The Princess and the Rebel Billionaire

by Sophie Pembroke

  ‘And that is?’

  ‘Tell her. Talk to her.’

  ‘Don’t see how that fixes anything,’ Matteo grumbled. All the reasons they weren’t together would still be there, after all.

  But Gabe gave him a knowing smile. ‘You’d be surprised. I saw the way she looked at you in Rome, Matteo. So I don’t think the problem here is unrequited love. Which means there’s something else keeping you apart. And maybe that something else is insurmountable, I don’t know. But what I do know is this: once you tell her? Then it’s not just you against this thing. It’s the two of you, together. And two people in love against the world? I’d back those odds every time.’

  With one last squeeze to his shoulder, Gabe let himself out of the room, leaving Matteo thinking in his chair. After a moment, he pulled an already tattered piece of paper out of his pocket and stared at it.

  His new bucket list. The one he’d started after Lake Geneva, to replace the one that Giovanni had left him with. He’d been adding to it piecemeal ever since, whenever a new adventure occurred to him.

  Now, he read through it and realised something he’d never have believed if someone else had told him.

  He didn’t care about any of them.

  If things had gone the wrong way on the track that day, in that split second when he’d believed it might, he wouldn’t regret not having done any of the things on his bucket list. Hell, in that moment he wouldn’t have even been able to remember what any of them were.

  Because his mind had been filled with only one thought.

  The thought that he’d never see Isabella again.

  That would be his only regret.

  Lurching to his feet, Matteo crushed the paper in his fist. He didn’t need it any more. Didn’t need a bucket list at all.

  She was his list.

  He’d been holding onto his freedom, his adventures, but ultimately, what did they matter if he didn’t have her?

  Maybe he’d never be enough for her, maybe she’d never love him enough to take the chances that were needed for them to be together. But he knew he had to try.

  Until today, he’d always risked his body, freely, happily, loving that surge of adrenaline it gave him. The power over the universe he felt when he survived the odds. Every experience was proof that he’d outwitted the world. That he was alive, even if Giovanni wasn’t.

  But he’d only ever risked his body.

  And now, he knew, it was time to risk his heart.

  ‘Are you sure you’re okay doing this?’ Princess Serena lowered her very pregnant body into her chair and Isabella smiled at the obvious relief her sister-in-law immediately felt.

  ‘Of course. I’m happy to. And at least it’s only kids, right?’ Some of the children Isabella would be talking to on their visit to the palace rose garden today had been barely walking when she’d embarrassed herself so horribly with Nate. Of course, their teachers would probably remember. But Leo had assured her that most of Augusta had moved on with their lives since then, and forgotten.

  It was only Isabella who hadn’t. Until now.

  ‘Your Highness? When you’re ready?’ Gianna called her from the door, and Isabella nodded to tell her she was coming.

  Her assistant seemed pleased that she was doing more, too. Isabella supposed it couldn’t be much fun organising royal appointments for a princess who refused to do any beyond the odd video interview.

  Of course, it was one of those video interviews that had led her here—via Lake Geneva, and Matteo.

  As always, her heart twinged at the memory of him. Her period had come and gone as predicted, just two weeks later than planned. Apparently that could be due to stress, which Isabella supposed was possible. Whatever it was, with it the last piece of Matteo that she could have hoped to hold onto was gone too.

  Time to start over.

  A new life, new responsibilities.

  She followed Gianna out along the endless hallways to the rose garden door, taking care to keep her breathing even and her smile in place. Her hair was styled, her simple dress and cardigan polished but not overwhelming for a group of seven-and eight-year-olds. Apparently these were the children from the capital’s schools who’d achieved the most over the school year and so, as a treat, they got to spend a day of their summer holidays in school uniform touring the palace—and meeting a real-life princess.

  And this year, for the first time in years, that princess was Isabella.

  ‘Ready?’ Gianna asked, before she opened the door.

  Isabella nodded, and stepped out into the August sunshine, smiling at the crowds of small children and teachers who clapped her appearance, even if she hadn’t really done anything yet.

  The speech she’d been asked to give had been written for Serena, but Isabella thought she gave it well enough all the same. Talking about doing your best, helping others and working hard—all the things the children were being commended for—reminded her a little too much of how many years she’d spent not doing those things. But she was changing that now, and that was something.

  Once the speech was over, and cake and drinks were brought out for the children, Isabella spent her time chatting with them, and their teachers, individually—learning more about their lives, about how they viewed their country. It was only a start, but she felt closer to the people her family ruled over than she had in years.

