The Playboy Prince (Piacere Princes, Book One) (12 page)

“Hot cocoa, then?” Maggie murmured, running a tape measure over Nico’s arms, legs, neck, and inseam without the accidental slip she’d had with Salvy. Thank God.
 

Her hands were normally steady at her work. She’d never groped a client before, and she sincerely hoped to never do so again.

Her stomach swirled at the memory, at the feeling of his manhood under her fingers, and for just a moment, she entertained the thought of what it would feel like wrapped in her hand.

When she brought her brain back around to focus, she looked up to see Nico studying her face. His expression hung somewhere between concern and amusement.
 

“What?” Maggie snapped.

“Nothing, nothing.” He smiled. “Take care of yourself, Magdalena. I’m sure you remember the skills you’ll need to survive living among the wolves for a few weeks.”

“What does that mean?” Elisa asked, her sky-blue eyes wide.

“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” her father replied, winking at Maggie like a mischievous older brother before dragging his daughter out of the room.

Magdalena hadn’t planned on coming home again so soon, but she couldn’t stay in the palace. The confrontation with Luca had rattled her, and the near-miss with Salvadore made her desperate for a shower. She didn’t know if she could wash away the sensual tingles his touch had left all over her body, but she might as well try.
 

What she really needed was a few minutes alone with herself, or to find a guy willing to help her release some…she’d call it tension.
 

There wasn’t time for the latter, not with everything else going on, and honestly, as Maggie had gotten older, she found that short-term hookups were more trouble than they were worth. Her grandmother used to say that finding a man was a whole lot easier than losing him when you wanted to, and time had proven her nana a wise woman.

She smiled at the memory of the feisty old lady. Magdalena thought perhaps staying single and able to live on her own terms might be the life for her, too. She had long ago put away her fanciful daydreams of marrying Prince Salvadore one day, of being accepted into the family the way a commoner never could be, but that didn’t change the fact that no one else had ever come close to making her feel the way he did.

Seeing him again only confirmed that, and her face felt like it was going to melt off at the memory of those exact words, the way she’d written them in the diary he’d read ten years ago. She’d taken a vacation with her girlfriends the day after he’d told her what he thought of her crush by kissing another girl. He’d been gone to boarding school when she returned, but somehow, deep in her heart, she’d thought he might come after her. Tell her he felt the same way, or at least apologize for being a jerk and promise they could still be friends.

But he hadn’t. A decade had flown by, and Salvadore had passed it with countless women who he obviously found more attractive choices than her. She’d spent it at school, and becoming exceptionally good at fashion design while finding that men were a waste of time.

She knew some people thought her lonely. She didn’t go out much, and the friends she had were more acquaintances. They didn’t have much in common, Maggie supposed.
 

Regardless, when her phone dinged with a text message from Brigida, Maggie agreed to meet them for a quick drink and an update on the whole Matrigna Holdings debacle. The preparations for the ball were going to take up much of her time, but she couldn’t let this thing slide. Her father’s life might not last forever, but Maggie was determined that he would live out his days in their little cottage nestled at the foot of the mountains. She didn’t care if the King himself was behind the property buyout.

Once she’d packed all of her more sensible clothes and every pair of underwear she owned, Maggie shouldered the bag and headed to say goodbye to her father. The sound of laughter drew her forward, and she found her dad and his friend Juliet in front of the fire, both of their smiles glowing in the light.

“Oh, Magdalena. I’m so glad you called me. Your father says he was dangerously close to becoming boring, and that just won’t do.”

Maggie crossed the room and let the older woman fold her into a hug, her giant boobs crushing the air from Magdalena’s lungs as she squeezed tight.

“Hi, Juliet,” she wheezed after the woman released her. “Thank you for coming.”

She waved a hand. “Pish posh. I would have come sooner had you told me the truth.”

“Don’t scold her, Julie,” her father intervened. “I told her silence was the best way.”

“From the public maybe. Not from me.”

“I’m happy you were able to come on such short notice. It’s going to be a busy time at the palace and I’ll have to be there more nights than not.”

“Just like the old days, huh?”

“Not quite,” Magdalena murmured, thinking of how Salvadore had only grown more handsome—and infinitely more skilled at being impossible to resist—over the years.

“Well, I know you’ve got this. I can stay until after the to-do at the end of the month, and then my niece is coming from America to stay with me for a while.”

“That will be nice.”

“Yes, she’s one of those lost children that seem to be more and more common these days—like you, dear. She’s in her twenties and works as a glorified babysitter while she goes to school forever.” Juliet rolled her eyes. “In my day, all you needed to figure things out was good friends, a decent-sized penis, and a couple of orgasms a week.”

Magdalena laughed, despite the fact that she didn’t exactly enjoy discussing such things in front of her father. Juliet did always get right to the point. “I’ll try to remember that. Who needs professional fulfillment and true love?”

Juliet sobered, looking Maggie straight in the eye. “True love is for fairytales, darling. No matter what Prince Salvadore and the palace are trying to sell with this ball nonsense, that sort of thing doesn’t play out in real life.”

“I know that.”
 

Did she? Magdalena wasn’t sure, but she figured a woman like Juliet, who had been married three times, would know.
 

“You going out,
bella mia
?”

Maggie went to her father and kissed his cheek. “I’m going to meet some friends for a quick drink and then head back to the palace. I’ll check in every day, though, okay?”

He patted her hand. “You don’t have to, but I’ll look forward to hearing your voice.”

