The Simply Scandalous Princess. Michele Dunaway

I mean, she’s devoted all her life to the family company and building it. She’s the head of it, and it’s more her baby than I am. She was not happy with my choice.”

      “Parents sometimes say things that they don’t mean,” Harrison said.

      “It doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t understand. Devon is such a success and a credit to you.”

      “I’m far from the ideal father.” The admission spilled from Harrison’s mouth before he could stop it.

      Lucia raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “I can’t believe that.”

      “Believe it.” The cat already out of the bag, Harrison cocked his head and gave Lucia a wry smile. “I failed not only my wife but my son as well. If I’d been any type of good father I would have known what to do with my son when his mother died. Instead, I shipped him off at age sixteen to the military academy. So don’t judge your mother so harshly. Perhaps she only thought she was doing what was best.”

      Lucia smiled and the movement lit up her whole face. “You know, you may be right,” Lucia said finally. “My mother did work very hard to keep the shipping business going so that we could be raised in the proper environment befitting what my father would have wished. I just wish that included letting us visit Korosol, though. Since my father’s death she’s sworn off going again and so I don’t remember anything about it. I was too young.”

      “It’s lovely there,” Harrison told her honestly.

      “Tell me about it,” she said.

      “I’ve never seen water so clear, grass so green or flowers so yellow,” Harrison said. “Part of the country is the Larella Mountains, and part is on the Mediterranean coast. There the beaches are the whitest and softest sand.”

      “I’ve seen pictures,” Lucia said, “and it looks lovely. Once I even ordered the tourist brochures on the village of Aladair. I never did get to visit, though.”

      Harrison smiled at her. “I’ve traveled the world, and to me, it will always be home. I can’t imagine living any other place. I guess I get my energy from the land.”

      Lucia nodded. “Like Scarlett O’Hara.”

      “Who?”

      “The heroine in Gone With the Wind. She got her strength from the red earth of her plantation, Tara. You mean you’ve never seen the movie? It’s one of my all-time favorites.”

      “Uh, no,” Harrison admitted. With his military career, he hadn’t had time to see many movies, even on video.

      “We’ll have to watch it.” Lucia’s face grew animated and, despite himself, knowing he shouldn’t, Harrison delighted in watching her.

      “I love classic movies,” Lucia said, “and this one won ten Academy Awards, including 1939 Best Picture. I can’t believe you haven’t seen it.”

      “Well, believe it,” Harrison said with a smile.

      “Then at one of these interviews we’ll watch Gone With the Wind so you’ll really know what I’m referring to.”

      “Speaking of the interview, perhaps we should get back to our subject.”

      At Harrison’s statement, Lucia’s euphoria fell, but she didn’t let him see. “Yes, we probably should.”

      She masked her disappointment with a smile of acceptance. He’d actually talked to her—amazing. For a brief moment she’d seen him loosen up, seen him out of the role that he was so entrenched in.

      Yes, she’d been right that night of the wedding reception. Harrison Montcalm was a man who was in desperate need of a little freedom from the restrictions he’d placed on his own life.

      And if her mother wanted Lucia to find a proper man, Harrison was as proper as they came.

      Briefly, as she watched him study his notepad, Lucia contemplated the fact that Harrison was nineteen years older than herself. She watched as his firm fingers used the pen to jot a note on the pad. She shivered slightly. Age didn’t matter. In her acquaintances with artists, musicians and people of “improper” society, according to her mother, Lucia had learned that appearances didn’t matter. It was what was inside the person that was truly important.

      She wanted to know what was inside Harrison Montcalm. If her suspicious were right, and they always were, deep inside Harrison was a heart of gold.

      Harrison looked up and caught her staring at him. Her cheeks flamed pink. “You were telling me about Gregory Barrett,” he said.

      “Oh, right,” Lucia replied. She didn’t want to talk about Gregory. Instead, she wanted to learn about Harrison. “To make a long story short, I dated him and he literally swept me off my feet. We were engaged after two months, and we’d set a wedding date. It was when the Carradigne family lawyers insisted on a prenuptial agreement that things began to fall apart.” She paused. Then Greg’s true colors had become quite obvious.

      “As for me being fast and loose, that was Greg and his mouth. He used my relationships with my friends against me. He insinuated that every male friend I had was a boyfriend so that he could make himself look like such a victim. According to him, I used him, chewed him up and spit him out. In reality, he didn’t love me. He just wanted a piece of the Carradigne pie. When the lawyers showed him how little he’d get, he said I’d cheated on him. He called me unfaithful so he could dump me like a hot potato and go after some other gullible girl with a trust fund he could pilfer.”

      Harrison didn’t look up from the leather portfolio, although Lucia could tell he wasn’t writing anything. “He worked on Wall Street?”

      “Had. Bad investments got him in trouble and fired. So he needed my cash, and fast.” Lucia shuddered. Gregory’s deception had made her leery of men, especially ones that Charlotte found for her. “Do you want to know if we slept together?”

      Harrison’s head snapped up, and to Lucia’s surprise he physically recoiled at that announcement. “That’s not necessary.”

      Lucia jutted her chin forward. To her, making Harrison understand was necessary. “Well, we didn’t. Have sex, that is.”

      Harrison straightened. He seemed uncomfortable. “Princess Lucia, King Easton is not concerned about your, um, morality in your choice of, uh, companions. As long as you have been discreet before you take the throne, and as long as, once you become queen, you remain chaste in the eyes of the public until you marry, he will be satisfied that he has made a wise choice.”

      “What about you?” Lucia turned the question around. “Do you think he’s made a wise choice?”

      She had to give him credit. He was quick and diplomatic. “It is not my place to judge, Princess. I am just to gather the facts, and if the king chooses you, then I will be your adviser and prepare you for your transition to the throne.”

      “But you have judged me,” Lucia replied, going back to her real question. He had avoided it, and somehow she knew he had judged her. She felt it deep in her bones, and her female intuition never failed her.

      “No, Princess, I have not,” Harrison denied. “That is not my role as an adviser to the king.”

      “So you just do what Easton tells you,” Lucia returned, her tone a bit harsh.

      Harrison blinked, as if surprised by her sudden change of attitude. “I do not understand what you are insinuating, Princess. I do my job.”

      For one second Lucia wondered why it mattered to her, why she was pursuing this line of conversation. But she knew. It was because of sleepless nights he’d caused her. Because of the erotic dreams she’d had. Because of the feeling of loneliness that had vanished when she’d touched him at the wedding reception. Because of a desire…

      She brushed those thoughts aside. She would make him see. “Your job. Do you ever think of more than your job?”

      “I