Page 11 of Incognito (Royally Reckless #1)

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“ Y ou want my help with what? ”

Natasha stared at Dante like he’d just asked her to strip naked and dance down Bourke Street.

He shrugged, a sheepish expression on his too-handsome face, managing to look needy and gorgeous at the same time. “You live in Melbourne. You’d know where all the best toy stores are and who I can hire to organise the best party.”

“For a two year old?”

She shook her head and blew her fringe out of her eyes. She should’ve stuck with the chignon. That way, she could’ve taken out the pin holding it up and stabbed him with it.

“It’s hard work,” he said, imploring her with those mesmerising eyes. “I spent the whole day traipsing around your city and came up with nothing. I have a few days to get this party organised and I don’t know where to start.”

“Then why did you take it on?”

His eyes glittered with emotion and she swallowed her next sarcastic retort along the lines of ‘what would an Italian prince know about kiddie parties.’

“My sister is a scatterbrain. She isn’t the most organised person in the world and from what I’ve seen so far, planning stuff like birthday parties isn’t her forte, and I want Paolo to have a special day.”

A day the two-year-old probably wouldn’t remember when he was older, but she kept that gem to herself too.

She couldn’t fault the prince for caring about his nephew. But planning a kid’s party? She knew as much about organising that as she did about knighting deserved recipients. Absolutely nothing.

“Think you can do it?”

She met his challenging gaze head-on, knowing she’d make this work if she had to don a clown costume and take a crash course in juggling herself. This was too important. Getting Dante’s reciprocal help at the end of the week was vital to the survival of Telford Towers.

Tilting her head up, she said, “You bet I can do it.”

“I knew I could count on you.”

He smiled, another of his run-of-the-mill smiles that made her feel like she was the only woman in the world. Obviously a practiced part of his prince charming act, something he used to coerce people to bend to his will on a daily basis, but boy, did those curving lips pack a powerful punch.

“First up, I’ll need to do an extensive online search and come up with a concise list. It’ll save us loads of time. Then I’ll narrow down the choices with your help and check out your chosen options.”

“Very efficient.”

“Okay then. I’ll get started.”

He arched an eyebrow, the imperious prince questioning a serf’s insubordination, and she stifled a smile at the analogy.

“I thought we’d be working on this together?”

He thought wrong. Spending one on one time with the gorgeous prince, work or not, wouldn’t be good. He awakened feelings in her she’d rather suppress. Feelings of being appreciated, and worse, feelings like he saw her as an attractive woman and she wouldn’t go there. She couldn’t. She’d done it before with a handsome man and her battered self esteem still hadn’t recovered.

“I don’t need you.”

That came out a lot harsher than she intended and she bit her lip, wishing he didn’t make her feel so gauche and out of her depth.

“You sure about that?”

A teasing glint lit his eyes as he leaned forward a centimetre yet it felt much closer, like he’d infused her personal space.

“Positive.”

Her less than emphatic nod did little to convince him by his lips curving upwards in a knowing grin.

“Look, I want your help, but I need to be involved in this too. That’s the whole point of me coming to Australia a week earlier and going through this ruse. I want to make this special for Paolo, to get to know my nephew, and I can’t do that if I delegate all the work to you.”

He pressed a hand over his heart and hers melted a little. “I hoped we’d work as a team, you coming up with the information I need, me having enough input to feel like I’m not a totally useless uncle just breezing through on a fly-by official visit.”

The shield surrounding her heart cracked further at his declaration. Who wouldn’t like a guy for wanting the best for his toddler nephew?

If only Dante could be more uppity, more demanding, more…princely. That way, she could despise him for his airs and keep him at arms’ length. Instead, she found him too attractive and now with this softer side, she had a sinking feeling he could undermine her carefully erected defences.

She didn’t trust easily.

She didn’t like opening herself up to feeling like a fool.

And she sure as hell didn’t like her self esteem taking another swan dive when she admitted that the only reason a guy like Dante paid any attention to her was because of what she could do for him.

“Okay. I’ll get my laptop and meet you back here. We can grab a coffee at one of the nearby trattorias while we work.”

“Perfect,” he said, pinning her with an intense stare that made her wish for a host of crazy things: that his husky ‘perfect’ referred to her, that her not-so-perfect persona was willing to take a chance on having a little fun, and that maybe she could shrug off the weight of familial responsibility weighing down her shoulders and live a little today without thinking about tomorrow.

“Back in a sec.”

She turned and managed to walk to the lift with all the finesse of a runway model, minus the hip swivel. However, she couldn’t shake the feeling Dante watched her every step and when she risked a quick glance over her shoulder before stepping into the lift, which thankfully appeared sooner rather than later, he raised his hand in a brief wave.

She stumbled into the lift and hit the button for her floor, leaning on the cool steel wall for support.

So much for poise.

His wave hadn’t undermined her cool act as much as the sexy grin that implied he’d watched her fake strut to the lift and had enjoyed every minute of it.

Prince or not, saving her hotel or not, Dante was trouble.

And it looked like she’d landed in a heap of it.