Be My Prince Read Free Page A

with your sisters, and that you have been…” He paused. “Unjustly impoverished.”
    Alexandra detected a hint of compassion in his voice and had to work hard not to immerse herself in it. She had learned a long time ago that one cannot wallow in self-pity and stand strong and mighty at the same time. “Evidently I am quite the spectacle this evening,” she said.
    “Indeed. This is your first Season, correct?”
    “Yes.”
    He leaned close and spoke in a husky voice that feathered across her skin. “At least the gentlemen at White’s were right about one thing.”
    Alexandra quirked a brow. “And what was that?”
    “They said you were the most beautiful woman in England, hidden away and guarded like a priceless jewel.” He drew back and regarded her intently for a moment. “Beautiful to be certain, but why have they kept you hidden away, may I ask? You are the daughter of a duke. Why have you been residing in Wales? Why not at the estate where you were raised?”
    She wet her lips and concealed the more pertinent question: Why not with my real family, in the country where my ancestors had been born, and where they had ruled for centuries?
    “I am surprised you don’t know the answer to that question,” she said, “when you seem to know everything else about me.”
    The blue of his eyes shone in the torchlight. “Indulge me.”
    “Why should I?”
    Again he leaned close. “Because you want to.”
    An intoxicating shiver of arousal ran through her as she comprehended the truth in his words, spoken so provocatively.
    She had never met a man quite like this one before. He was very confident and exuded a distinguishable air of sexuality. All the little hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end. Her heart was beating wildly with exhilaration, and she could not deny that she wanted to revel a little longer in this feeling of excitement.
    “My father the duke died without an heir,” she explained, “so the title passed to his estranged younger brother, who arrived at the palace with four daughters of his own, roughly the same age as my sisters and me. He took one look at us and decided that we would be an obstacle to the marriage prospects of his own daughters, so he sent us away, banished us to a place well beyond the reaches of polite society.”
    The gentleman frowned. “Because the four of you were prettier?”
    “I suppose that would be an accurate conclusion to derive from the circumstances.”
    He inclined his head with curiosity. “Tell me more.”
    “His Grace provided us with a very meager allowance, barely enough to live on and certainly not enough to provide a dowry or even gowns for a proper Season. That is why we have never been to London.”
    He studied her with some concern. “That is most unfortunate. It sounds as if you and your sisters were greatly wronged.”
    Alexandra swallowed uneasily. There it was again—the compassion. But she had not told him of her situation to seek his pity and wished for a moment that she had not revealed any of it.
    Another part of her, however—the deeper, more honest place that had been profoundly hurt and wounded by all the lies and betrayals from those she trusted most—cracked just a little, and she found herself opening up even further to this stranger before she realized what she was saying.
    “Indeed, and here I am, dressed in a borrowed gown and jewels, hoping to win a proposal from a prince, along with dozens of other young women, each with her own story, I suppose.” She paused and looked up at the stars, listened to the crickets chirping in the grass. “It’s strange. There was once a time, long ago, when I imagined I would marry for love. I would have settled quite happily for a simple life with a mere clerk or merchant for a husband, but others insist that such a common existence is beneath me.”
    She dragged her gaze down from the stars and spoke in more practical terms. “More importantly, my stepmother controls our