Everything suddenly seemed surreal to Shea as she slid out of the Rolls Royce behind Bryan and he clasped her hand. She looked behind her at the enormous gates barring the driveway. There wasn’t another house nearby, and the outline of Bryan’s home was enormous. Lush green lawns sparkled, lit up by numerous outdoor lights.
This is my new home; Bryan is my husband. I’m married to one of the wealthiest men in the world, a prince, and Hayden and I are both princesses.
Shaking her head slowly to clear it, she wondered, How in the hell did this happen to me? I’m just a small town woman from Michigan, a cocktail waitress and secretary.
“It’s just a house, and I’m just a man,” Bryan said, leaning down to whisper quietly in her ear.
It was as though he could almost hear her thoughts, sense that she was overwhelmed at the moment.
Looking up, she could see the earnest expression and the adoration in his gorgeous hazel eyes.
I’m just a man.
As Shea let herself get lost in his gaze, she realized that all Bryan really wanted was to be accepted and loved by her as a man. Not a prince. Not as royalty. Not as a trillionaire. He wanted her to love him. Maybe that was why they had both spoken so little about the details of their lives when they’d first met. The emotions and fire burning between them had been the most important things during that night years ago. And they, as well as their daughter, still were.
“It would be so much easier if you weren’t so damn wealthy and a prince,” she grumbled.
Bryan’s booming laughter echoed through the night air. “Sweetheart, you’re the first woman who has actually complained about my money and my title,” he said, sounding thoroughly delighted.
“I’m not complaining, exactly. Those things are part of who you are, but it will take some getting used to. I will get used to it because I love you. I don’t love the prince, and I don’t love the trillionaire. I love…you.” My husband, my love. My everything. Her eyes begged him to understand what she was trying to say.
“I’m not heir to the throne, and I go out to work like any other man in a pair of jeans and hard hat every day. I come home dirty and sweaty from climbing around in the mines.” Bryan sounded like he was warning her.
“Thank God I don’t have to worry about being a queen someday. I’d much rather go back to school,” she said breathlessly. “The whole jeans and hard hat thing are pretty damn hot, and sometimes I like you sweaty.” She lifted a brow at him in challenge. “I love you exactly as you are.”
He smiled, a grin that lit up his entire ravaged face. “I know. I just really wanted to hear you say it.”
Shea gave him an annoyed look, but her heart hurt from knowing that women had pursued him all his life for nothing but his money and title. Those females had missed so much. Bryan was still an extraordinary man without all of the superficial possessions and royal lineage.
Stepping up to his side and clinging tightly to his hand, she requested, “Show me our new home. When you feel better, I’d like to go out to the mines with you and see what you do.” She knew he was passionate about what he did for Dyholm, and she wanted to be able to talk to him about it.
“Right now the only thing I want to show you is our bed,” Bryan answered with amusement in his voice.
Shea’s heart accelerated as she walked slowly beside him to their new residence. “Is it really possible to do things…” her voice trailed off as she realized that Bryan didn’t need any exertion right now.
“All things are possible if you want it bad enough, sweetheart. I’ll make it possible because there’s nothing I want more than I want you right now,” he answered in a graveled voice.
Shea sighed, knowing she didn’t stand a chance against Bryan’s sweet, demanding seduction. “You’ll show me?”
“Count on it,” he told her fiercely as he opened the door and held it for her to enter a whole new world.
Shea didn’t even bat an eyelash when she realized that Bryan lived in a castle. Although it was scaled down from the main royal residence, it was nothing less than spectacular.
She had the castle.
She had her prince.
She had her little princess, Hayden.
She was now a princess and part of the royal family.
Most importantly, she finally had the man she loved and had longed for since she’d met him and he’d left her all those years ago.
Shea smiled as she thought about all of the fictional stories about princes, princesses, and magical happy endings that she recited to her daughter every night.
Who knew that sometimes fairy tales really did come true?
~The End~
Taken By a Trillionaire ~ Christopher
By
Melody Anne
Prologue
I thought that the absurd law had been abolished!”
Prince Christopher was fuming. After pacing for some time in his father’s office, he wheeled around to face the man who had for so long ruled both his country and his children. Though Francis had handed the throne to Chris’s oldest brother, Xander, their father would always be a beloved king in his people’s eyes and in the eyes of his children. All three of the former king’s sons were present.
And, of course, no meeting was complete without Simon, the family’s trusted adviser, who really enjoyed putting a damper on Chris’s fun every single chance the man got.
“Christopher — Your Highness — you must listen to us,” Simon said. “We’re telling you this for your own good.”
“I can make my own decisions,” Chris told them all.
“The law that a potential bride is to be killed if she chooses not to marry you has been abolished,” his father replied. “But the law that strips you of your royal title and your place in the line of succession if you aren’t wed by your thirtieth birthday is still very much in place.”
“It’s true, Christopher,” King Alexander said. “I’m not happy with it, but if we throw out every tradition of our kingdom, that makes us no better than the Arcano.”
Chris did his best not to shout. “How in the hell can you even say that, brother? Under their archaic laws, people were murdered if they didn’t follow their rules to the letter, and that letter was blurred in the extreme. If they made the law insisting on marriage by age thirty, then simply overturn it. You have that power.”
?
??You have no need to marry… . if you don’t care about retaining your title,” Xander replied.
“Why would I want to give up my title? It’s gotten me laid more than once,” Chris said with a smirk.
A frown creased Simon’s brow. “You sound like no prince I would choose to pay honor to,” the adviser said with open disdain.
“Who cares how I sound? I am a prince. I was born as one, and I will die as one.”
“Not if you aren’t married in one year’s time,” Xander told him.
“You know who and what I am. I do what I want when I want.” Chris continued pacing the richly carpeted floors while downing the rest of his cognac.
“Those days are officially over, brother. You will now do what your country requires you to do. It’s time that you grew up.”
“Damn, Xander. Now that you’re king, you really know how to throw down a royal decree, don’t you?” Chris said with a chuckle, some of his anger draining away.
“You dare to mock your king?” Xander huffed.
“I would never dare to do such a thing,” Chris said, setting his glass down and bowing to his brother before laughing outright. “I would, however, mock the hell out of my big brother, who has grown a bit too stuffy in his old age.”
“I’m two years and three months older than you, Christopher. That hardly makes me an old man,” Xander told him with another scowl.
“If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck… .”
“This conversation is going nowhere,” their father, Prince Francis, thundered. “Go right ahead and do as you please, my son. Marry or don’t marry. It’s no longer a concern of Rubare Collina. We have our new king, who already has one heir, and he’s planning on spares. And your other brother is ahead of you in the line of succession. You have a simple choice before you: to remain a prince, beloved by the people, or to pursue your pathetic playboy lifestyle.”