  She was so engrossed in her conversations that she only vaguely noticed when Gianna slipped away, after talking with one of the palace guards. And only realised she’d returned when she heard her clear her throat behind her and say, ‘Your Highness? I’m sorry to interrupt, but there’s someone here to see you.’

  The teachers were already chivvying the children back towards their bus; the visit had gone on longer than planned, Isabella knew. She said her goodbyes to the group she was talking to, and turned to see who else wanted to speak with her—

  And promptly lost the ability to speak.

  ‘Wait! Aren’t you Matteo Rossi? The racing-car driver?’ One of the boys who’d been on the school visit had escaped his teacher’s grasp and raced back across the grass, promptly followed by most of his friends.

  Matteo smiled graciously and signed autographs on request. At least it gave her the chance to gather her thoughts and stop her heart from racing quite so fast at the sight of him.

  Why was he here? Hadn’t they said everything they needed to when they’d parted? Unless things had changed...but how could they?

  She’d changed, though, hadn’t she? One conversation with Leo on the plane home from Rome and she’d found a whole new path—and a better understanding of herself, her past, and maybe even her future.

  Perhaps the same had happened to him.

  Was it wrong of her to hope so?

  Eventually, the teachers won the battle to get the children to go home, and the rose garden emptied of people. Even Gianna had found somewhere else to be, and the palace guard were back at their posts, studiously ignoring them.

  And so it was just Isabella and Matteo again, as it had been at the start.

  ‘You came,’ she said. ‘Here. Why?’

  ‘Because I couldn’t go the rest of my life without seeing you again,’ Matteo replied. ‘In fact, I’m not sure I could go without seeing you every single day for the rest of my life, if it comes to that.’

  ‘I’m not pregnant,’ Isabella blurted. ‘I mean, I know I said...but definitely. You don’t have to marry me to save my honour or anything.’

  ‘I know that.’ Matteo’s smile was half amused, half fond. ‘What else?’

  ‘I’m not going to stop being a princess. I mean, I only just remembered why it’s important in the first place.’ She couldn’t let her hopes get too high, if that was still a deal-breaker.

  But Matteo just asked, ‘Which is?’

  ‘Because I can do things that
matter to me. Help people, raise awareness, support my country. That sort of thing.’

  This time, his smile almost split his face. ‘Doing things that matter to you is the only good reason, I’ve come to realise, to do anything. To risk everything.’

  He stepped closer and she moved into his arms automatically, as if that was where she belonged. It felt as if she did, anyway.

  ‘So...what now?’ she asked.

  ‘I can’t be a secret,’ Matteo said, his eyes serious. ‘If we’re together, I need to be able to tell the world. Because hiding it implies there’s something wrong or bad about it, and there isn’t. I love you, Isabella, and I don’t ever want to hide that.’

  ‘I don’t, either,’ Isabella admitted as the warmth of his words filled her. He loves me. ‘I hadn’t realised how much I’d hidden myself away, how afraid I was to trust my own instincts, to trust anyone. I was using my past as an excuse to put up walls. But I trust you, and I know how I feel about you.’

  ‘What will your family think about that?’ Matteo asked.

  ‘My parents might be...not thrilled. Especially if you’re planning to carry on racing?’

  ‘I am.’

  She nodded. Of course, he wouldn’t give that up; it was who he was, not just for his late brother, but for himself. And she’d never want to stop him being himself—not when she was only just learning who she wanted to be herself.

  ‘But I’ve come to see that actually my family do want me to be happy, more than anything else.’ And some of the barriers to their relationship might have been in her own head rather than other people’s. ‘I can’t promise it’s going to be easy—I mean, a lot of the people in power here are old-school conservative. They’d be happiest if I married a second cousin or something, but...’

  ‘But?’

  It had taken a lot of courage to talk to Leo about her future. More to start putting herself back out there again. But this was the real test—and the only one she truly cared about passing.

  Isabella took a deep breath. ‘But I don’t want to marry anyone but you. Because I love you, Matteo Rossi. And I’m willing to take any risk to keep you with me—if you’re willing to submit to everything that comes with loving a princess.’

  He swept her up into his arms until her toes barely touched the floor, kissing her passionately enough that she didn’t need words any more to know how he felt. From behind the rose garden gate, she thought she might have heard a palace guard give a congratulatory whoop.

  When she was finally back on solid ground again, she smiled up at him. ‘So is that a yes, then?’

