wore the same perfect evening attire she’d glimpsed earlier. And he sat between a stunning blonde and a gorgeous redhead several tables away, staring right at her.
Chapter Two
Noah was watching Alice when she spotted him. Her mouth dropped open. Her face went dead white.
About then it occurred to him that maybe he’d carried his innocent deception a little too far.
She pressed her lips together and looked away, turning to her younger sister on her right side, forcing a smile. He waited for her to glance his way again.
Didn’t happen.
Jennifer, the redhead seated on his left, put her hand on his thigh and asked him how he was enjoying his visit to Montedoro. He gently eased her hand away and said he was having a great time.
She hit him with a melting, eager look and said, “I’m so pleased to have met you, Noah, and I hope we can spend some time together during your stay. I would just love to show you the real Montedoro.”
Andrea, the blonde on his other side, cut in, saving him the necessity of giving Jennifer an answer. “I love all of Prince Dami’s friends,” Andrea said. “Dami and I were once, well, very close. But then he met Vesuvia.” A model and sometime actress, Vesuvia was often called simply V. “Dami is exclusive with V now,” Andrea added. None of what she’d said was news to Noah. Or to anyone else, for that matter. “They’re all over the tabloids, Dami and V,” Andrea whispered breathlessly. She was mistress of the obvious in a big, big way.
“Or at least, the prince is mostly exclusive with V,” Jennifer put in with a wicked little giggle. She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “I mean, they are always fighting and I notice that V’s not here tonight....”
The meal wore on. Jennifer and Andrea kept up a steady stream of teasing chatter. Noah sipped champagne and hoped that Alice might grant him a second look.
If she did, he failed to catch it.
Had he blown it with her, misjudged her completely? It was starting to look that way.
But no. It couldn’t be.
She’d assumed he was an itinerant stable hand and all he’d done was play along. He’d thought she would find the whole thing funny.
It hadn’t even occurred to him that she might be upset about it. How could he have gotten it so wrong? He’d done his research on her after all. She was bold and curious and ready for anything, the darling of the scandal sheets. He’d never imagined she would freak out when she finally saw him as he really was.
So what did he do now?
He wouldn’t give up, that was for damn sure. Not now that he’d met her, talked to her, seen her smile, looked in those eyes of hers that could be blue or gray or green, depending on the light and her shifting mood. Not now that he’d discovered she was exactly the woman he’d been looking for—and more.
Somehow he would have to make amends.
The meal finally ended. Princess Adrienne rose and congratulated the newlyweds again. She wished them a lifetime of married bliss. Then she invited the guests to enjoy the moonlit garden and to dance the night away in the palace ballroom upstairs.
Jennifer whispered an invitation in his ear. He turned to express his regrets.
When he glanced toward the dais again, Alice was gone.
* * *
Alice slipped out of the tent through the servants’ entrance behind the dais.
She’d recovered from her initial shock at the sight of Noah sitting between those two beautiful women, looking as though he belonged there. At least by the end of dinner, she’d become reasonably certain she wasn’t hallucinating. He was not a bizarre figment of her overactive imagination. The man who looked exactly like Noah the stable hand really did exist.
That meant she wasn’t losing her mind after all—a fact she found wonderfully reassuring.
But was he actually the same man she’d first met sweeping the stable floor before dawn on Wednesday morning? Was this some kind of bizarre practical joke he was playing on her? And if so, did that make him a palace groom posing as a guest at the palace? Or a jet-setter friend of her brother’s who enjoyed masquerading as the help?
She considered tracking down Dami and quizzing him about that friend of his who looked exactly like the poverty-stricken groom she’d met Wednesday.
But no. Not tonight. Damien might be able to enlighten her, but then he would have questions of his own. She just wasn’t up for answering Dami’s questions. And it didn’t matter anyway. She knew what to do: forget it. Forget him.
It was all too weird. It made no sense and she wasn’t going to think about it.
She would enjoy the rest of the evening and move on.
A familiar voice behind her said, “Allie, I haven’t seen you in ages.”
She turned to smile at a longtime friend. “Robert. How have you been?”
“I can’t complain.” Robert Bentafaille was compact and muscular, with an open face and kind green eyes. The Bentafailles owned orange groves. Lots of them. He and Alice were the same age and had gone through primary and secondary school together. “You look beautiful, as always.”
“And you always say that.”
“I hear the orchestra.” He cast a glance back at the palace, at the lights blazing in the upstairs ballroom. Music drifted down to them. He offered his hand.
She took it and they turned together to go inside.
* * *
Alice danced two dances with Robert.
Then another longtime friend, Clark deRoncleff, tapped Robert on the shoulder. She turned into Clark’s open arms and danced some more.
After that she left the floor, accepted a glass of sparkling water from a passing servant and visited with Rhia and Marcus for a bit. Rhia was sharing her plans for the nursery when Alice spotted Dami across the dance floor. He was talking to the man who almost certainly was Noah. She stared for a moment too long.
The man who had to be Noah seemed to sense her gaze on him. He turned. Their eyes met. His were every bit as blue as she remembered.
She had no doubt now. It had to be him. Quickly, she turned away and gave her full attention to Rhia and her groom.
Noah didn’t matter to her. She hardly knew him. She refused to care what he was doing there at her sister’s wedding party or what he might be up to.
Marcus asked Rhia to dance. They went off together, holding hands, looking so happy it made Alice feel downright misty-eyed and more than a little bit envious.
Her eldest brother, Maximilian, came toward her. The heir to their mother’s throne, Max was handsome and magnetic—like all of her brothers. He used to be a happy man. But three years ago his wife, Sophia,
