Read Prince's Addiction (The Exiled Royals Series Book 2) for Free Online

from the breadbasket as well. Kate had only had three glasses of wine, but it suddenly felt like her whole world was spinning.
    Striding into the den, she tried to paste on the biggest smile she could. There, her friend—and free sitter—Joan was hunched over the carpet alongside her little sister, Lily. They were immersed in what they were doing, decorating the cardboard liberally with the green and deep purple of the Rattler’s team colors. They were the local baseball team, a 2A, and they had a free game night on Saturdays. Kids under ten got to attend for free and once a month there was a huge fireworks show after the game.
    Lily adored it.
    In turn, Kate adored anything that lit up her sister’s face with joy.
    Both her best friend and her little sister were pretty wrapped up in what they were doing, and she almost hated to interrupt them. Then she noticed a rather large glop of violet paint on the tile and coughed. “Excuse me, Joan, are you kidding?”
    “Hey,” her friend said, pushing a long strand of black hair behind her ears. “You were supposed to be home a little later. Did everything go okay?”
    Lily’s blue eyes brightened and she stood up and rushed over to Kate, clinging to her legs like Velcro with her hug. “You’re back. Did you bring me anything?”
    Kate hugged her close. “You know it was a bar, right?”
    “Well did you get food and sneak me some?” she asked, blinking wide, guileless eyes back at her.
    Kate shook her head. “You know that Dr. Thomkins doesn’t like when you eat anything not on your prescribed diet, honey. You know that’s not good for you.”
    “But if you snuck me cake we won’t even have to tell the doctor!”
    “No, Lily Anne, now why don’t you finish painting— on the cardboard—so that Auntie Joan and I can talk.”
    Her sister pulled away and skipped back to her posters. Joan stood and gave Lily a quick kiss on the top of her head before heading back to the kitchen. She grabbed a soda from the fridge and started to guzzle it.
    “So, spill.”
    “Spill what?”
    “Well, did the set up work? Did you get him to bend and gamble?”
    Kate rolled her eyes even as she slipped off her flats and fake-out bandage. “No. I got Ben to arrange for the chip special and everything. I know he wanted to. He practically watched the table more than he watched me, you know?”
    “Then what happened?”
    “He was half way there and I could see him gripping one of the chips for dear life, but he just didn’t do it. It seems Prince Godonov has some marginal willpower, at least in public. I’d kill to have a look at his computer. If I could do that, then maybe he’s been doing things on the sly.”
    “Then you’ll have to have another date—oh the sacrifices you make for Lily.” Joan said with mock sorrow.
    “It’s not funny. He’s not just some beefcake from a calendar, Joan.”
    “But he could be. Hell, he could be Mr. All the Months.”
    “It’s more serious than that,” she said, starting to pace a little.
    The smirk fell from Joan’s face as she noticed Kate’s distress. “What’s wrong? Why are you so worked up?”
    “Because it got too serious. He asked me to dance, and I’d already had a few. I wasn’t supposed to, but it felt so good in his arms. Then I tried to make an excuse to go home and it was mostly normal on the ride and then there was this moment.”
    Joan frowned, intense brown eyes regarding her. “Wait, define ‘moment.’ Did ya’ll kiss?”
    Kate blushed.
    Oh, caught .
    “He did, but I liked it and definitely kissed back.”
    “That’s good then because he’ll want to see you again—invite you over. If you get a look at his place or access to his computer…you’re pretty smart, I mean, before you dropped out of stuff, you were a decent programmer in high school. You crack a password and bam! In like Flynn.”
    “I just…maybe this isn’t the right idea anymore. I wasn’t supposed to fall for him.”
    “Whoa, who