Once Upon a Princess

by Holly Jacobs

  “Good.” Michael gave her a hug. “We’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you, as well. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you. So, tell me what you’ve been up to….”

  They sat for a long while, talking about nothing. Talking about everything.

  Parker couldn’t believe that she’d cut herself off from this—from her family. For the first time in a long time she felt as if she was home.

  She found herself telling Michael about Jace. It just all poured out. “I know it seems too soon.”

  He shook his head. “There’s no time limit on love. When it hits you, it hits you. And, sweetie, listening to you talk about him, it’s hit. Just like it did Mother and Father all those years ago. Love.”

  “I sort of reached the same conclusion. Unfortunately he’s being stubborn.”

  “And of course you don’t know anything about being stubborn, right?” Michael laughed.

  Parker had enough of a sense of humor to offer him a chagrined smile. “I’m not stubborn, just sure of myself.”

  “And are you sure you love him?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then why are you sitting here with me?”

  “I thought we were going to dinner?”

  Michael gave her a quick hug. “I have a feeling your thoughts would be elsewhere. And I’ll stick around until tomorrow. Just go tell him how you feel.”

  “He’s not going to want to hear it.”

  This time Michael laughed. “Since when did that stop you from telling people how you felt?”

  “You’re right. But no matter what, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

  “Yes. And when you come home. We’ll make up for lost time, I promise.”

  She hugged him. “I’ve really missed you.”

  “Me, too. Now go.”

  She gave him one more quick hug and turned. “Wish me luck,” she called.

  “I don’t think you’ll need it.”

  Parker left her brother. She was going after Jace. Convincing him to overlook their differences and take a chance was going to be tough, but as Cara had said, love was supposed to be work.

  Chapter Ten

  Love’s supposed to be work.

  The phrase kept playing over and over again in Parker’s mind as she went back to the store and called a taxi. She might have access to her money again, but she hadn’t had time to go buy a new car. She’d been a bit preoccupied.

  Love.

  She’d thought the word defined what she was feeling for Jace.

  But she’d been wrong.

  What she felt was more than love.

  She needed him, darn it.

  Michael was right—she could be stubborn. And even if she had to camp out on his front steps for days, if she had to track him down as he tracked down people for his clients…no matter what it took, somehow she was going to have to convince Jace that what they had, what it could grow into, was worth taking a chance on.

  Unfortunately Jace O’Donnell was a pigheaded, thinks-he’s-right, got-all-the-answers man. And those were just his better qualities.

  She remembered his speech about the differences between his father and mother and Shelly and her husband.

  He’d claimed Parker was even more different than him, that her princessness set her in an entirely different—what’s the word he’d used?—galaxy. She was in a different galaxy than him.

  But he was wrong.

  If her princessness was all that was holding him back from taking a chance on her, then she could fix it.

  Jace sat outside the downtown hotel watching and waiting for one Mr. Archibald Smith to come out.

  Seems old Archie wasn’t a one-woman man.

  After following him for the last week, Jace had discovered the guy wasn’t even a two-woman man.

  He wondered what all three of Archie’s women saw in him. The guy was overweight, balding and had a sort of slimy look about him.

  Jace shook his head.

  Didn’t matter. Archie’s philandering was paying the bills. Seems Mrs. Smith didn’t like sharing and wanted proof.

  He took a sip of his tepid coffee.

  He really hated surveillance. But more than that, he hated being without Parker.

  For the thousandth time he thought about going to her.

  Thought about saying the words that he longed to say but knew he shouldn’t even consider.

  Archie had three women.

  All Jace wanted was one.

  Maybe—

  There was a knock on the passenger door. Jace jumped and his coffee sloshed onto his pant leg.

  He turned and glared, expecting to see Amanda and Bobby.

  The glare froze when he saw who it was. “Parker?”

  “Mind if I come in?” she asked with a smile. She didn’t wait for his answer, though. She just climbed into the passenger side of the car and slammed the door.

  “What are you doing here? I’m working,” he said, rubbing the coffee into his jeans.

  “We need to talk.”

  “How did you find me?” he asked, trying to sound annoyed. But truth was, he was too busy drinking in the sight of Parker to really worry about how she’d found him.

  “The twins.”

  “I’m going to do them in.” Or buy them presents. Big presents.

  “No, you’re not,” Parker assured him. “They told me because they’re worried about you. Seems you’ve been in a bit of a mood since our last talk.”

  “I haven’t been in a mood, I’ve simply been busy.”

  She ignored him and continued, “And they’re pretty sure you’ve been so grouchy because you miss me.”

  “The hell I do. We hardly knew each other—certainly not enough to miss.”

