Royal Ruse - Emma Lea Page 0,33

all I could do to keep my mouth shut. I couldn’t argue with her if I kept my mouth full with wine, which, by the way, was the only thing I was allowed to drink. Apparently ladies don’t drink hard spirits. Do you know how much wine you have to drink to get this drunk? Do you know how ill I will be in the morning? Do you know how badly I need to go to the restroom? There’s an awful lot of liquid sloshing around inside me and I’m afraid my bladder was just not designed to cope with this volume. It’s touching cotton, Lucas! Or at least satin since your mother dressed me in fancy lingerie and confiscated my comfy cotton underwear. I am literally about to pee my pants.”

I pulled the car into the first available space I could find and turned to her. “I’m sorry,” I said, reaching out to take her hand. “If you want to call everything off, then we can. I understand, I do. I know how my mother can be, I live with her. You don’t have to do this, Frankie.”

Frankie groaned and squeezed her eyes shut. “No, it’s okay. I’m okay. It will be fine.”

“This is not fine, Frankie. My mother driving you to drink is not okay.”

She blinked open her eyes and focused on me. The corner of her mouth tipped up in a gentle smile and her eyes softened as she looked at me. She wove our fingers together and squeezed my hand.

“I’m okay, Lucas. Truly, I am. It was a bit of a culture shock is all. I can do this. I want to do this for you.”

I looked at her for a beat before I sighed and nodded. “You just have to say the word and we’ll call it off, okay?”

“Okay,” she agreed readily. “Now let me out of this car before I have an accident and then feed me. I’m starving.”

Chapter 9

Francesca

“Wow.”

I turned from the mirror to look at mom. She leaned against the doorway of my room, a smile on her face as she looked me over. I smoothed my hands down my dress and bit my lip.

“Do I look all right?”

“Oh, honey, you look beautiful,” she said, coming into the room and taking my hands.

I shot another look at the mirror. I loved the dress, even if Maya picked it out. The off-the-shoulder sheath clung to my body in a blaze of red. It wasn’t something I would normally wear, but I couldn’t deny I loved the way the dress made me feel. There was a deep v in the neckline, exposing just a hint of cleavage, and an off-center slit in the skirt from the knee-length hem to mid-thigh. I wore nude stilettos that I’d had to practice walking in all week, and long drop earrings that sparkled in the light. My hair was tamed into elegant curls and my makeup was professionally applied, complete with smoky eye and red lipstick.

“You look pretty good too,” I said with a nod to the blush-colored cocktail dress Mom wore.

“It’s amazing what a day in the spa can do for a girl,” she said with a wink.

Maya had insisted we—Mom, me, Maya, and Effie—spend the day at the spa to get ready for tonight. I didn’t know why we were going to so much trouble for an intimate cocktail party, but whatever. Spa treatments and fancy dresses would be my life for the foreseeable future, especially now that my Ph.D. supervisor had approved my dissertation subject, so I needed to get used to it.

Mom looked at me with a soft smile and tucked a curl behind my ear.

“What?” I asked, frowning.

She sighed. “Are you really sure you want to go through with this?” she asked.

Mom hadn’t said anything to me about the fake engagement thing since the night Lucas had come over for dinner. The last few weeks had flown by as I prepared to leave for Kalopsia and although we’d been ships passing in the night, if she had concerns, I knew she would tell me.

“I’m sure,” I replied. “Why?”

She shrugged and looked toward the full-length mirror where we were both reflected in all our engagement party finery.

“You seem different,” she said. “Something has changed in you and I’m not sure it’s a good thing.”

I nodded. It was true; I had changed. Maya had taken it upon herself to educate me in the ways of Kalopsian royalty. I’d attended deportment lessons and makeup lessons and