When the noise quieted down, Alex said, “I appreciate your continued support and enthusiasm. Thank you for your sacrifice to our country. Nothing could have happened without all of you pulling together. Now I’m afraid I have to be excused and help my wife do the really important work of the day.”
As the room filled with good-natured laughter, he left the conference room through a back door and hurried down the hall to the grand staircase. Taking the steps two at a time, he raced up to their bedroom on the second floor.
There was no sign of Giannina or Zoe. Where would they be at four thirty in the afternoon?
He asked the guard in the hall if he’d seen her. “Yes, Your Highness. She said to tell you she was going out to the summerhouse and would wait for you there.”
Excited about that, Alex went back to the bedroom to change out of his suit into casual clothes. Then he took off for the tiny summerhouse he’d had renovated.
Giannina said that the first time she saw it, she’d thought of it as the little house in the forest where Goldilocks met the three bears. He’d made certain it resembled the drawing in the book. They stole out there when they wanted to get away from the palace. Soon it would be a playhouse for their children.
When he walked in, he discovered both of them on the double bed in the corner next to a little table. Their precious Zoe with her brunette hair lay on her back sound asleep. No doubt Giannina had been nursing her, and now his exhausted wife had fallen into a light sleep too.
At the foot of the bed lay their dog, a replica of Achilles. The beautiful sight of the three of them touched his heart. Giannina had wanted to name him Neoptolemus after the son of Achilles. They called him Toly for short. The dog saw him come in and jumped off the bed to greet him. Alex hunkered down to play with him.
This was the kind of life with Giannina he’d dreamed of years ago. How long it could go on like this, no one knew, but he thanked God for this happiness and the most adorable wife imaginable.
Stealing across the room, he lay down on the bed. He curled his arm around her and pulled her close to him, careful not to disturb Zoe.
“I’ve been waiting for you to come,” she whispered against his jaw. “I thought we’d have a celebration in here.”
His heart thudded. “Celebration?”
“I had a checkup with the doctor earlier today. He’s given me a clean bill of health, so...”
“But what about Zoe?”
She flashed him a beguiling smile. “Clista is outside to take care of the baby for a few hours. I asked her to bring the leash so she can take Toly with her.”
“Giannina—”
Her arms crept around his neck. “I wish parenthood could be an experience for every woman or man wanting a baby. But you need to know how much I’ve been dying to make love with you since she was born. She’s just been fed, and I can’t wait any longer.”
“Neither can I.”
He rolled off the bed and walked around to pick up his precious daughter. Toly followed him. A second later he opened the door to hand her to Clista.
“I’ll take care of both of them, Your Highness.”
“I know you will.”
Alex kissed his daughter’s cheek, fastened the leash to Toly’s collar, then closed the door and hurried back inside to his wife. She’d let her hair grow longer. It splayed on the pillow. She’d never looked more exquisite to him.
“Love me,” she cried softly. “Your shameless wife is back.”
“So is your shameless husband who couldn’t leave the conference room fast enough to be with you.”
“I’m so proud of you and all you’ve accomplished, darling.”
He pulled her on top of him. “Zikos reminded them that our daughter is our greatest accomplishment.”
“She is, so far... But who can say what this evening will bring?”
“I know one thing,” he murmured against her lips. “You’ve made me the happiest man alive. Work your magic, Giannina.”
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781488073748
Unmasking the Secret Prince
Copyright © 2021 by Rebecca Winters
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
For questions and comments about the quality of this book, please contact us at [email protected].
Harlequin Enterprises ULC
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Toronto, Ontario M5H 4E3, Canada
www.Harlequin.com
How to Make a Wedding
Eloise Evans is an in-demand luxury bridal designer from Sydney.
Victoria Preston is a talented wedding cake creator from Boston.
Worlds apart, they should have only their industry in common, but they also share an unexpected bond—they’re long-lost twin sisters!
Now, as their worlds collide, Eloise and Tori find the pieces of themselves they’ve always felt have been missing...just in time for each of them to find the love they deserve...
Read the twin sisters’ stories in
From Bridal Designer to Bride
By Kandy Shepherd
From Tropical Fling to Forever
By Nina Singh
Dear Reader,
Are you, like me, fascinated by identical twins? I particularly love stories about twins separated as babies and reunited as adults. So you can imagine the fun I had writing From Bridal Designer to Bride.
Boston billionaire Josh Taylor gets involved in the search for Eloise Evans, the long-lost twin sister of his friend Tori. He doesn’t expect to fall in love with quirky bridal designer Eloise—or to get tangled up in her world of weddings, bridezillas and rescue dogs.
