HOW TO MARRY A PRINCESS Read Online Free Page A

quarter horses, so they had plenty to talk about.
    There were more toasts. Alice paced herself, taking very small sips of champagne, practicing being low-key and composed for all she was worth. By the time the appetizer was served, she felt glad she hadn’t asked Dami about the broad-shouldered stranger with the dark gold hair and perfectly cut evening clothes.
    It was nothing. It didn’t matter. She would have a fine evening celebrating her dearest sister’s hard-earned happiness. And no one else would know that she’d imagined she saw someone who wasn’t really there. She accepted a second glass of champagne from a passing servant and picked up a spear of prosciutto-wrapped asparagus—and then almost dropped the hors d’oeuvre in her lap when she glanced over and saw Noah.
    He wore the same perfect evening attire she’d glimpsed earlier. And he sat between a stunning blonde and a gorgeous redhead several tables away, staring right at her.

Chapter Two
    N oah was watching Alice when she spotted him. Her mouth dropped open. Her face went dead white.
    About then it occurred to him that maybe he’d carried his innocent deception a little too far.
    She pressed her lips together and looked away, turning to her younger sister on her right side, forcing a smile. He waited for her to glance his way again.
    Didn’t happen.
    Jennifer, the redhead seated on his left, put her hand on his thigh and asked him how he was enjoying his visit to Montedoro. He gently eased her hand away and said he was having a great time.
    She hit him with a melting, eager look and said, “I’m so pleased to have met you, Noah, and I hope we can spend some time together during your stay. I would just love to show you the real Montedoro.”
    Andrea, the blonde on his other side, cut in, saving him the necessity of giving Jennifer an answer. “I love all of Prince Dami’s friends,” Andrea said. “Dami and I were once, well, very close. But then he met Vesuvia.” A model and sometime actress, Vesuvia was often called simply V. “Dami is exclusive with V now,” Andrea added. None of what she’d said was news to Noah. Or to anyone else, for that matter. “They’re all over the tabloids, Dami and V,” Andrea whispered breathlessly. She was mistress of the obvious in a big, big way.
    “Or at least, the prince is mostly exclusive with V,” Jennifer put in with a wicked little giggle. She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “I mean, they are always fighting and I notice that V’s not here tonight....”
    The meal wore on. Jennifer and Andrea kept up a steady stream of teasing chatter. Noah sipped champagne and hoped that Alice might grant him a second look.
    If she did, he failed to catch it.
    Had he blown it with her, misjudged her completely? It was starting to look that way.
    But no. It couldn’t be.
    She’d assumed he was an itinerant stable hand and all he’d done was play along. He’d thought she would find the whole thing funny.
    It hadn’t even occurred to him that she might be upset about it. How could he have gotten it so wrong? He’d done his research on her after all. She was bold and curious and ready for anything, the darling of the scandal sheets. He’d never imagined she would freak out when she finally saw him as he really was.
    So what did he do now?
    He wouldn’t give up, that was for damn sure. Not now that he’d met her, talked to her, seen her smile, looked in those eyes of hers that could be blue or gray or green, depending on the light and her shifting mood. Not now that he’d discovered she was exactly the woman he’d been looking for—and more.
    Somehow he would have to make amends.
    The meal finally ended. Princess Adrienne rose and congratulated the newlyweds again. She wished them a lifetime of married bliss. Then she invited the guests to enjoy the moonlit garden and to dance the night away in the palace ballroom upstairs.
    Jennifer whispered an invitation in his ear. He turned to express his