  Matteo raised an eyebrow. ‘Was there a question?’

  ‘Matteo Rossi, will you marry me, and be my Prince?’ She batted her eyelashes at him, and he laughed.

  ‘Only if we can honeymoon in Lake Geneva.’

  ‘Deal.’

  ‘And have sex on the balcony again.’

  ‘Definitely.’

  ‘Then, yes, Princess Isabella of Augusta.’ He pressed a light, chaste kiss to her lips. ‘I’ll marry you. Because life without you is one risk I’m just not willing to take.’

  EPILOGUE

  ‘I WASN’T SURE, you know,’ Leo said as they stood at the front of the Cathedral of Augusta, listening to organ music and the buzz of excitement from the crowd behind them.

  ‘About the outfits?’ Matteo guessed, looking down at the traditional Augustan dress he’d been forced into for the occasion. Gabe had laughed out loud at the sight of it until he’d realised that, as Matteo’s best man, he’d be required to wear it too.

  ‘About you,’ Leo clarified. ‘I mean, after you stole my sister away at a public ball, then helped her escape her security team to roam about Rome with you...’

  Matteo winced. ‘She told you that?’

  ‘No. I am just not an idiot.’ Leo gave him a long, assessing look, and Matteo was very aware of Gabe not trying very hard to hide his smile beside him. ‘I admit, I was not sure about you. But,’ he went on, over Matteo’s attempts to interrupt, ‘I promised my sister that when she found the man she loved, I would support her. Whoever he was.’

  ‘Well, thank you for that, anyway,’ Matteo replied. He knew that her brother’s support would have gone a way to giving Isabella the confidence she needed to take a chance on him.

  ‘And having you here this week preparing for the wedding, I admit, has helped me change my mind.’

  ‘It has?’ Matteo asked, surprised. Especially since he and Isabella had, as much as possible, eschewed wedding prep in favour of getting to know one another all over again, away from that private villa on Lake Geneva. Which had mostly meant hiding away in her private rooms. In bed.

  ‘You love my sister.’ Leo shrugged. ‘That’s all I ever really wanted for her.’

  ‘I do love her,’ Matteo admitted. ‘More than anything.’ That part might have taken him a little while to realise, but now he had, he couldn’t believe he’d ever thought otherwise.

  They might be from different worlds, and have lived very different lives before they met, but they were a pair. He brought her out from behind her terrified walls, and she helped him find a way to live in the world that didn’t mean risking his neck all the time, just to feel alive. To justify his existence.

  Oh, he’d still have adventures, and she’d still have days where she needed to hide away. But mostly, they’d have adventures or hide together. Because together, they were so much stronger than they were apart.

  And now he got to have that for the rest of his life.

  ‘Good,’ Leo said as the organ music changed. ‘Because it’s time to show the world that.’

  Matteo turned as the huge doors to the cathedral creaked open. The pews were filled with the great and good of Augusta, as well as a couple of rows of schoolchildren, and another few of people in uniforms—nurses, soldiers, doctors, police, firefighters. Isabella had insisted on opening the wedding up to the people who really made a difference in her country—and Matteo had supported her.

  His friends and teammates were in attendance too, and Matteo sent a quick smile their way before turning his attention to the far end of the aisle. Past the camera crews, broadcasting the occasion live to the world. Past Madison Morgan, smiling with satisfaction in the final pew. To the vision in white appearing on the King’s arm as the doors parted.

  Isabella glided down the long aisle to sighs and gasps from the congregation. Matteo stared at her dark curls, pinned up to reveal her long, elegant neck, and the lace neckline of her gown. Below the lace, white silk clung to her curves, down past her hips, before flaring out into a train that was still entering the cathedral when she’d almost reached him at the altar.

  Her dark red lips jumped into a nervous smile as she kissed her father on the cheek, then took the last couple of steps alone.

  Steps towards him. Matteo Rossi—daredevil, racing driver, orphan, world champion. She had chosen him. And no race or accolade or adventure had ever made him feel so alive as knowing that Isabella would be at his side for the rest of their lives.

  ‘You look so beautiful,’ he whispered as she stood beside him. ‘That dress is...’

  She flashed him a wicked smile that really had no place in a cathedral. ‘Just wait until you see what I’m not wearing under it.’

  Beside him Leo made a choking noise, and Gabe stifled a laugh.

  Matteo gave thanks for the ridiculous, but concealing, Augustan state dress, and smiled back at his soon-to-be wife. Yeah, being married to a princess was going to be a lot of fun.

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