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Drusilla.
He had chosen her because she was the best option. The most expedient.
He was no longer certain that was the case.
Stevie had saved his life.
Stevie was the last woman to set him on fire.
Stevie was the woman the press couldn’t stop talking about.
Stevie might be the answer to everything.
The truth was, whatever his father thought, his time with Stevie had not been about a playboy reverting to type. What had passed between them had been singular, and he’d thought continually of her since they’d been rescued.
Yes, he’d wanted to protect her, and that had been his driving focus as he remained trapped in the hospital bed, but he also…
Wanted her.
And the truth was the backlash over the wedding was something he didn’t feel was fixable. Drusilla was already unhappy with him over the scandal surrounding everything, and he suspected she would rather they called it off altogether.
He knew he wanted to.
He knew what his solution was.
“I think previous plans might need changing,” he said slowly.
“Which previous plans?” his father asked.
“The future Queen of Olympus must be smart, brave and resourceful, do you not agree?”
His father looked at him through narrowed eyes. “Yes.”
“She must be popular with the people, and of course there must be chemistry between us else she leave me for the bright lights of Hollywood.”
His father scowled. “My own mistakes are not on trial here.”
“Well, we can litigate those another time.” He lifted a brow. “A princess who is down-to-earth, who has spent her life working. Who knows how to engage with the majority of the populace…because she is like them.”
“Of course those things would be good, but I am hard-pressed to believe you could find such a woman who is also suitable.”
He smiled. Slowly. “Oh, I have already. I think that Stevie Parker is a much better solution to the problem you’ve been trying to solve.”
* * *
Stevie was… Well, she was furious. She’d been back at her home in Montana for two weeks, she had no reward, no contact with Adonis,His Royal Highness, at all. She was being hounded by reporters. Because now it was a global news story. That the Playboy Prince had crashed in the wilderness, and had been saved by a female pilot, and everybody wanted to know what was happening.
And on a personal note… She’d been worried about pregnancy. Weirdly sad when her period had come and oddly bereft even in her fury over everything.
In the two weeks since the accident had occurred, her entire life had been turned upside down. Not only did she not have the means to work, she didn’t have her anonymity, her privacy, anymore. And she was still poor as a duck.
It was not a conundrum that she had ever expected to find herself in.
One time, when her sisters were very small, a news crew had come to the school to do a feature on the solar panels that had been installed, making the school the first in the state to run off of alternative energy.
And Topaz had said, quite seriously,I avoided getting on camera. I don’t want to accidentally become famous.
They had all laughed at that. Stevie most of all.