Eloise has always felt she’s been missing something in her life. Turns out it’s not only her twin but also a man like Josh. These two are made for each other—but there are issues in both their pasts they have to work through before they can open their hearts to that once-in-a-lifetime love. I hope you enjoy reading how Eloise and Josh find their own happy-ever-after.
Eloise’s story is the first of the duet How to Make a Wedding. Watch out for the story of her twin, Tori, From Tropical Fling to Forever by Nina Singh, next month.
Warm regards,
Kandy
From Bridal Designer to Bride
Kandy Shepherd
Kandy Shepherd swapped a career as a magazine editor for a life writing romance.
She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her husband, daughter and lots of pets. She believes in love at first sight and real-life romance—they worked for her! Kandy loves to hear from her readers. Visit her at kandyshepherd.com.
Books by Kandy Shepherd
Harlequin Romance
Christmas at the Harrington Park Hotel
Their Royal Baby Gift
Sydney Brides
Gift-Wrapped in Her Wedding Dress
Crown Prince’s Chosen Bride
The Bridesmaid’s Baby Bump
A Diamond in Her Stocking
From Paradise...to Pregnant!
Hired by the Brooding Billionaire
Greek Tycoon’s Mistletoe Proposal
Conveniently Wed to the Greek
Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon
Best Man and the Runaway Bride
Second Chance with the Single Dad
Falling for the Secret Princess
One Night with Her Millionaire Boss
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
In memory of my wonderful long-time friend, Jan Herbert, taken recently by ovarian cancer. Jan enjoyed my books and had her own real-life romance in a long and very happy marriage to Ric. When she became unable to read, he read my stories to her. “Your books gave her pleasure and that was a wonderful gift,” he told me. Vale, Jan, you are so missed.
Praise for
Kandy Shepherd
“Falling for the Secret Princess is a sweet and swoon-worthy romance. Author Kandy Shepherd wrote this beautiful romance which would take you far, far away.... As a romance reader this is the ultimate escape. The storyline had plenty of twists and turns and would keep you engrossed till the end. Highly recommended for all readers of romance.”
—Goodreads
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
PROLOGUE
JOSH TAYLOR WATCHED the expressions of disbelief and amazement flash across his friend Tori Preston’s face as she scrutinised the images of the woman in the glossy magazine.
‘Can you see the resemblance?’ Josh asked.
Tori continued to stare at the image of the beautiful blue-eyed woman with the dark hair that tumbled around her shoulders. His friend looked back up at Josh, a frown pleating her forehead. ‘Except that my hair is cut so short and we have a different way of dressing we...we’re identical. How can this be?’
‘Immediately I thought she must be related to you. A cousin maybe. Out of curiosity I looked her up,’ Josh said. ‘She’s an Australian fashion designer named Eloise Evans.’
He wasn’t going to admit it to Tori but, while he had only ever seen Tori as a strictly platonic friend, there was something about Eloise Evans that fascinated him. He’d read through the article about her several times as he debated whether or not he should point out the uncanny resemblance to Tori.
‘Not only is she twenty-eight, like you, but she also has the same birthdate.’
Tori paled. ‘You’re kidding me?’
Josh shook his head. ‘There’s more. While she lives in Sydney, Australia now, she was born here in Boston. In this interview, she makes no secret of the fact she was adopted as a two-year-old toddler.’
Tori drew a sharp intake of breath. She looked up at Josh, her cornflower-blue eyes troubled. ‘I’ve always known I was adopted when I was two years old, after my birth mother died.’
‘I know,’ he said.
She peered harder at the image on the page, the woman smiling a smile so very like Tori’s own. ‘You know, I feel I’ve seen her before.’
Josh laughed. ‘Seems you might see her every time you look in the mirror.’
Tori shook her head. ‘It’s not that. My memory of someone like this is of a little girl. My imaginary friend, my mum used to call her, when I spoke about her. But I stubbornly insisted she was real.’
‘It could all be a coincidence,’ said Josh, knowing it seemed like one coincidence too many.
Tori looked up at him. ‘What if it isn’t? What if...what if there were two babies?’
Josh paused. ‘Adopted to different families, you mean?’
‘Twins,’ Tori said.
‘Twins?’ he echoed.
‘I need to meet her, see if there could be any truth in this. Oh, my goodness, Josh, what if...? But Australia. It’s so far away and it’s such a busy time for me at work with the spring wedding season in full swing.’ Tori was the wedding cake baker of choice to the elite of Boston.