Maggie headed for the door, motioning for Juliet to follow her into the hallway as subtly as possible. By the time they were alone, the expression on the older woman’s face made it clear she was looking forward to whatever gossip she was about to get.

“Could you keep an eye out for any letters or phone calls from someone claiming to represent a Matrigna Holdings?”

Juliet’s eyebrows went up, her hazel eyes flickering with interest. “Those people buying up all the land in the country? They’re after Gabriel’s little plot?”

“You’ve heard of them?”

“Sure. Half the people in my little town have already sold out. They’re spending money like nobody’s business.”

“Where are they all going?”

She shrugged. “The buyer is allowing them to remain in their homes and pay rent to him for the time being, but I imagine once he’s got all he wants, there will be some changes to the landscape.” Her lips twisted in disgust. “I’ll keep an eye out and let you know if anything comes in.”

“Thanks, Juliet. And thanks again for staying. I promise to be home by the time…what was your niece’s name?”

“Amalia.” She smiled, clearly taken with her niece despite her earlier criticism. “Lia. She’s a good girl.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting her. I hope we can all spend a little time together before you go back home.”

“I imagine she’ll love that. She’ll much prefer the excitement of Arcobaleno to my little country home.” Juliet smiled and nudged Maggie toward the door. “Don’t worry about your father. Just prove yourself with this job. Once the crown has accepted you as his replacement, the rest of the kingdom will do the same.”

“Thanks.”

Time had gotten away from her, and if the buses weren’t running on time she would be late to meet her friends. Not that any of them would care—both Barty and Camilla ran late like they didn’t own watches—but Maggie was anxious to get back to the palace. Her staff would arrive first thing in the morning and she still had to revamp Elisa’s costumes.
 

Her worries turned out to be in vain, as the bus dropped her off a block from the bar with two minutes to spare. She blew inside and, as she suspected, found only Brigida and Lorenzo waiting at the table.
 

They ordered drinks and Maggie asked for a cheeseburger, which arrived at the table a minute before the rest of their friends.
 

“So, fill me in,” Camilla said, slinging her purse on the back of the chair. “And please please
please
tell me you’ll have time to make me a gown, too. I want to look
perfect.
”

“Um, hello. We came here to talk about the last twenty-four hours of stakeouts at Matrigna, not so that you could use Maggie’s position to get your grubby hands on a prince.”

“Excuse me, but my hands are not grubby. And
someone’s
going to marry him—don’t you all want to see me happy?”

Barty snorted. “You think you’d be happy with that womanizer? A hundred bucks says he makes his future bride sign some kind of non-disclosure prenup that allows him to continue being a dirty, dirty boy…”

“Oh my god, you look like you’re about to have an orgasm just thinking about him,” Lorenzo snorted.

“He probably wouldn’t be the first,” Brigida commented.

Maggie held up a hand, tired of the talk about Salvadore. It bothered her—even though he was the things her friends said, even though the prince himself didn’t seem to mind his reputation, he was more than those things. She had never doubted what he could be if he wanted to, and she hated that because he didn’t believe it himself, this was the way his people talked about him around pub tables.

“Cammie, I’ll try and get to a dress for you, but I’m not sure I’ll have time. I’ll come by your place next week if I can squeeze it in.” Maggie squeezed her beer bottle, willing her voice to pitch lower so she didn’t sound so upset. “Now, what have we learned about the person picking up messages for Matrigna? Anything?”

“No one has come and gone except the receptionist, not that we’ve seen,” Brigida said, managing to sound both bored and frustrated at the same time.
 

“Damn. Well, it’s only been a day.”

“Look, I know this is important, but I don’t have weeks of my life to spend sitting in a car or lurking on a street corner. It’s cold, and I’m too pretty for grunt work.” Camilla studied her manicure. “So is Barty.”

“Ha, ha,” Barty fake laughed. “But she’s not wrong. If it’s really only a receptionist, we could just…let ourselves in and take a look around. Maybe find some files, or a phone number?”

Maggie’s lips tugged down in a frown. “It didn’t seem like there would be much to find in there.”

“Wait a second, you’re supporting this? Perfect, I-Always-Follow-The-Rules Magdalena Rossi?” Lorenzo’s mouth hung open in fake shock.
 

Or maybe it was real, she didn’t care. She needed to get back to work.

Magdalena shrugged. “I mean, I’m busy, too. Why waste a bunch of time to potentially come up with nothing when we could come up with nothing in one night?”

“It’s settled,” Camilla said. “When are we doing this?”

“How about tomorrow night?” Barty suggested, waiting for the rest of them to either shrug or nod. Lorenzo and Brigida both looked less than enthusiastic about breaking the law, but in the end, they both consented.

Which was important, because Brigida’s father owned a hardware store, which meant she could bring the ring of skeleton keys that would get them inside.
 

“Can you get away, Maggie? I mean, I’d hate to jeopardize my chance at getting a dress.”

She shook her head at Camilla, wondering again how on earth they’d managed to fall in with the same group of friends.
 

“I can, but I think a couple of us should go alone. Five is too many to stay inconspicuous.” She drew a deep breath, knowing that she’d started this whole thing and one of the three should be her. “I’ll go, and Brigida so she can bring the keys. Barty, you come as the lookout. We’ll update the two of you afterward.”

They all agreed. Maggie drained her beer, finished her burger, and headed back to the castle to finish up her designs for Elisa’s outfit. She couldn’t shake the feeling that now, when she was trying to convince the crown that they could trust her the way they trusted her father, wasn’t the time to start stepping out of line.