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librarian. Casual Prince Alex would most likely wear something übercomfortable. This outfit only highlighted their differences, all but shouting that they didn’t belong together—
    Oh, darn him! Now she got it. The prince who kept saying he would talk her out of this marriage hadn’t scheduled this lunch as a date. He’d set it up to get them out of the palace and in front of the press, as a way to publicly demonstrate that they didn’t belong together.
    She fumed as the truth settled in. What better way to get her to back out of this wedding than by proving they were different? Really different. So awkward as a couple that the media might make an issue of it and make her life too miserable to endure.
    Furious, she yanked the pins out of her hair and let it fall around her. She turned right, then left. The effect was better but still not good enough for the woman marrying Xaviera’s casual playboy prince.
    Rummaging in her drawers, she found denim capris and a flirty blue top. Sleeveless and low-cut, made of airy material that billowed out when she moved, the blouse was one of her favorites. Not only was she comfortable in it, but she was pretty. She felt flirty. And the videos she’d watched on YouTube said feeling flirty was half the battle. He might be on a mission to get her to dump him, but she was on the opposite mission. If it killed her, she would get him to like her enough he’d go through with this wedding.
    No! By God, she would get him to fall in love with her!
    After filling her black clutch bag with her phone and other necessities, she headed out.
    When she saw Alex at the small side entryway where he’d indicated he would meet her, she watched his expression falter. Wearing worn boat shoes and scruffy jeans, with a white Oxford cloth shirt that tried unsuccessfully to make him respectable, he looked like a commoner. A dirt-poor, derelict commoner.
    She didn’t quite look that bad, but she hadn’t dressed like a proper princess either, and from the quick once-over he gave her, it surprised him.
    He shook his head as she approached.
    She smiled. “You wanted to point out our differences by looking scruffy. But I figured out your game. So I scruffed down my outfit and, guess what? Here we are. A match.”
    “I did not set this up to point out our differences.” He smiled engagingly. “And you’d look great no matter what you wore.”
    She’d look great no matter what she wore?
    Eva stepped back. “What?”
    “You look great. But, more important, we need to be out in public today because we’ll be announcing our wedding tomorrow at a press conference.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “I thought you were going to talk me out of it?”
    He laughed lightly. “Let’s just take this one day at a time.”
    Her eyes narrowed even more as she studied him. He might be a nice enough guy to save her from embarrassment twice, but he did not want this wedding. He should not be acting as if everything was fine.
    “All right. What’s up?”
    He pointed at a black Mercedes. “Nothing.”
    As he helped her into the car, she analyzed their situation one more time, and realized that maybe there was nothing wrong. He had to look attentive and proper in public or his dad would know he wasn’t taking this seriously. But that really worked in her favor. She could use the four or five hours they’d spend together getting him to like her.
    To her surprise, he drove, with bodyguards following them in a big black SUV. Being accustomed to security details in her own country, she didn’t even blink. Instead, she glanced out the window at the scenery. Though she’d viewed most of the island from the air as her royal family’s jet touched down, being close to the thick green foliage and the rocky coastline took her breath away.
    She sighed.
    He eyed her curiously. “What’s up?”
    “Your country is beautiful.”
    “It is.”
    Okay. Even though it worked in her favor, his being nice to her was getting weird.
    She stole