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And like an idiot, I felt myself smiling back at her.
Get a hold of yourself.
“Ugh.” I coughed and reached for my water. “You don’t need to search for anything. You are free to ask me any questions. I shall be honest.”
She eyed me like she didn’t believe me.
“I swear, I shall. So long as you swear you do not speak a word of what I tell you to anyone else.”
“Deal.” She turned her body around and faced me again. Odette raised an eyebrow, and I turned and did the same thing.
“Ask away.”
“Why in the h—why does the royal family of Ersovia want me to marry into it? Are you all lacking women or something?”
“The current population is actually fifty-one point seven percent women—”
“Then, why me? An American. Let alone an African American.” She was just as blunt as her mother. “Don’t give me that look. It’s Europe.”
“Ersovia has gotten very diverse over—”
“You aren’t answering,” she interjected. “Of all the women in the world you could have—”
“You are extremely rich,” I replied, just as blunt.
“Money? That’s the reason.”
I nodded.
She had a right to the truth. Once the public found out, there was going to be no way to ignore it, anyway.
“This world is full of millionaires. But a monarchy prefers more security than that. What are the odds of finding a woman worth billions, who is currently unmarried and young enough to marry? So the truth is that I am here as a gold digger.”
“You wouldn’t be the first one,” she said, not in the least bit surprised or fazed.
“Is there a line of eligible suitors I skipped in front of?”
“Eligible suitors?” She laughed. “You speak as if you came out of a Jane Austen novel.”
“Is my English wrong?”
“No, it’s just very proper. But I guess that’s how they taught it to you so...anyway.” She shook her head, causing her curls to spin out around her. “You’re not the first of your kind, Your Royalness, though you are the first to admit it straight to my face like this, so good for you...I guess.”
“So, what does my honesty get me?” I asked, looking her over. I didn’t know why I was enjoying this, but I was.
“It definitely doesn’t get you marriage.”
“Of course not. But there was something else I wanted for it.”
“What?” she asked skeptically.
I stretched out my hand. “An introduction.” I watched her realize neither of us had actually been introduced to each other. However, for some reason, she grinned.
“Hello, I’m Cinderella.”
Cracking my jaw to the side, I nodded. She didn’t want to get that close yet. She wanted us to be strangers still. Fine, I would play along.
“Hello, Cinderella. I am your Prince Charming for the night.”