Josh paused. ‘Why don’t you let me scout her out first? I have to visit Australia for business next week. Why don’t I look this Eloise Evans up for you?’
Tori’s eyes widened. ‘You’d do that?’
Tori and her brothers had been so supportive of him when his own sibling had disowned him. He could never repay her enough for her friendship. ‘Of course. In the meantime, why don’t you talk to your parents and see if they know anything about the circumstances of your adoption? This could be a crazy coincidence, or...’
‘Or... I might have a twin sister,’ Tori breathed.
CHAPTER ONE
JOSH TAYLOR WAS a highly successful entrepreneur; a billionaire at age twenty-nine. He possessed multiple effective business skills, but it seemed engineering a face-to-face meeting with his friend Tori’s possible twin sister, Eloise Evans, wasn’t one of them.
Tori had discovered there had indeed been twin baby girls put up for adoption, and there was a very good chance the Australian woman was her birth sister. ‘Just get close enough so you can see for yourself if she really does look just like me in real life,’ Tori had asked.
Within a day of arriving in Sydney, Josh had tracked down Eloise Evans. He’d learned that her high-end bridal wear business was considered among the best in the country and had a growing international reputation. He had scoped out her elegant Eloise Evans Atelier headquarters in the exclusive inner eastern suburb of Double Bay in the hope of catching sight of her. But days later he still had not seen even a glimpse of the elusive bridal designer.
On Saturday morning, his last day in Sydney, he’d switched track and was looking out for her near her apartment in Rushcutters Bay. The nineteen-thirties-style apartment building faced a park and he sat in the balmy autumn sunshine on a bench near the low sandstone sea wall that separated the park from the sparkling blue waters of Sydney Harbour.
His seat was carefully chosen for the unimpeded view of Eloise’s building, but still there was no sight of her. He bent his head to text Tori the news that unfortunately he hadn’t been able to make contact.
But then something made him look up. A peal of feminine laughter. The barking of an excited dog. And there she was. Eloise Evans emerged from the shade of the large trees that formed the perimeter of the park. She had a dog on a lead and was heading across the park towards the water—and him. He recognised Eloise instantly, even from this distance, this woman who’d grabbed his attention on the pages of that magazine. There could be no doubt she was Tori’s doppelganger.
As she crossed the grass and came closer, Josh got up from the park bench and started to head towards her. Thoughts of how to engineer an ‘accidental’ meeting pushed insistently through his mind. Tori might think it a good idea to bump into Eloise but he realised it was a very bad idea. She would take him for, at best, a mugger, a
t worst, a groper. It would be better to stroll by and take a quick sideways glance at her face to confirm, and then continue on his way.
As she and her dog got closer his heart started to thud and his mouth went dry. It was uncanny. Not only was there a remarkable facial similarity but the Australian designer was also the same height, around five feet seven, and had the same slim build as his friend Tori. They must be related.
But the more he looked, the more he noticed the differences rather than the similarities. Ms Evans seemed to waft rather than walk along the pathway, whereas Tori would stride. Her black hair fell to her shoulders in a thick, glossy mass—the opposite of Tori’s spikey crop. When Tori walked her dogs, she wore jeans or gym pants. Eloise Evans was dressed in a narrow calf-length skirt made of some kind of lacy fabric in a rich cinnamon colour with a cream top that was tied to show off her narrow waist and high, round breasts. To tell the truth, he had scarcely ever noticed Tori’s curves—she was more like the sister he’d never had than a girl whose figure he noticed in any way other than the abstract.
As Eloise Evans walked, the skirt split to reveal tantalising glimpses of long, slender legs, and he noticed them—man, did he notice. Josh took a short, sharp breath. That was the main difference between this woman and his friend back home in Boston—he found this woman hot in an ultra-feminine, sensual way. He didn’t want to get caught ogling her but it was difficult not to stare—she was utterly gorgeous.
As she got closer she veered away, heading for the nearby off-lead dog play area, by the look of the bright yellow dog ball launcher she carried. He should leave it at that.
But he had made a deal with Tori that he would observe her possible sister as closely as he could. He’d also promised, if he actually made contact with her, that he would not say anything about Tori.
And when Josh gave his word he did his best to honour it. He had spent his first sixteen years living his mother’s lie—turned out the man he’d thought his father wasn’t his father at all. The discovery of her secret, and his subsequent abandonment by his family, had seared a hatred of lies and dishonesty onto his soul. He didn’t give or take trust easily.
Harlequin Romance April 2021 Box Set Page 15
