I Want You for Christmas: The Prince's Lost Princess - a Heartwarming Snow-Capped Holiday Romance by Holly Rayner, Lara Hunter Read Free Book Online

wine and a bottle of water, which she poured into each of their glasses. “Yes, tell me more about your home life. What is it like, where you live?”
     
    Gaby shrugged. “It’s nothing special. My parents started an Italian restaurant when they got married, and my siblings and I grew up learning about food and service there. I got a degree in business so I could help them move into the twenty-first century, so now we’re on social media and really working on getting the millennial community interested in dining with us.”
     
    “And what is it like, running a restaurant?”
     
    Gaby quirked an eyebrow, but Luca seemed genuinely interested, so she carried on. “It’s difficult, at the best of times. There’s no such thing as a weekend or a day off for us. We get two days off a year: Thanksgiving and Christmas. The days are long, and sometimes I feel like I’ll never shake the smell of kitchen cleaner from my hands, but my parents built the place and it’s my job to make sure it stays afloat.”
     
    “Do you ever worry about losing your livelihood?” Luca asked, like he had no idea what that would feel like.
     
    Gaby realized he was trying to see how the other half lived, and she wasn’t so sure she liked the feeling. “Do you?” she countered, and Luca sat back in his seat.
     
    “Do I what?” he asked.
     
    “Worry about losing it all. About not being able to pay the bills on time, or pay for college for your kids someday, or whether or not you’ll be able to put food on the table?”
     
    Gaby knew the answers, of course. Luca had the air of a man who had never struggled once in his life. While he was handsome, she wasn’t convinced of his good character yet, no matter how gallant he was trying to be. There was a wildness about him that she wasn’t sure she liked.
     
    The Prince sighed, then. “You know I have not. I live in a very different world than you, Gabriella. Can I call you Gabriella?” he asked, and Gaby nodded. “I have offended you with my questions. I didn’t mean to; it’s only because I’m interested in you and where you come from.”
     
    “And why is that, exactly?” Gaby asked. She’d been waiting to ask that question since the moment she got the phone call.
     
    Luca glanced away from her—a telltale sign of the falsehood she had smelled about this whole thing from the beginning. “You will have to forgive me, Gabriella, for what I have done. You see, there is no exchange program to improve relations between our two countries.”
     
    “You don’t say,” Gaby said, her tone dry. Her stomach tightened; what was going on?
     
    “The truth is, I set up this entire exchange to meet you, the youngest daughter of the House of Galtieri.”
     
    Gaby laughed. “The House of Galtieri? You make me sound like we’re in a Game of Thrones episode.”
     
    Luca ignored that comment, and Gaby realized with a blush that he might have missed the reference entirely.
     
    “Surely you must know some of your family history?”
     
    Gaby hesitated. What was she going to do, tell this prince that her grandmother believed they came from ancient royalty? Well, she thought, why not?
     
    She leaned in conspiratorially. “Rumor has it that I am the youngest descendant of an ancient royal line,” she said, her voice full of intrigue as she played it up.
     
    Luca, however, wasn’t smiling. “You don’t believe that to be true,” he said.
     
    Gaby’s playfulness died down as she sat back against her chair, which was oddly comfortable, considering it was made from hard wood and carved in an elaborate loopy design.
     
    “Of course I don’t. If we were royalty, we wouldn’t be slumming it in New York scraping to get by hawking pasta and tiramisu. We’d be here, living like you.”
     
    Luca leaned back in again. His eyes reflected the colors of the landscape around them, glittering emerald and deep gold. Gaby did her best not to fall into their depths.
     
    “Just because you