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And if he kept his distance the next three days, it was only becausehehad no experience turning a woman into a princess. He hired people who could do that. Who would polish her up to a pretty shine.
He had his staff pass along anything he thought she needed to know about Kalyva, hired an etiquette tutor for her so she might feel comfortable attending the ritzy charity gala. And he did not see her for three days.
The night of the gala, he readied himself in his rooms, ensuring with his man of affairs that all the details for their travel tomorrow was settled.
Tomorrow, he would be in Kalyva. Tomorrow, he would tell King Diamandis that the princess was alive.
And engaged to him.
Just the very thought of it all made Lysias smile as he straightened his tie. Tomorrow would be the beginning of all his revenge.
But first he needed to get through tonight. He strode through his house and down to the entryway. “Is she ready?” he asked the housekeeper.
“They are bringing her down.”
“Excellent.” Lysias didn’t often have to wait on others, but he enjoyed the drama of an entrance. Why shouldn’t she? His pretend bride. The perfect little tool of revenge.
It wasn’t too much longer before he heard murmurs from the top of the grand marble staircase. She appeared, sandwiched by two members of his staff who seemed to be offering her last-minute advice as they moved forward.
She walked down the staircase at a careful glide. She was watching her feet, which gave the whole production a kind of authenticity. That of born princess raised farm girl plucked out of obscurity by a smitten billionaire.
In this moment, he didn’t care for the idea he would need to pretend to besmitten, because the gown she wore outlined the body beneath all the baggy layers he’d seen her in. Her shoulders were bare, though the dress somehow came up high enough to cover her stitches so that no one would suspect she was the kind of woman who’d nearly been stabbed to death in a dangerous alley in Athens a few days prior.
The deep purple fabric of the gown swept around the slight curves of her body, the color of the dress making her skin warm, like she glowed from within. They’d trimmed and cleaned up her hair so that it curled gently under her chin and showed off the graceful, enticing curve of her neck.
Her face was made-up, though there was still something natural about it. Except the deep color of her painted lips.
Heat fisted into him, a blow he had not expected under any circumstances. As she reached the end of the staircase, her dark eyes lifted to meet his, and he found himself utterly speechless.
Lysias often accepted mistakes and failures as learning opportunities. A man did not get to his position without accepting that life would humble you, if you let it.
But he did not know what to do withthismistake. Because Al had already drawn too many reactions out of him, but this one was worst of all.
For blinding seconds, he did not think of Kalyva, King Diamandis or everything he’d spent the last twenty years planning.
He only thought of what he might find if he peeled that dress away from her.
CHAPTER FIVE
ALSTOODATthe foot of the stairs. She stared at Lysias because he was looking at her with...hunger in his eyes.
She tried to tell herself she was imagining things. After all, she’d never been the object of anyone’s desire. But she had also seen enough on the streets to recognize desire if she saw it.
And it was there in that golden gleam. Creating a matching claw of need within herself. She had wondered about sex before, but she had also known it was not in the cards for someone trying to disguise their gender.
Which she wasn’t doing any longer. That thought spiraled through her like a strange, new, foreign kind of freedom. She could be a woman now—in whatever ways she wanted to be.
Then Lysias blinked, and everything in his eyes was gone. He moved forward, holding out his arm. She knew from her many meetings with the etiquette teacher that she was meant to lightly place her fingers on the crook of his arm.
She felt even more unsteady than she had trying to walk down the stairs in heels, though she had practiced that as much as she could. But something had shifted within her. A realization. An understanding.
Her life was different now. Not just because a payday that would change her life was within her reach, but also because she had this new identity. Alexandra. Woman. Fiancée. Princess.
She sucked in a breath and put her hand on his arm. Stepped forward in time with him as the possibilities swirled in her mind.
“You look perfect, Alexandra,” he said, and though his eyes were cool and assessing now, there was a grit to his voice she had not heard from him before.
It was such a strange thing to find herself wanting to preen at the compliment. When she’d spent her entire life trying to keep her looksunderthe radar, so no one discovered her true sex. So no one paid too much attention to her while she spied.
