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“Blair, it’s water.” Lexie clamped a restraining hand on her forearm.
“Water?” Blair echoed blankly. Then comprehension kicked in. “Okay. I get it. One of those royal rules again where you can’t drink in public because you might get drunk and embarrass the whole House of Ligueria by admitting you secretly had a crush on Prince Charles all along.”
Lexie rolled her eyes discreetly but didn’t correct her cousin. “Something like that.”
Blair hailed a circulating waiter and gave him the offensive champagne glass. “I’ve got your back. Where we are going, no one will recognize you.”
Lexie swallowed to ease the sudden lump in her throat. “Somehow that’s not very reassuring.”
“Live a little, Princess. Let your hair down.” Blair was practically bouncing with excitement. She was rarely still and had the attention span of a three year old. “Let your inner slut out!” she cried with all the fervor of a sports ad slogan.
A giggle escaped from Lexie despite her nervousness. If anything, she was glad to have gone on this trip to reconnect with her mother’s side of the family. The Gallaghers were bold, brassy, and unrepentant. Her grandmother used to despair whenever she spent the summers in Los Angeles with her mother, afraid she was going to get “infected” by the Gallaghers’ heathen ways.
“Time’s a-wastin’, Your Highness,” Blair said, all cheek, but she craned her neck to survey the guests cagily. “We better get to it before the clock strikes twelve.”
She started pulling Lexie across the grand hotel ballroom where a charity gala for one of her billionaire father’s causes was currently in full swing.“Don’t look now,” Blair warned in a low voice, “but the Proud Prince is at your ten o’clock.”
At the mention of her older brother’s nickname from the gutter press, Lexie’s elegantly coiffed head automatically swung to where His Royal Highness Prince Stefan of Seirenada was busy holding court in the middle of the vast, opulent ballroom. He was surrounded by a coterie of dignitaries and distinguished-looking men. Her guilt at what she was about to embark on must have been emitting from her like tsunami waves because Stefan paused in midsentence and honed in on her exact location by the side door exit. She froze like a deer trapped in the headlights until Blair’s vicious tug on her hand snapped her out of her catatonia.
“Sheesh!” Blair cried in frustration, witnessing the interaction between the two royals. “I told you not to look!”
“Sorry,” Lexie muttered apologetically. It was tantamount to asking her not to think about pink elephants, knowing she would be imagining them the second she had been told not to.
“He thinks I’m a bad enough influence as it is,” Blair griped. “I swear he would have asked me to change out of this dress if dad didn’t happen to be my date for tonight. Seriously, Stefan has got to remove that big scepter up his ass. He would be totally hot if he just loosened up a bit.” Blair ignored a society matron who was determinedly making her way towards them and aimed for the double doors, eager to escape from the ballroom. “His Highness seriously needs to get laid.”
Lexie winced. He’s not the only one. “He’s just got a lot of things on his mind right now.”
For a second, Lexie felt guilty. Stefan’s state visit to the U.S. was already plagued by ongoing demonstrations at the Seirenadan embassy. A handful of immigrants who wanted the monarchy abolished had been picketing since Day 1 of their arrival, bolstered by rumblings from some disgruntled citizens of the principality.
“Lexie, are you having second thoughts?” Blair’s smirk told her she knew Lexie would be backing out all along.
She was a last minute addition to Stefan’s entourage. Guessing his reason behind it, Lexie ruthlessly squashed the self-reproach. It was just one night. Just a few precious snatched hours before she faced the inevitable and went on with her duty.
“God, no,” Lexie said with such feeling her abdominal muscles contracted with force, possibly killing all the butterflies creating havoc in her stomach. “Lead the way.”