  “Maybe we didn’t know each other a long time, but you forget we had files on each other.”

  “I didn’t forget anything,” he muttered.

  “I didn’t either,” she said softly.

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “I didn’t come here to argue,” Parker assured him. “I just want to ask one question. If I weren’t a princess, would you be dating me?”

  “You are a princess, so what does it matter?” Jace said, not really answering the question.

  If he had answered, he’d have had to say yes. Yes, if she wasn’t a princess, he’d be dating her. He’d be spending every possible minute with her.

  If she wasn’t a princess, he’d have to tell her that he’d never met a woman like her, never felt so much so fast.

  He’d have to say a lot of things.

  “Yes, I know I’m a princess, but if I weren’t would you?”

  “Probably,” he said, shrugging his shoulders and trying to look nonchalant.

  Yeah, right. He’d more than date her. He’d latch on to her and never let her go.

  She smiled.

  It was the kind of smile he’d wanted to capture on film at Waldemeer that day with Amanda and Bobby.

  He didn’t have a camera with him then, but he did now. He’d planned to use it on Mr. Smith. But at the moment he didn’t care about Archie—all he wanted was a picture of Parker with this smile.

  He lifted the digital camera and took the picture before she could protest.

  She jumped slightly when he posed it in front of her, and he remembered her story about being hounded by the press and felt like a schmuck. “I’m sorry.”

  “Why’d you do that?” she asked.

  “I just wanted to see if it’s working. It is. I forgot you don’t like having your picture taken.”

  “When it’s you, I don’t mind.”

  She gave him a sort of soft, melty type of look that made him forget everything except the fact that he wanted to pull her into his arms.

  “Uh, listen, you should go. I’m working.”

  “So am I. Hard work,” Parker said.

  Jace sighed. Short of kicking her out of the car, he knew he wasn’t going to get rid of her until she was ready to go.

 
; “What did you want?”

  “I wanted to know if you’d date me if I wasn’t a princess. You said yes. So fine. I won’t be a princess soon and I’ll expect that date. Maybe if I can push through the paperwork this weekend even?”

  “What the hell do you mean you’re not a princess?” Jace asked. She was smiling again, and he realized he didn’t just want the picture, he wanted to kiss her.

  Wanted to kiss her when she was smiling like that.

  He moved a bit closer to the door, leaving the camera on his lap as a thin barrier between him and her.

  “I can stop being a princess. I checked. I had planned to try to compromise, to live my life here and go home a few months a year to see my family and be the princess they expect me to be. But for you, I’ll renounce my royalty and you can take me out. I mean, when push comes to shove, my parents want me more than they want a princess. So, I won’t be a princess and we’ll go to the movies. A chick flick. I mean, if I’m giving up my heritage—a duty I’ve just decided to accept—then you can sit through a chick flick and buy me popcorn. Popcorn with plenty of butter, extra large.”

  “You can’t do that,” he exclaimed. She couldn’t just walk away from her family, from her heritage.

  “Sure I can. I never really liked the ribbon cutting and parading for a photo op, although I’ve been thinking about different charities that I could have helped with that royal title in front of my name. But I’ll find another way to help. And I definitely won’t miss the paparazzi. So a chick flick and extra-large popcorn. I mean, I know it’s a lot of popcorn, but I’ll share it with you. I don’t doubt we can eat it all.”

  “No, not the popcorn. I mean you can’t just stop being royal. I won’t allow it.”

  She laughed. “Sure I can, and I’m pretty sure we haven’t reached a point in our relationship where you can allow or not allow anything. Um, for future reference, I doubt that point will ever come even if things progress the way I hope they do. But as for not being a princess, I checked. Eliason allows a royal to renounce all their claims on the throne, their titles…the whole shebang. I’ll contact my father tonight and put it into motion. It might break his heart, but hey, I’ll have erased our differences and you’ll be happy. Within days I should be plain old Parker Dillon officially. My children won’t be royal and will have no claims on the throne. Of course, my brother will be the sole heir, which means my parents will really push for him to get married, but he’ll get over it.”

  Parker sat there smiling again.

  “Crazy. You are a crazy person. You can’t renounce your royal claims. You can’t just throw out your lineage. Someday you’ll have children. They deserve to be a part of your family’s history.”

  “I can and I will. Don’t you see?” she said softly, wanting him to understand. “Don’t you get it? I’d give up more than a crown to be with you. I know it doesn’t make sense, know we haven’t been together all that long. But, Jace, you matter to me. I care deeply. I’m just asking that once my title is gone you ask me out and give us a chance to see where this might lead.”

