I behave badly,” he says, slowly drawing out each word, “which I’ve been known to do, I could scare off a potential prospect. But if someone is there to give me a more respectable exit should I need one, well, then, we all win. Don’t we?” He pauses to let his words sink in before he puts the final nail in the coffin that is my fate for this evening. “You don’t want to chance me not making it to the altar. Do you, Kate?”
White-hot fury pulses through me. Does he know the king and queen will refuse my fee—no matter how tireless I work—if he does not marry? How dare he use such leverage against me? But because I cannot let Maddie carry our grandmother’s financial burden alone, I say what I need to say to shut him up before he reveals too much.
“Fine,” I relent through gritted teeth. “I’ll be right down.”
X sighs and ends the call as I spin into my apartment. My sister follows.
“You’re accompanying the prince on his date. Oh. My. God, Katie. Why didn’t I get this freaking job?”
I grab my bag from the foot of my bed and sling it over my shoulder. “Right now, Maddie, I wish you had.”
I don’t even bother looking in the mirror. I storm toward the door where X waits patiently.
“You’re not even going to change?” my sister asks from behind me, and I shake my head, answering her over my shoulder.
“You heard the man. He’s going to be late, and I sure as hell don’t want to keep the prince and the countess waiting.”
“Have fun!” she calls, unable to mask her own giddy excitement.
Not likely.
“You too!” I offer, sincerely hoping her night goes better than mine is about to.
“If you succeed then we will have clients pouring in.”
I fake a smile. “Yay!” My enthusiasm rings false, but my sister doesn’t notice. She is too good to speak the language of sarcasm.
Maddie deserves all the happiness and success. She built our little company from nothing, and when my life fell apart two years ago, she gave me a place to stay and a job to dive into so I wouldn’t waste away in my grief.
This is why, despite his behavior, I head downstairs and out to the Rolls-Royce parked at the curb. I’m doing this for her. For years I’ve depended on my sister, and now more than ever she’s depending on me. I won’t mess this up. She deserves for her business to succeed, and that means lessening the burden of paying for Gran’s mounting medical bills. Every day it seems a new one arrives. She tries to hide her worry from me, but I see the dark shadows under her eyes.
X opens the door for me, and I slide into the seat opposite Nikolai. I cross my arms and try to level him with my glare.
“You look—” he starts, but I cut him off.
“Don’t, Nikolai. Just don’t.”
He raises his brows. “I was only going to say beautiful. You look beautiful, Kate.”
Don’t, I tell myself in silence. Don’t let his words have any effect on you.
“X,” he says when the man appears behind the wheel. When did he even get there? I swear he just shut my door. “Do you know what a Fall Out Boy is?”
I snort. “Tell me you’re joking.” Then I see it again, the ghost of a smile on X’s face. We’re silently sharing a joke at Nikolai’s expense.
Nikolai shrugs. “I’m assuming it is some sort of popular rock band. The music I listen to does not come with a T-shirt.”
I laugh again and thrust my phone through the open partition to X.
“It’s my top playlist,” I say. “Can you put it on?”
The man nods, and seconds later my phone is hooked up to the car’s speaker system.
The tightness in my throat loosens as “Immortals” wafts from the speakers, and I’m shocked once again when Nikolai’s shoulders relax, and he cocks his head to the side and smiles.
“It’s no Amadeus,” he says, “but I quite like it. I suppose I’m learning I like a lot of new things these days, Miss Winter.”
A chill runs along my spine, but I will it away.
Do not for one second think that he is charming. You know full well that Prince Charming he is not.
But as the anger subsides I see him clearly, his jet-black hair slicked back from his face, charcoal gray suit to match his eyes, and a royal blue tie for a pop of color. He looks so—princely. And gorgeous. And when his smile reaches his eyes, I have to push away the surge of emotion that rises to the surface because I’ve suddenly lost my grip on the anger.
I shake my head and remind myself why I’m here—to make sure this date goes smoothly. To ensure that Prince Nikolai Lorentz is one step closer to marriage—and becoming my king.
“Thank you for coming,” he says softly, and I force a smile.
“Of course,” I say, regaining my composure. “Nikolai?”
“Kate?”
“Have you read the entire contract between Happy Endings and your family?”
He laughs. “What’s to read? You were hired to find me a wife. You’re finding me a wife. I’m not interested in the fine print.”
I let out a breath. So he doesn’t know the consequences for me—for my family—if I fail. My anger ebbs completely as I realize Nikolai’s behavior this evening is simply him being Nikolai.
“Well, then,” I say. “Tell me what I need to do to make this date a success.”
At this, X pulls away from the curb, and we set off for Nikolai to meet his first potential match.
Nikolai
I MUST GIVE credit to Kate’s skillful matchmaker profiling. The Countess of Wynberry fits my usual physical type to a T. Platinum blond hair, come-hither bedroom eyes and ripe breasts that she proudly displays in a low-cut black silk dress offset by a necklace of glittering rubies. Hell, I don’t know a guy who wouldn’t describe the countess as his type. She could be a sister to that American actress Scarlett Johansson.
We meet in my private room at La Coeur, a three-star Michelin restaurant set in an eighteenth-century manor. The view of the Alps through the wide windows is unparalleled, and the gorgeous woman lounging across the table looks like she’d rather take a bite out of me than the raspberry-and-chocolate confection on her gilded plate. Yet I feel nothing but faint boredom.
Dinner went well enough. The filet was perfectly cooked and the cabernet an excellent vintage. She chattered on and on about her family’s approval of our union and then of all the filthy things she planned on doing to me once
