Prince With Benefits: A Billionaire Royal Romance by Nicole Snow Read Free Book Online

front of the cameras, and what a story it'll make! The Prince and his secretary. Can you see the headlines now? If they think you've found love, that you're starting to settle down, all those playboy stories vanish. Poof.”
    She snaps her fingers. Smiling like mad. There's crazy eyes, and then there's hers.
    I realize I'm sitting in front of a lunatic, drunker than a highland beach skunk.
    I'm already feeling my hangover. The buzz burns through me, hotter than hell, completely overwhelming the desire to fuck that drove me down here.
    Or is it all this asinine conversation?
    “I knew you were desperate, Serena. I understood, and I cut you a break after everything that happened because it was my own damned fault. Still, this has got to be your stupidest idea yet.” I lean in, ignoring the twitch in her green pupils, so different from the way I made them shake six months ago. “Next time you decide to bother me this time of night, it better be good. Not because you want to talk about a fucking fantasy.”
    I stand up, anxious to get upstairs to my suite. She reaches out, catches my wrist with both her hands, clutching at me like a mouse in a storm.
    “Silas, we can't be through.”
    “Babe, we never started. If you want to keep the position you've got without stirring up any crazy questions, you'll forget last winter. Everything. You'll remind yourself you're nothing but the royal press secretary, assigned to the Prince, and nothing more. Even if I entertained your fucked up suggestion for more than two seconds, there's no way I'd ever make you my...what? My pretend girlfriend? My fiance? My wife?”
    Raw anger is the only thing that suppresses the savage laugh in my throat. Her eyes are soft, sad, maybe a little scared. Time to go, before I pull the trigger that sends fire straight through her heart.
    I turn around and walk, praying she isn't stupid enough to follow. This time, she stays put. I can hear one of the bodyguards shuffle over just before I get into the elevator, and see him whisper something into her ear.
    They hand out warnings like candy whenever I need to be alone. And the bitch has gotten to me, yeah, just enough for the guards to sense it, step in, warn her not to follow me. She'll listen, if she wants to keep doing anything in a royal capacity.
    The elevator door closes, taking me back to my private level.
    I've forgotten about the pussy I came down for. I'm finally ready to crash, and forget this brutal day.
    Nobody ever said being Prince was easy.

    * * *
    I 'm eating a late brunch the next day, wondering why I can't stop thinking about Serena's idiotic suggestion.
    Maybe it's because the damned thing is...well, not so stupid after all.
    Anything involving her would be a disaster, of course. But stepping out, finding a girl I can use to play pretend, just to get the media jackals and grandmom off my ass...no, that's not insane.
    I've always been a fan of making my problems disappear overnight. When I see an opportunity, I don't let go.
    Right now, a big, fat one is staring me right in the face. I can practically see it now.
    Just a few minutes of playing pretty with my fake love a week. Maybe a dinner or two, just to keep up appearances, and keep her on good terms.
    That's all I want. All I need to pull this off before I go back to drinking, whoring, doing whatever I damned well please.
    My hero shine didn't last long when I left the service and Afghanistan, no matter what the nicer boys in the press try to say. Not like it suited me anyway.
    I'd rather do scandal than play hero a thousand times over. Hero is a role I don't understand, and never will. It's dangerously detached from reality.
    No, fuck hero. Afghanistan taught me life is short, more than anything else, and I'd better make the most of every day in case there's not another.
    Hero's something I'll never understand. A suit that won't ever fit.
    That's for grandmom, with her pomp, her tradition, her endless charity balls. Me, I know exactly