  Care? The word didn’t sound nearly big enough to describe how he felt for this amazing woman. A woman who was willing to turn her back on everything just for him.

  “Care?” he echoed. “You care?”

  “More than care. I—”

  “Love?” Jace asked softly. “Before you answer, let me say I hope you’re planning to answer yes, because that’s the only word I can think of to describe how I feel about you. I don’t need more time to see what develops. I know.”

  “But you pushed me away.”

  “I was being noble. And let’s just say I’ve had time to reassess it and have decided nobility isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

  “And soon I won’t be noble, and our problems will be gone.”

  “Parker, discarding your title won’t change the differences between us. I can’t let you do that.”

  “But, Jace—”

  “As I sat here this morning on an incredibly boring stakeout, I had time to think. And though I was fighting against it, I was about to reach a few conclusions. I don’t care how hard it is, I don’t care that we’re from different worlds—I want to be with you.”

  Saying the words made him realize how right they were. He didn’t care. He knew the risks and he was willing to take them to be with Parker.

  “You don’t? You do?” she asked, looking a little disbelieving.

  Jace could understand the feeling, as he shared it. But it was true. He’d do about anything, risk anything, to be with this woman. “I want to be with you. And not just some dates. I want it all.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Like you said, what we have has developed fast, but it’s real, and whether we wait ten more hours, ten more days or ten more months, it won’t change. I love you. I want to be with you permanently.”

  “Jace?” she asked, looking confused.

  “Permanent,” he repeated. “Marry me.”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “It’s too soon.”

  “Listen, Parker—”

  “I’d hoped someday you’d ask, but not this day. It’s too soon. But—”

  “But?” he asked, a glimmer of hope in his voice.

  “Ask me again in a month if you still want me. I think you’ll like my answer.”

  “A month, then. I don’t think there’s any danger of my not wanting you. I don’t know how this whole Princess-and-P.I. thing will work, but somehow we’ll make it work.”

  “Uh, there’s one other thing I should mention. You see, I can renounce my princess-ship, that’s true. But our laws also state that a princess can’t marry a nonroyal.”

  “So, if you want to be with me, you’ll have to renounce your heritage no matter what?”

  He couldn’t do it. Couldn’t let her do that.

  “Well,” she said slowly, “I can. Or there’s one other option.”

  “What?”

  “My fiancé must become royal. My father will bestow a title on you, probably a duke of this or that. And when we marry you’ll become a—”

  “Don’t say it,” he practically begged.

  “A prince.”

  She laughed, her face so full of joy, Jace did the only thing he could do—he kissed her, long and hard.

  There in her arms, he forgot about the stakeout, forgot about everything other than her.

  Parker Dillon.

  His princess.

  His love.

  Epilogue

  “…a small ceremony. With just our family and friends,” Parker murmured drowsily.

  A month had gone by and she was curled up in Jace’s arms—a place she’d become quite accustomed to in the last four weeks.

  “That sounds good to me, but will your father go for it?”

  Parker and her father had finally started talking…really talking. She’d promised to work with him and create a minimal but meaningful role in her country. She’d told him about Jace, about all she felt, all she had with him, and he’d accepted that she wasn’t coming home. And surprisingly he’d accepted the idea of her and Jace. “I wouldn’t have hired him if he wasn’t a good man,” he’d said.

  Parker smiled. She felt closer to her father than she had in years. She couldn’t wait to go home and see him, to have both her parents get to know Jace.

  “I think my father will be okay with it as long as we allow him to do some big, public gala afterward. After all, he and Mom eloped.”

  “They did?”

  “Yes. He’d known her all of two weeks when he married her. Dad says that’s how it’s always been with the Dillonettis. We fall hard and we fall fast.”

  She reached out and gently caressed Jace.

  “You know you’re going to have to fly half of Perry Square to Eliason, don’t you?”

  “Sure. Why Josie and Hoffman were just telling me the other day they expected to dance at our wedding.”

  “You never
told me what you did to get even with Hoffman,” Jace said.

  “Same thing I did to you.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Took a confirmed bachelor and found him a good woman. The way Hoffman tells it, it’s a fate worse than death. But to be honest, I don’t think he minded.”

  Jace laughed.

  “I told you I’d get you.”

  “And you did—you got me. And I’m not ever letting go….”

  Special thanks to Susan and Pam who always listen! And as always, for Lori, my oldest friend (in length, not years)!

  ISBN: 978-1-4603-5466-7

  ONCE UPON A PRINCESS

  Copyright © 2005 by Holly Fuhrmann

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

  Visit Silhouette Books at www.eHarlequin.com

  *Perry Square

  †Perry Square: The Royal Invasion