself a cup of tea and watch some television.”

I gestured to the laptop, bringing the glass to my lips. “What are you watching?”

Ah, sweet refreshment. There is nothing in this life that can satisfy more than a glass of water when one is parched. Well, besides sex, I suppose. If I had to choose between the two, I’d have a hard time.

“Princess of Nowhere. It’s my new favorite show.”

I finished the glass and wiped my mouth on the back of my hand. “Never heard of it.”

“No, too busy partying like a seventies rock star.” Nana laid the full force of her judging eyes on me. If I hadn’t grown immune to it a long time ago, I would be quaking in my Oxfords.

I sidled up to the counter, leaning my hip against it and cocking a brow. “And what would you know about that, Nana? What sordid tales have you been keeping from us all these years?”

She exhaled through her teeth. “Your silver tongue will only get you so far in life.”

I chuckled. “I expect stunning good looks, wealth and status will do me the rest of the way.”

I winked.

Nana frowned. “That might work on other people, but it has never worked on me.”

I pushed off from the counter and moved over to the sink to refill my glass. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Pretending you don’t care. Pretending it’s all nothing but a game to you. Using your ego and what everyone else thinks of you as a shield.”

I turned from the sink with a fresh glass of water and gave her an incredulous look. “Shit, Nana, this is starting to sound more like an intervention than a scolding. I was only having a laugh.”

The older woman’s wrinkles seemed to deepen and she let out a gusty breath, like wind blowing through the trees.

“I’ve been worrying about you lately,” she admitted. “Ever since Ed and Clarissa’s wedding you’ve been all over the map. The late nights, the partying, the women...”

I set my glass down and walked beside her. I rested my arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss into the top of her head.

“Nana, relax. I’m just having fun,” I murmured. “Surely you can remember what fun is like. Think hard. I know it’s difficult because of all those wonderful drugs from the seventies.”

She grunted and shoved me back a few inches. “You know what I think it is?”

“I have a feeling you’re about to tell me.”

Nana held my gaze with intensity. “Your brother is married and now it’s your turn. It’s one of the only things the media and your family can agree on.”

My jaw tightened but I forced a congenial smile. “That’s too bad,” I said. “There’s only room for one woman in my life, even if she is terribly nosy.”

“Hmmph.”

Even Nana couldn’t find the will to argue on that one.

“Get to bed,” she muttered a second later. “Hank will be missing you.”

I tapped the side of my glass against her mug in salute and strolled out of the kitchen. My bed was calling to me, that was for damn sure. I knew the moment I hit it I would fall asleep.

My apartment in the palace was modest compared to the suites the rest of my family occupied. It was composed of a sitting room, a bathroom, and a large bedroom overlooking the back garden. I could have taken over my brother’s apartment after he and Clarissa moved into the cottage, but decided against it. I’d grown up in these rooms and I was hesitant to leave them.

The door opened soundlessly, but Hank was waiting for me. My boisterous mutt nearly knocked me over before I even got inside the room, and I struggled to push him back in the darkness.

“Hey, relax.” I flicked on the light and then closed the door with my foot, sinking into a low crouch to pet him. Hank licked my face. He wedged his wiggling body between my arms, spilling some of my water onto the floor. I laughed.

“You’re ridiculous,” I told him between licks.

Hank was somewhere between a German Shepherd and a lab, with a big body, floppy ears, and a long, snuffling snout. He shed enough black and tan fur to make a rug, and I often wore a layer of dog hair over my designer suits because of it. Not that I minded. My brother was in near constant dismay about something or other in my life, so it was easy to avoid his criticisms about that as well.

With a final pat on the head, I rose from my haunches and made for the bed, resting the glass on the polished mahogany dresser next to it. Hank hopped on the bed and waited for me to undress. We both knew he wasn’t supposed to be on the bed but we also knew that I was too tired to protest. I turned off the light, then staggered through the darkness. I lay down and Hank settled in against my side.

I was out within moments.

* * *

Something wet and warm touched my face and I pulled the covers up to protect myself, sleepily acknowledging that it was too quiet to be time to get up. A whine, and then a canine foot jabbing into my ribs.

“Fuck,” I wheezed. “Okay, okay.”

I cracked open an eye and pulled the blankets down. Hank blew moist, hot air into my face. I wrinkled my nose. Dog breath was the last thing I needed first thing in the morning when my head felt like it did.

I staggered to my feet and Hank shot for the door, wagging his tail expectantly. After pulling on a robe, I opened the door and he shot down the hallway, making it down the stairs and to the side door well before me.

My head pounded. I needed a dose of back to bed, stat. How long had I slept for?

I opened the door and Hank bounded out, alarming one of the gardeners hunched over by a cluster of rhododendrons under the window. If the gardeners were here it couldn’t be much earlier than eight-thirty, but no later than twelve. Good enough for me.

Hank did his business and happily strutted back into the palace, swinging his tail all the way up to bed. I put out some food for him but he was already busy getting fur all over my sheets.

I closed my eyes and drifted off, though my aching skull and the wobbly sickness in the pit of my stomach didn’t aid the process.

I awoke sometime later to the trilling of my phone. I felt a little better by then, though the loud ringing was unappreciated by both me and Hank, whose ears pricked up.

The name Theodore Walter Cartwright lit up my screen and I tapped the answer button with a lazy smile.

“Just can’t get enough of me, can you?” I asked.

“Can’t get enough of you? I feel like I barely got to see you last night,” Teddy replied. “You were too busy snuggling up with that heiress...Carlotta? Caroline? What was her name?”

“Corina,” I corrected.

“Is she with you there now?”

I let my head fall sideways on the pillow and Hank licked my nose. I chuckled. “Definitely not.”

Even if Hank didn’t occasionally reserve room in my bed, I would never bring a girl back there. Even I had my limits, and the last thing I needed was some chatty socialite gushing about her tawdry affair in the palace with the prince.

“Probably for the best,” he said. “I expect after this morning’s Vanity Rag there will be a score of reporters waiting outside the gates. I could only imagine what a shot of that walk of shame could go for.”

I groaned. “Vanity Rag got pictures? Of what?”

“Just of Corina with one of those delightfully long legs crossed over yours.”

“Great,” I muttered. “Edward’s going to love that.”

“Who cares what the royal bore has to say?” Teddy chuckled. “You look devilishly handsome in the photo. I’m tempted to hang it.”

“If you’re too broke to afford proper wall hangings it might be time to ring daddy.”

“Darling, hell could never get that chilly,” he replied. “Now, let’s talk about what we’re doing this evening.”

I closed my eyes and sank further into the pillow, petting Hank absently. “We’re not doing anything this evening. If I’m seen going out twice in a row the papers will have a field day and so will my brother. Best to let it cool off for a few days.”

Teddy was undeterred. “Not a problem. As always, it’s your genius best friend to the rescue.” He laughed. “Tonight’s entertainment is a masquerade ball. Nobody will even know you’re there.”

“Teddy, maybe you are a genius.”

“Well I’m certainly not just a pretty face.”