PRINCE CHARMING: A Stepbrother Secret Baby Romance(10)
Now it was his turn to look surprised. “What do you mean? I’m sure you won’t be that bad of a princess.” He laughed but stopped when her eyes fell and her cheeks turned red. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing… You didn’t miss anything.”
“Oh no, you don’t get to just say that and then not tell me,” he said as he set down his wine glass. “Olivia, we’re going to be siblings soon. You can tell me anything. Why would I need a bottle of wine?”
She shifted from one foot to the other as her cheeks turned even redder. “I may have gone into your room, trying to find something embarrassing to make up for the underwear thing,” she confessed quickly.
Quincy still didn’t follow and laughed. “So? If I wanted people to stay out of my room, I would lock the door more often.”
“Well, I’m sure you didn’t want me to see the folders.”
For a second, he wasn’t sure what she meant. “Ah, those folders. Yes, well, it’s not exactly a secret amongst the islanders, so I guess there’s no harm in you knowing it, too. Cheers then, to two weddings this year!” The words were bitter as he swallowed the rest of his wine and poured another glass.
Olivia reached out a hand, but it fell back to her side before it reached him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring it up.”
“No, I’m not upset at you,” he assured her. “I’m going to have to face it sooner or later.”
Silence fell over them until Olivia moved closer and clinked her glass against his. “Well, at least for now, you have a drinking buddy to get you through.”
Quincy smiled. “That I do. Come then, future sister of mine, let us drink to our soon-to-be-sibling lives of secrets and rivalry,” he teased, but even as the words left his lips, he felt a slight pang of regret in his chest. What it meant, he had no idea.
Chapter 4
Sun streamed in through the wooden blinds the following morning, and Olivia rolled over, trying to bury her head under the covers. A moment later, they were suddenly yanked from her bed. “What the hell?”
“Good morning, miss,” a woman with a heavy French accent said as she stood at the foot of the bed. Olivia frowned when she saw her blankets in the woman’s arms. She was young, maybe a few years older than Olivia, and had a smile on her face that wavered between being amused and polite.
“Morning. Was that necessary? Who are you?”
“I am Allete, miss, your personal servant while you are here on the Isle of Bijoux.”
“Oh, right… Well, I’m not used to having a servant,” Olivia said as politely as she could. “I really don’t know what to do with one… I mean you. Or any of this.”
“Of course, miss, but I’m afraid I am here for you no matter what, as are these other ladies,” she said and clapped her hands once. Four more women of varying ages came through Olivia’s bedroom door, and she cringed inwardly. “We are your ladies-in-waiting.”
Olivia nodded as she screamed inside her mind. What the hell did Mom drag me into? “So you all will be around me, all the time?”
The women smiled before they moved around the room, opening the blinds and the doors to the balcony to let in the fresh morning air. Allete set Olivia’s blankets back on her bed and walked to the wardrobe across the room.
“Not all the time,” she said over her shoulder. “But we are meant to assist you with your everyday needs and, of course, for the many special occasions you will attend.”
Olivia fell back onto her pillow with a groan. “Don’t remind me. I can’t do this. I’m from Nebraska, and the only royalty there was queen of the Fall Festival.” She put a hand over her face and decided maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. She didn’t know the first thing about palaces and servants or dealing with high-class occasions like balls. All she wanted was a place to do her art, but instead, she’d been whisked away to an island kingdom to watch her mother get married. And to become a freaking princess in the twenty-first century.
“You will do just fine because we will teach you. Your future stepbrother, the crown prince, has been instructed to show you the proper ways of doing things,” Allete assured her. “The first order of business is getting a future princess ready to start her day.”
Olivia sat up again. “Guess I can’t just call in sick, huh?”
“I am afraid you cannot do that as a princess—unless, of course, you faint in public,” Allete said with a smirk. “That tends to get a royal out of almost anything.”
“I think I’m going to like you, Allete,” Olivia said as she laughed and got out of bed.
“I have a feeling I will like you, too, miss,” she replied. “Now then, what would you like to wear today?”
Olivia had put her clothes away yesterday in the wardrobe and cringed. “I really don’t have anything that a princess would wear. Just jeans and tshirts—what?” She stared in open-mouthed shock at the wardrobe. “Those are not my clothes.”
The one side still held her folded jeans, a few shirts, and the three dresses she did own, but the other side, which had been empty before, was stocked full of gowns and pant suits in various shades of blues and greens and nearly every other tropical shade she could think of. They were gorgeous, and the fabric was butter to the touch. Everything was exquisite, and she wanted to try them all on. She reached for a delicate lace and satin sapphire dress that almost matched the color of the water surrounding the island.