The Prince's Devious Proposal - Holly Rayner Page 0,11

a smiling hostess showed them to their table and set two menus in front of them.

“Order anything,” Petr said.

Naomi nodded, having already decided on the seafood salad. “Tell me about your family,” she suggested. “Where are you from?”

He grinned at her across the table. “I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you.”

What on earth did that mean? “Of course I’ll believe you,” she said. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“I’m not saying you don’t trust me or anything,” he said. “It’s just a little bit hard to believe.”

“Harder to believe than the fact that I used to have a singing career?”

“Definitely harder than that.”

“Try me,” she suggested.

“All right,” he said. “Do an internet search for my name.”

“What do you mean? Are you somebody famous?” She felt foolish, suddenly. Should she have known who he was all along?

“Just search it,” he said.

“How do you spell your last name?”

He spelled it for her, and she typed it into her phone. “If this is your way of telling me you’re a wanted criminal or something, I should warn you that I can scream very loudly.”

“I’m not a criminal,” he said. “I like how creative you’re being, though. I can see why you’re an artist by trade.”

The search results returned, and Naomi clicked the first link.

“Prince Petr Agridis spotted on palace lawn.”

“Prince?” she asked, looking up at him. She felt as if her mind was struggling to catch up with the words on the screen.

“Technically,” he said.

“What does that mean? Technically?”

“Oh, it’s complicated,” he said.

She showed him the picture. “Is this your palace?”

“That’s the royal palace of Sovra,” he said. “I don’t live there now.”

“I guess you must not be an active prince if you’re living in Los Angeles.”

“I don’t have royal duties,” he agreed.

“But you’re really royalty? You’re not making this up to mess with me or something?”

“No, it’s true,” he said. “Of course, Sovra’s a pretty small country. It’s not that powerful a position.”

“It’s still royalty.” She marveled. “I had no idea. I was trying to place your accent.”

“Sovran,” he said. “Like me.”

Naomi’s eyes went wide. “A prince sang my song!” She shook her head. “I can’t believe it! I thought you were just some fan!”

Petr grinned. “I am a fan!” he protested. “This doesn’t change anything. And, you know, you’re still a lot more impressive than I am. I didn’t do anything to become a prince. I was just born to the right parents. But you—”

“My parents produced my album,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, but it’s still full of amazing music,” he said. “Your parents didn’t write ‘Starlight Boy’ or ‘Perihelion,’ did they?”

“No,” she admitted. “I did that on my own.”

“Exactly,” he said with a tone of satisfaction.

“What was it like?” she asked, feeling awed.

“What was what like?”

“Living in a palace,” she said. “Growing up as a member of the royal family. It must have been amazing. I can’t even imagine.”

“It probably wasn’t as exciting as whatever you’re picturing,” he said.

“Did you get to interact with other royals much?”

“Occasionally,” he said. “I met the Prince of Sweden once. He was my age—we were about thirteen at the time—and we had a pretty good day together. Our parents were conducting official business, so we just talked. I gave him a tour of the palace.”

“Wow,” Naomi said. No wonder Petr moved so confidently and interacted with people so well. When they were together, he made her feel special—like a princess, even. And he focused on her as if she were the only one in the room.

“But if your parents were socialites, you must have met interesting people too,” he said.

“Well…” She laughed. “One time my parents invited Jefferson Haring and his family over for a dinner party.”

“Jefferson Haring the actor?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s he really like?”

“Shorter than he looks in the movies. But he had a daughter my age, Olivia. She was annoying.” Naomi chuckled at the memory. “My sister and I tried to get her to sit out by the pool with us and gossip while the adults had their after-dinner brandy, but she thought she was too cool for us. She kept asking us if we had met other famous people’s children, naming them, and when we said we hadn’t, she’d scoff like we weren’t even worth talking to.”

“Wow,” Petr said. “I’ve known people like that. There was an upstart duke once who thought he outranked me because his country was larger than Sovra. I’ll never forget his mother introducing us and whispering to him that he ought to bow to me, and him snapping back