Free His Princess in the Making by Melissa James Page A

not only taken Charlie’s dream for Hellenia and run with it while Charlie was learning how to be a king; he’d also begun implementing his own plans. In the past eight weeks Toby had recruited retired firefighters from Hellenia and Australia and begun a centralised training school based in the capital, Orakidis City, and in Mirapoulos, the major city in the Malascos region, Papou’s birthplace. He’d fought fires and taught volunteers and families the best way to protect their homes, schools, hospitals and villages from the wildfires that had destroyed a full third of the country last summer—and from the sneak attacks by Orakis’s followers. He was helping to make the country safe. The people cheered him wherever he went.
    He spoke before she could think of anything conciliatingto say. “Hold onto that regal attitude you unleashed on Lady Eleni when you speak to the King.” He drew a tender line down her cheek with a finger. “You need to stand as his equal, Giulia. He’s abdicating in a couple of months. This is your choice.”
    Subduing another unprecedented flash of irritation, she forced a smile. “I know how to deal with Theo Angelis.”
    “Of course you do. I’ve seen you wrap the old man around your finger.”
    “But this is an enormous thing. No member of the royal family has ever…” Again, she stopped, unsure.
    “Married the fourth child of divorced, lower-middle-class parents?” he asked softly, sensually, every other emotion gone but the wanting. “I did propose to you, Giulia, if in a backdoor fashion. I’ll do so in a more romantic style as soon as I can finally have you alone. And I’ll be fervently awaiting your response.”
    She frowned. “Why, Toby? Why here, why now? Why did you wait until now, when—?” She stopped, realising how enormous the choice was that loomed before her. How many lives would be affected?
    “No, it’s not too late,” he murmured, touching his forehead to hers. “Charlie and Jazmine just changed the law once. It can happen again. And if not—” he shrugged “—we have two houses to choose from in Sydney. You have your school still, the substitute teacher is there until you decide to sell. I have my job. We’ll never have the kind of riches you enjoy here, but you’ll never have to go without, that I swear to you. Everything I am, everything I have, belongs to you. It always has and always will.”
    Sadness swamped her without warning or reason. Why, when he’d said everything right? He’d been romantic and strong, and he’d kissed her as if he’d meant it. Her first kiss had been everything she’d wanted it to be.
    But it was the wrong time, wrong place, far too late. The chasm was there between them now, no matter how they tried to bridge it. And she didn’t believe him.
    “I have to go.” She turned quickly, before he could see her emotion.
    “Giulia, if you’re worried that he’ll upset you…”
    She repressed a sigh. “Thank you.” The needle-fine politeness she’d used on Eleni came out again. “I’m a woman, Toby. I don’t need you to come running to rescue me any more. I haven’t given you the right.”
    She opened the hand he’d taken, forcing him to drop it, and she walked over to the King without looking back.

CHAPTER FOUR

    W HAT the hell just happened?
    From a convenient corner where only the wedding party and royal family could sit, Toby watched Giulia as she spoke to the King.
    I can handle him.
    She certainly could. Within two minutes, the King’s scowl lightened, not in relief but love. Her hands were in the old man’s; she kissed his cheek with a genuine affection that had shocked Toby the first time he’d seen it. Giulia’s affection was deep, but she’d always kept it for family. She was reserved with strangers; it was her way.
    But within weeks of leaving Sydney, she spoke to strangers daily, helping them with their problems in her role as princess. She was the King’s pet, Jazmine’s friend and