The Prince's Housekeeper Bride Read Free Page B

should go to bed now.” Benito’s words dismissed her, but his eyes still held hers.
    â€œDo you want supper?”
    â€œI am fine.”
    She knew she should turn and go, thank him again on the way out, but instead she stood there, mere inches separating them. Benito was the one who spoke first.
    â€œI cannot decide if makeup suits you.”
    Alisa gave a little laugh. “I cannot decide, either. It seems a lot of trouble to go to and my pillow…” she halted herself, but Benito pushed on.
    â€œTell me.”
    â€œI forgot to take off my lipstick one night…” She didn’t elaborate, knew somehow they were both crossing a line, especially when she held his gaze, especially when, after the longest pause, Benito voiced his wicked thought.
    â€œLucky pillow.”

Chapter Four
    â€œHush, Marietta,” Alisa soothed, holding the angry, coughing bundle tightly to her body. “You have to take your medicine. She ought to see the doctor,” Alisa added to her neighbor and trusted friend Bella, who hovered nearby.
    â€œYou have given her an extra dose of medicine,” Bella pointed out. “That is what the doctor will tell you to do, and charge you for the pleasure. She is just missing you.”
    â€œI miss you, too,” Alisa breathed, hugging her sister more closely as her eyelids grew heavy. “Tomorrow, after Sunday school, we will have the whole afternoon together.”
    â€œYou sound tired.” Bella’s voice was sympathetic. “Are you very busy?”
    â€œNot really—there isn’t much work to do. Benito lets me use the computer when he is out so I have been catching up with my studies.”
    â€œBenito?” Bella frowned.
    â€œThat is what he likes to be called.”
    â€œWhy is this man doing you any favors?”
    â€œBecause he’s…nice.” Alisa gulped, glad for once of Bella’s fading eyesight so she couldn’t see dull blush on her cheeks, the blush that was ever present whenever she so much as thought about Benito.
    She’d fled to her bedroom after his provocative words, had tried and failed to ignore the sizzling tension between them, struggled to remind herself she was a mere maid, that he was a prince, that nothing could ever come of it, but the opportunity to talk about him was just too tempting to pass up. “Really nice sometimes. You know, Bella, despite all the scandal attached to his name, he’s actually a very kind man.”
    â€œA man who’s used to getting what he wants!” Bella said, unusually sharp. “Watch yourself, Alisa.”
    â€œAs if he’d even look twice at me!” Alisa attempted a casual laugh, but Bella wasn’t about to be swayed.
    â€œYou’re young, you’re beautiful,” Bella said, “and you have a heart of gold, a heart he would use, then cast aside without a second thought. Don’t go getting fancy ideas in your head, Alisa…if he is being nice, you can be assured it is just a means to an end for him.”
    â€œPerhaps,” Alisa conceded.
    â€œNo perhaps about it!” Bella insisted. “I know you well, Alisa. You always were a dreamer, and you are doing it now. One night in his arms would not be enough for you. You deserve more than the dregs Prince Benito Fortesque would give you.”
    â€œYou should see how he lives, Bella—I’ve never seen such waste. Why should he get everything and Marietta has nothing?”
    â€œShe has you,” Bella said wisely. “Once you finish your schooling you will be able to give her the things you want to, the things your parents would have wanted you both to have.”
    At the mention of her parents, Alisa felt her throat thicken. Even after five years she missed them terribly.
    â€œThey would be so proud of you,” Bella said softly. “It would have been so much easier to let the authorities take Marietta—instead you have taken