Page 15 of His Princess Brat
“Oh, really? We could ask him, except, oh, that’s right, he’s dead.”
I came up out of my chair, fully intending to come over the top of the table to get at her. Mswati grabbed my arm, forcing me to sit again.
“I didn’t need his wallet either,” Bethany smirked. “I have my own. But he was fun... for a little while.”
I could have clawed her pretty blue eyes out, but that’s when Azid came out of the palace onto the veranda. I know because I heard his throaty chuckle as he was immediately surrounded with admirers and Bethany shifted her focus past me to him.
“Speaking of fun...” Standing, she heaved a dramatic sigh. “Pleasure awaits.” Circling the table, she paused to mock whisper to me, “I’ll let you know how well he rides when I’m done. For the record, I’d rate your brother at a three. Three-point-five,” she amended before walking away. “But only because of that thing he liked to do with his finger.”
I really would have clawed her eyes out then, but again, Mswati’s hand on my arm stayed me from pursuing as she strolled to join Azid and his erstwhile fan club.
He glanced at me over the top of her head when she pushed into his group to lay her hand upon his arm, coaxing him with a giggle to make a muscle.
“Well...” Mswati said, “that could have gone better.”
I didn’t answer, I was too mad even to hear him and I couldn’t stop staring. Already Azid had looked away and for the length of the rest of what few seconds I could endure sitting there—all three seconds of it before I just had to go back to my room—he didn’t look back my way again.
I might be a princess, but I was unnoticeable to someone as gorgeous as that. Especially when Bethany was in the room.
Bitch.
Flinging myself out of my chair, I didn’t even say goodbye before storming back to my room. My mother was right about one thing. I was not good princess material, but I did know one thing. Of all the men in this palace, the one I was most intrigued by was the one making muscles for Bethany’s calculating attention.
I wanted him. The problem was, I had no idea how to go about attracting him to me.
Fortunately, I knew someone who did.
Unfortunately, she was probably going to laugh me off the phone when I asked her for help.
Chapter Six
Pita
Holding my breath, I listened to the ringing of the telephone and waited for my mother to pick up on the other end. I couldn’t believe I was doing this, but, as they said, desperate times called for desperate measures.
Desperate wasn’t a word I would have ever used to describe myself until now, but Azid had beautiful women fawning all over him at every turn both last night and this morning, including Bethany. There were too many beautiful women here; I just didn’t stand a chance the way things currently were. For God’s sake, I had been soaked to the bone and smelling like wet horse when I first met him. This morning, I’d had a head cold. I was Princess If-something-could-go-wrong-it-would Pita, and the only hope I had now of a second chance with the man I couldn’t seem to get off my mind was to give myself such an extreme makeover that he wouldn’t recognize me. And since I had always been more of a tomboy, thumbing my nose at the societal expectations of beauty, my best chance to catch and hold his incredibly popular attention was... I can’t believe I was going to admit this out loud... my mother.
