Virgin Princess's Marriage Debt / Demanding His Desert Queen. Annie West

he felt it too. That anticipation, the moment when he would see Sofia emerging from whatever shrub she was hiding behind. He still had to pinch himself sometimes. Never quite sure if he could really believe that someone like her would really be interested in someone like him. But tonight…he was going to tell her. Tell her that he loved her. That he wanted her to be with him when he left for university…that he wanted the life they had often talked about having in the last six months. Because somehow she’d worked her way through the anger and distrust he’d first met her with, she’d broken down the barriers all the taunts and cruel tricks the other students had thrown his way.

      She had been the one bright thing in his days at school over the last few months. For so long his life had simply been about him and his mother, doing whatever it took to get through the day. He’d hated how his mother was treated by her family…because of him, because of the father he’d never met, and never wanted to. The move from Greece to Switzerland had been a fresh start for them both—the opportunity at this school one almost unimaginable for a housekeeper and her son.

      And no matter what people threw at him, Theo was determined to bide his time here, knowing that it would get him to where he wanted to be. But the moment he’d first seen Sofia…the way her oceanic blue eyes had sparkled with mischief, the way his heart had kicked and thrashed, as if for the first time, when her gaze collided with his he had found something more from life than just lessons and determination. And it had never stopped, that heart thumping. He felt that same way every single time he saw her.

      She had this air about her, as if nothing bad could ever touch her. And it was addictive. He leant into it every chance he could get. But he worried about her, wanted to protect her from herself even. If the school prankster was caught pulling another stunt, the headmaster had been clear—they would be expelled. He doubted they’d ever guess it was the sweet, innocent-looking blonde angel she appeared to be. But he couldn’t deny that it was exactly that strange, thrilling combination of innocence and recklessness that had first drawn him to her.

      He wasn’t quite sure what it was, but there was also a deep desperation within her. Some kind of urgency that called to him, to his feelings for her…his love. She hadn’t said much about her family, dropping little breadcrumbs of information about a loving but strict home that stifled the freedom Sofia loved so much. It certainly didn’t sound like something that he would run from. But there would be time to uncover the secrets she held. There would be the rest of their lives.

      That he was another of her secrets, he hated… It came far too close to the way he thought his father must have felt in order to flee from their village the same night of his birth. As if there was something about Theo that was shameful or embarrassing somehow.

      A noise in the bushes off to his left startled him, his heart racing, knowing that it wouldn’t settle until he saw her.

      ‘Tersi. I was told I’d find you here.’

      Instead of Sofia’s softly accented Iondorran tones, fear sliced through his high hopes as the voice of his headmaster cut into the night.

      He didn’t move. Not a muscle. His heart dropped, sickness and nausea an instant reaction to being caught doing something he shouldn’t be doing. But greater than that was his concern for Sofia.

      ‘What’s going on?’ Theo ventured to the man who had never liked him.

      ‘What’s going on is that I now have my prankster. Did you really think that I would allow my car, my car, to be put onto the roof of the sports hall and take no action?’

      Theo was shaking his head. ‘I don’t know anything about that, sir, honestly.’

      The grim look of determination on the older man’s face told Theo that he wasn’t believed. Not for a second. Panic began to set in then.

      ‘Where’s Sofia?’

      ‘The princess has returned to Iondorra.’

      ‘Princess? What are you talking about?’ Theo demanded, any hesitation overruled by his confusion.

      ‘She didn’t tell you?’

      ‘Tell me what? Sir, please—’

      ‘Did you really think that a princess would be interested in…?’

      The man must have seen the look on Theo’s face, the one he knew had descended as quickly as the fury had whipped within his chest. If there was even a moment of pity, or hesitation from the headmaster, Theo didn’t see it.

      ‘Well, it’s done. She’s gone. And you, skulking around in the shadows waiting to see the effect of your handiwork, will regret the day you pulled this last prank.’

      ‘Mr Templeton, I didn’t do anything to your car,’ Theo said, desperately trying to hold on to his temper.

      ‘No? Then why is your school scarf wedged underneath the wheel arch of my Mini Cooper?’

      ‘I have no—’

      Horror hit Theo hard and fast. The last time he’d seen his scarf he had been looping it around Sofia’s neck as she shivered in the cold winter’s sun. Sofia had lied to him? She was a princess? It was impossible. But as Theo was marched back to the headmaster’s office, his quick mind ran over the images that shifted like a kaleidoscope in his memory. Every interaction, every conversation, every kiss and his stomach turned. Each memory played to the sound of taunts he had never risen to. The cries and jibes of students belittling him for his humble beginnings—ones he had taken because this school had been his ticket out. His way to rise up, no matter what people said or did. But Sofia? She was the one who had wanted to keep their relationship a secret. She was the only one who had known where he would be that night. She was the one who had said she had a surprise for him. She was the one who had been pulling the pranks all this time, and had finally left his scarf at the site of the latest one. Had it all been a ruse? Had she spent the last six months priming him to be the patsy? The fall guy to take the blame for her pranks? Was that why he’d doubted her in the beginning, because somewhere deep down he had known it was all lies? Had she really been the cruellest of them all, to make him fall in love with her, when he should have known better?

      He was going to be expelled. He was going to lose everything. Because of her.

       CHAPTER ONE

      Paris…ten years later

      PRINCESS SOFIA DE LORIA of Iondorra looked out across the Parisian skyline as the sun began its slow summer descent over the rooftops and cobbled streets of Europe’s reportedly most romantic city. The irony was not lost on her. Tonight she would meet the man she would spend the rest of her life with. Not that romance had anything to do with it. No, that was the domain of Angelique—the practical, determined matchmaker who had been employed for that express purpose.

      The hint of jasmine that settled around the room of the luxurious hotel near the Sixth Arrondissement from some invisible air dispenser was nothing like the real thing and Sofia longed to return to her palace in Iondorra. Although she did appreciate the soft white and gold tones of the room and, casting a look to the king-sized bed, her heart lurching, she felt desperate to throw herself amongst the soft pillows and deep comfort offered by the impossibly thick duvet. She had been away too long, immersed in diplomatic duties unruffling more than a few feathers caused by her father’s recent and increasing absence from the world’s stage. More and more, she found that she just wanted to go home.

      She pulled her gaze from the incredible view of the Jardin de Luxembourg and paced towards the larger seating area of the stunning suite. Only yesterday she had been in Prague, two days before that, it had been Istanbul. Her body moved oddly within the costume for that evening’s masquerade ball—the full corset holding her back straight and pushing her breasts against the gentle arc of the low, sweeping neckline. She felt confined by it, not that it was an unfamiliar feeling to Sofia. The bustle of material behind her, falling into a wide golden train, made her