The Prince's Scandalous Baby Read Free Page A

she’d put on for this encounter. Suddenly, she had the impulse—completely unexpectedly—to tell Nico exactly who she was, and what it was that was bothering her. But it was too late now.
     
    Maybe, she thought, if she just didn’t go too in depth, he wouldn’t ask. The trick was to make it boring enough that he wouldn’t want to ask about it more, but interesting enough that it wouldn’t make him lose interest in her .
     
    She waved her hand in the air dismissively, as though it really didn’t matter at all and she barely thought it all worth mentioning. “Oh, you know how it is with business. Some days you feel like you’re conquering the world. Some days it feels like you’ve just spend the last five meetings undoing everything you did in the five before that…”
     
    He cocked an eyebrow. “And how would I know how it is with business?”
     
    There was a tense moment, and then his smile set her off laughing again. In the corner of her eye, she saw the bartender look over.
     
    It was as she’d feared: the ridiculous drink had already started going to her head. She felt like it was disconnected from her, floating somewhere just a little bit above where it should have been. Everything was funnier up here, and up here it didn’t seem so impossible that a handsome man like the one sitting in front her could really be interested in what she had to say.
     
    “But no, really,” he said, when she’d stopped her slightly-buzzed giggling. “I think everyone feels that way sometimes. Everyone from the construction worker up to the King.”
     
    In her increasingly inebriated state, Juliette couldn’t keep herself from rolling her eyes a little. “I doubt the King ever feels powerless,” she said. “Kings are immune.”
     
    Nico smiled. “Immune from futility? Immune from getting frustrated when they feel like they’re not getting anything done?”
     
    Juliette nodded. “Yup. I imagine it’s the same for kings, presidents, multinational CEOs…”
     
    “Generals?” he suggested.
     
    “Oh no, not generals. It’s probably worse for them, actually. All those troops and they never get to go to war.”
     
    The more words she spoke, the less if felt like any of them mattered very much. They were all just words to hold her here with him. It was all just something to say so that he would say something back, so that neither of them would leave and she wouldn’t have to know, yet, what it felt like to have lost his presence.
     
    She could feel herself edging forward a little more in her chair each time she moved or gestured. Already, her leg was only a few inches from his. She could almost feel the bubble of warmth it gave to the air around it.
     
    “And what it is that’s been making you feel futile, lately?” he asked. “What is it that’s afflicting you that would never happen to any of these others?”
     
    She opened her mouth, half-expecting the details to spill out of it on their own. But that was the thing about a lie—it doesn’t make itself up. She would have to work at it.
     
    He was looking at her expectantly, now. He was waiting.
     
    She stirred her drink with the weirdly intricate glass stirring stick it came with, trying to buy herself a few seconds. “Oh, I mean… Just trivial things…”
     
    Nico leaned back, and Juliette felt like she’d just lost something and wanted it back.
     
    “I’m in real estate development,” she said, as though fishing him back from the void. She didn’t know where that had come from, exactly. She just knew that it sounded mildly impressive but acceptably vague.
     
    Whatever the reason, it worked. She had him back. His interest was piqued.
     
    “And your project stalled? No, don’t tell me… Another condo development along the water?”
     
    It was a fake career for a fake persona, but the insult was real.
     
    “No, of course not,” she scoffed. “You think I’m putting up soulless condos?”
     
    He winked. “Oh, I don’t