Katy Carter Wants a Hero Read Online Free

princes had the very unfortunate habit of turning into frogs almost as soon as I kissed them. It was all very disappointing.
    Just as I was considering suing Mills and Boon under the Trade Descriptions Act and my sexual organs had forgotten what they were for, Fate decided it was time to put me out of my misery. Rewind to four years ago: I was getting dressed up for Auntie Jewell’s birthday party without a clue that my life was about to change in the most unexpected way.
    Jewell’s birthday parties are legendary. Every year she posts a notice in
The Times
and sends out invitations to her eclectic collection of friends and relatives, who drop everything in order to attend what’s always a fantastic bash. That year the theme was
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
, and I’d spent weeks starving myself to get into a green shimmery fairy costume.
    OK, I’d spent ten quid on control knickers, but my intentions had been good.
    Anyway, just minutes before I was due to leave, my then boyfriend decided to dump me by text message, leaving me with a dilemma: did I howl until I looked like a goblin or did I head out to the party alone? Usually I dragged Ollie along for moral support because Jewell adored him, but that summer he’d pushed off to the Andes. Deciding to leave my broken heart for later, I set out for Jewell’s party in Ollie’s temperamental VW Beetle, complete with fairy costume, wings and wand. What could possibly go wrong?
    Quite a lot as it turned out, because Fate has a nasty habit of flicking V signs at me. Unless you’ve broken down on the A5 dressed in a fairy costume, you can’t possibly have any concept of what it means to be embarrassed. Tooting lorry drivers and whistles abounded as I desperately tried to look under the bonnet before eventually remembering the engine lived in the boot. Not that I had a flipping clue what to do once I
did
locate it. It just made me feel better to be doing something,
anything
rather than throwing myself under the next juggernaut. Even the AA didn’t want to know, because Ollie hadn’t paid his membership.
    Ollie was very lucky he was in the Andes…
    I’d collapsed on to the ground and buried my head in my hands. I was well and truly up that famous creek without a boat, never mind the paddle. What on earth was I going to do?
    And then it happened. The moment I’d been dreaming about since I was about twelve. A beautiful sleek Mercedes pulled up, the door swung open and a tall, lean body slowly uncoiled itself.
    ‘Can I help?’
    I looked up and was instantly lost for words, which for me is pretty darn unusual. I opened my mouth to speak but it was as though he’d pressed my mute button, because I couldn’t make a sound. This tall, dark stranger was simply too beautiful to be true. He had eyes of the most amazing ice blue, cheekbones so chiselled the royals should ski off them rather than trekking to Klosters and long, black gypsy curls that blew in the wind. The sun shone behind him like a halo. Well either that or he really was an angel.
    ‘Has the car broken down?’
    I’d forgotten all about the car, but my voice box was well and truly buggered, that was for sure. He could have stepped straight from the pages of my latest Mills and Boon.
    Just my luck to be dressed like Tinkerbell.
    The man stepped forward, his eyes crinkling as he looked (most powerfully) down at me. Then he said, ‘Bloody hell! Katy? Is that you?’
    I screwed my eyes against the sun and tried to figure out who he was, but no, he still looked like he’d materialised from a romantic novel.
    ‘It’s me, James,’ the stranger said, taking my hand and pulling me to my feet. ‘I used to live next door to your Auntie Jewell? Don’t you remember? We used to play together all the time.’
    My chin was practically in the London sewer. This divine-looking man was snotty little James? This alpha male who smelt of expensive aftershave was the same annoying creature who used to rip the wings off flies