Page 3 of Crowned for His Son

It couldn’t be.

She’d been missing for almost three years. Rumoured to have either walked away from the wreckage or even presumed dead, even though her body had never been found with Nick’s.

It wasn’t her.

Was it?

He was moving before he fully clocked himself. The shattering of glass signalled that he hadn’t set his champagne glass down properly.

‘Hey! What the hell…? Azar? Is everything—?’

‘Excuse me,’ he grated roughly.

Butwhywas she moonlighting as a waitress? Had she fallen this far from grace? Not that being a career hostess and a leech, dedicated to extracting as much money as possible out of billionaires, was in any way a pinnacle of grace.

‘Um…it’s just…you caught me by surprise.’

Azar sucked in a slow, sustaining breath. ‘You just admitted you know who I am.’

She nodded impatiently. ‘Yes. You’re Crown Prince Azar of Cartana. I’ve seen you…and your brothers…in the news—’

She stopped, bit her lip, and now they weren’t pinched at all. They were the deep pink he last recalled them being as they wrapped around his—

‘I’m sorry, I’m not sure what the correct form of address is.’

‘It isYour Highness,’ Ramon, his head of security and a stickler for protocol, supplied icily.

The tray in her hand wobbled. Her breath stalled as she struggled to keep it upright. Another flick of his wrist and one bodyguard stepped forward and relieved her of it.

‘Wait—what are you doing? I’m working.’

‘Not any more. Come with me.’ While he was used to audiences, large and small, Azar wasn’t in the mood to air this particular item of dirty laundry in public.

He turned, nodded at his security chief, and headed for the corridor leading to his private suite.

‘What—? Why—? I haven’t done anything wrong.’

After a low-voiced warning from Ramon, her footsteps trotted behind him.

The moment she entered his suite her escape was effectively blocked by Ramon and his crew, and the door shut behind them all. He spun around.

‘Now. You have ten seconds to confess the reason behind this poor excuse for a disguise before I have you arrested.’

* * *

Eden stared at the man standing before her. The hands braced on his hips intensified his already formidable aura, rendering him more intimidating, and yet indecentlyhotenough to slam her heart against her ribcage.

She would’ve thought she was immune to such displays of power, wealth and privilege from drop-dead gorgeous people by now. This was Vegas, after all.

But no.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Cartana was easily head and shoulders above the normal crème de la crème.

She’d been lucky to land this gig when one of the other girls had come down with a chest infection. She’d grabbed it with both hands, even though it had meant scrambling to find childcare for Max. The promise of double pay and a chance to repay her long-suffering elderly neighbour for stepping in with help was too good to pass up.

Except she stood to earn nothing at all if she got herself fired for whatever transgression His Royal Grumpiness deemed she’d committed.

She flinched as the door nicked shut behind her. Her ten seconds had passed. His security guards had left, leaving her alone with the most formidable man she’d ever met.

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