Free Cin Wikkid: April Fools For Love by Mary Hughes

finished with her stepsister’s makeup. Silky soft. And it smells good, too.
    Yl admired her tri-tone cheeks in the mirror. “I really like this blush. Gives me those gaunt-model cheeks the boys love.”
    “It is effective,” Cin said. “Let that sit a moment, and then I’ll powder you and do your hair.”
    She turned to the makeup Ez had bought to go with her dress. The elder stepsister had selected a single shade of eyeshadow that perfectly matched the green of both her gauze dress and shoes—but it also made Ez’s eyes look bruised.
    Cin stifled another sigh. She’d have to sneak some other colors in. “Okay, rich, handsome, fine. But Prince doesn’t seem to be the type to settle down. I heard he only ever dates a woman once. That doesn’t seem husbandly to me.”
    “Isn’t it obvious?” Ez rolled her eyes, forcing Cin to scissor the shadow brush away lest Ez get an eye poked out. “He’s just waiting to meet the right woman.” Ez plucked up a tube shaped like an arrow labeled “I-X-TREME”. “Make sure my eyelashes are really long and spiky. I got special mascara for that.”
    “Right. When I’m done with the shadow.” Cin recalled Rafe saying Prince was waiting for the right woman, too. But Milly’s explanation, commitment phobia, made more sense. “What else?”
    “He’s tall,” Yl said.
    “Five-ten?”
    “Six-two,” both Steps said.
    Rafe is that tall, Cin mused, but then her thoughts stuttered in shocked realization. He’s exactly that tall.
    “And he has those blue, blue eyes.” A dreamy smile floated onto Ez’s face, the first time Cin had seen such an expression on her haughty stepsister. “Like twin moons.”
    “No, darker,” Yl corrected. “Like blueberries.”
    Ez’s lids snapped up. “That’s not very poetic. Prince’s eyes aren’t fruit salad. They’re too electric.”
    Rafe has electric blue eyes.
    Frowning, distracted by the unsettling possibilities churning in her brain, Cin finished Ez’s makeup. She did manage to sneak a bit of Yl’s pale golden powder under Ez’s brow ridge and inner corner of her eyelid, brightening up the ghastly green.
    As she listened to the Steps chat about the Prince heir, she thought of Rafe. She didn’t want to go to the ball, really never had. Her only design on any Prince was getting the job at Prince Industries.
    But Rafe wanted me to go. Why? Could Rafe be…?
    No.
    But both were handsome.
    Well, sure. Lots of healthy young men are handsome.
    Both had dark hair.
    Okay, but maybe seventy-five percent of people living in this city have dark hair.
    Both were tall—specifically six-foot-two. She’d seen Rafe’s driver’s license once and knew his exact height. That was a little harder to counter. Wasn’t it possible…?
    No. Absolutely not.
    But the idea gnawed at her. So a half hour later, when the Steps left in a whirl of perfume and excitement, Cin watched them load into a taxi, drumming her fingers against the window sash.
    It would explain why Rafe wanted her to compete in the marriage mart ball, if they were the same person.
    Doesn’t explain why he’s still going through with it, though. And Prince’s pictures don’t look anything like Rafe.
    “True,” she murmured as the cab sped away. Though she’d always found Rafe’s cheekbones familiar somehow. After a heart-pounding five minutes, she peeked outside. No returning taxis.
    Maybe she should look at Prince’s picture again, to be sure.
    She ran upstairs, tossed her stepmother’s bedroom, and was thrilled to find her tablet stashed under the mattress. Same hiding place as Yl. Mrs. Wikkid must’ve delayed selling the computer until she could figure out the lock sequence but had never managed the feat.
    Exhilaration lit Cin’s blood. She wanted to hop online immediately but took the basic precaution of locking herself into the Steps’ bathroom. Ignoring a countertop still littered with makeup, she swept her unlock pattern into the tablet. Her finger shook,