Along Came A Prince Read Online Free

and grinned at her.
    She smiled. “You
really are charming, you know.”
    “My mother taught
me it’s better to be nice than naughty.”
    Stacia switched
his words around. “Sometimes it’s more fun to be naughty than nice.”
    “Are you taking up
my education where my mother left off?”
    “Um…see that nice table and chairs over there? Let’s go sit down, okay?”
    “Lead the way,” he
said. He tapped her shoulder. “By the way, have you ever played dodge ball?”
    She settled down
in one of the chairs. “No, why?”
    “Because you
dodged my question like an expert game player.” His now-familiar grin covered
his face and made him more irresistible than ever.
    She laughed. “Your
mother taught you well, is all I have to say.”
    A cocktail waitress
appeared at their table as if by magic. “Could I get you something from the
bar?” she asked as she lit the candle in the flower display setting on the
table.
    “How about a
bottle of your best champagne?” Clay requested. “Is that all right, Stacia, or
would you prefer something else to drink?”
    “Champagne’s fine.” What else would a prince order?
    “Tell me all about
Stacia Saunders, the actress.”
    “Let me see. I
love my work, or I should say, I am my work.”
    “What does that
mean?”
    “I don’t really
know.” She grinned. “I’ve heard other people say that, though. In my case, it’s
the most important thing in my life…at the present time, of course.”
    Their waitress
brought the champagne in a silver bucket filled with ice and put it down on the
floor on its silver legs.
    Everything’s filled
with Hollywood glamor , Stacia thought.
    “Would you like me
to open it, sir?” the server asked.
    Clay shook his
head. “I’m fine with it.” When she left, he looked at Stacia as he began to
open the champagne bottle. “No extra-curricular activities in your life, like
boyfriends, lovers or a husband?”
    She snickered. “Lovers?
You’re kidding, right? Would I even answer that if I had one…or more? Actually,
I will answer. It’s no to all of the above. I figure there’s a time and
place for everything to happen, and right now, I’m single and my career comes
first.”
    “You mean you
can’t do both?”
    “Nope.” She took a
sip of her champagne he’d so expertly opened and poured to the correct level in
their glasses.
    “I do ice sculpturing,
which is very time consuming, yet I’d find plenty of time for a woman in my
life, if I found someone special. Ice sculptures are great, but you can’t hug one
in bed.”
    “Is that more of
your mother’s education I’m hearing?”
    “Could be. We’re
very close, yet I’ve always been able to choose what I want to do with my
life.”
    “And your father?”
    “He taught me how
to be a man and instilled in me how to treat a woman the right way.”
    “Sounds like you
have wonderful parents.”
    “I do,” Clay agreed
then changed the subject. “You can hear the music out here as loud as it is
inside. You know what that means, right?”
    “What?”
    “We can dance and
not be bothered by the crowd.”
    “Let’s do it,”
Stacia said.
    He stood and stepped
to the back of her chair and held it while she got up. A moment later, and she
was in his arms once more.
    One dance turned
into another and another. Stacia felt as if they were dancing among the stars
in the night-blackened sky. An instant of intense emotions zigzagged throughout
her body.
    Suddenly, the
music ended. Time for the orchestra’s intermission, she guessed, and time for
her to drift back to earth, and let her feet touch the ground where her
sensible life could begin again.
    The ball was over,
but the prince and she were still together. They returned to their table.
    “I don’t want our
time together to end, but I have to go back inside and mingle,” the prince
said. “Sam told me that’s what we must do in order to get additional donations
for our charity, but I have an idea how to accomplish both.