Read Online His Princess in the Making by Melissa James - Free Book Online

are.”
    His face softened. “You sounded frightened on the phone.”
    And though she’d started the conversation, the strangestflash of annoyance ran through her. She moistened her lip with her tongue over a smile in an attempt to cover it. “It was more of a life-changing shock than anything—and you know how Charlie reacts to shocks.”
    A dimple came into play as he smiled back; his eyes were warm, like summer at the beach. “He turned ballistic, I gather, and you were exhausting all reserves to keep him under containment?”
    She laughed, relieved to be finding a friendly footing with him. “Something like that.” Actually, it had been exhilarating, liberating in a way she couldn’t explain. Coming here had changed more than her name. She’d found out what she was capable of on her own.
    Another dip, but this time he kept it under strict terms of dancing, and she breathed a sigh of cheated relief. “It can’t have been easy for you.”
    After thinking about it, she said, “It was good practice for what lay ahead. Charlie and Theo Angelis needed almost constant mediation at first.” The funny thing was that here, for the first time, she’d felt truly needed. It had taken all her negotiating skills and learned wisdom to keep things under control between the King and her brother. Max, while pretending he was the gallant knight ready to help her, had been more of a charming lone wolf with a chip on his shoulder, and Jazmine had needed a friend, a sister, as she’d fallen in love with Charlie almost at a glance.
    Lia had risen to the occasion far better than she’d have believed. Instead of being the one everyone worried about, now she was the one everyone turned to.
    “Not all of it has been bad for Charlie, obviously. He and Jazmine seem to have worked things out.”
    She turned to look at her brother and laughed. Charlie was kissing Jazmine again. He had a bad habit of kissing her no matter where they were. “Yes, they have.”
    “I saw several pictures of him in the papers with Jazmine on the way over here. None of them exactly portrayed a reluctant prince.”
    Indulgent, so happy for her brother, she said, “It’s not the position that made this work, it was the woman. I think he’d sacrifice anything for Jazmine.”
    “Yes.” Toby’s voice turned softer, but not gentle; it was hotter, lush, like a heavy night. “There are some things worth making sacrifices for. When she touches him and he touches her, when he holds her close and they kiss, it’s beautiful to behold. That kind of love only comes once in a lifetime to each man and woman.”
    Lia gulped and tried to breathe, but that thick, deep thudding of her blood took over again. “Yes.”
    As other couples drifted onto the dance floor, Toby looked down at her, his rough-handsome, just-craggy face smiling, his head slightly tilted. “Are you feeling well, Giulia, beloved? You sound a bit on the croaky side.”
    Beloved.
    Hearing it again for the first time in weeks, and the sensual way he said her name— Yoolya —she shivered. He felt it, she knew he did, because he pulled her a little closer. “The night air is a touch chilly for you?”
    “I’m fine.” The words were abrupt; she didn’t know what to say to him, or how to say it. She didn’t want him to fuss; not that he sounded concerned, exactly, more like…
    “You sound—I hesitate to say it, but—a little angry, all of a sudden,” he murmured close to her ear. The tender growl of his rough voice moved under her skin. “Care to discuss the whys and wherefores?”
    He only used polysyllabic words when he felt in control. She wanted to hit him for doing this to her, for making her feel too warm, too close, too confused. Her head was spinning like the movement of the dance. “Stop it, Toby,” shesaid when he reeled her back in to his body, again an inch too close.
    “What would you like me to stop?” he asked, his voice rough, sexual, velvet over gravel, seducing her.