The Playboy's Princess Read Online Free Page A

snatched it up and read it again. The girl was actually quite funny. She was angry, that was obvious, but she had a dry sarcasm that he liked. Maybe his friends hadn’t been so stupid after all.
    Drew got up and went over to his desk to write her a reply.

    The days went on as they usually did, and Jade forgot about the jerk, Drew, who thought he could advertise for a wife. She went to work every day and hung out with her friends most evenings before returning to the tiny, grungy apartment. It was the same routine she’d had since moving from Florida.
    Jade enjoyed her job working as a character in the world’s happiest theme park. She got to dress up as a princess every day. It was like fulfilling a childhood dream. That was how she’d met Clare; they worked there together. They spent their days wearing gorgeous gowns, smiling, waving, and having their photos taken. There were worse jobs in the world. The illusion of being a princess was short-lived, however, when she went home to her shoebox of an apartment with a hot water system that kept breaking down and a refrigerator that only worked some of the time.
    She waved good-bye to the smiling children who were calling out to her—“Ariel! Ariel!”—and went to the break room.
    “You’re so lucky you don’t have to wear a wig!” Clare groaned as she pulled the mass of brunette curls from her head. Her own blond hair was smashed under a hair net.
    “One advantage to being a natural redhead,” Jade laughed.
    She fluffed the thick red hair that fell down her back in soft waves. The starfish clip that held her bangs back was pinching her scalp, so she repositioned it and then grabbed her lunch out of her locker.
    “So, you’ve been back at work for three days now. Are you settled back in?” she asked Clare.
    Clare and Stuart had just spent two weeks in Mexico, lazing on the beach for their honeymoon, and Clare had come back with the most delightful tan.
    “I guess,” she sighed. “I miss the beach. Maybe we could go over to Malibu one weekend? Or a weekend in Hawaii would be amazing!”
    “Yeah, maybe,” Jade said. She knew she wouldn’t have the cash for that. She was saving up for a new fridge so her food wouldn’t go bad. She didn’t feel like dying of food poisoning anytime soon. Although if she did get food poisoning, she’d probably have a killer bikini body after all the vomiting.
    That afternoon she collected the mail on her way home. It was something she did weekly, so she only got that depressing I’ve-got-more-bills-than-money feeling once instead of every day. There were several bills and some advertising catalogues as well as one hand-addressed letter.
    She threw the rest of the mail down on the counter to look at later and ripped open the envelope. A quick scan of the handwriting told her she didn’t recognize it, and the signature at the end, Drew Malik, was also unfamiliar. She wracked her brain but couldn’t think of anyone she knew by that name. Of course there was Aaron Malik’s son…Jade thought his name was Drew. She’d seen him stumbling drunk on TMZ a few nights before. But what would he be writing to her for? With her curiosity piqued, she started to read the letter.
    Dear Jade,
    Thank you for taking the time to share all of your concerns with me. I agree that advertising for a bride is a horrendous thing to do. I assure you I had nothing to do with it. My friends placed the ad in the newspaper as a semi-joke.
    I find myself in a situation where having a wife would be greatly beneficial to me, and my idiot friends were trying to help me out. I assure you I don’t take the idea of getting married lightly.
    Since we seem to have a similar view on this, I was thinking maybe we could get together and see if an arrangement could be made to benefit us both.
    If you’re curious, or interested to hear my proposal, please meet me at the Griddle Café on Sunset at 7 p.m. on Friday night. I’ll wait for you, in hopes that you’ll