Free Going Royal 02 - Some Like It Scandalous by Heather Long

it—chocolate chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Scoring a fork from another drawer, she made sure everything was back in its place before carrying her stolen treasure into the living room.
    The remotes were easily located, hidden beneath a stack of newspapers. Some were written in languages she didn’t recognize, but most seemed focused on the business sections. She could imagine Armand sitting here with his morning coffee and reading through each paper as he considered how to dominate the world next.
    Her conscience twinged. In all fairness , he’s never talked about ruling the world or wanting anything more than a double cheeseburger with a strawberry shake. Even the news reports tended to follow two threads with the Grand Duke Andraste—who he was screwing and what charity he supported.
    The women in his life—how could she ever have competed with any of them? He dated the crème de la crème of the world’s most beautiful women.
    Setting aside the newspapers, she grabbed the remote and pointed it at the screen. It shouldn’t have surprised her that the channel was already on the gossip station, but she comforted the disappointment with a bite of cake.
    “The big news this morning was whether one of the world’s most eligible bachelors, ranked number seven by both Sophisticate and Scantily magazines, was indeed off the market.” An image zoomed in of her getting into the SUV outside her house. The sadness etched into her expression filled the screen. Despite the sunglasses, her mouth was a soft, thin line and her face was pale. The wind stirred her hair and pulled one strand across—she barely remembered that part.
    She remembered looking at the crowd and all the camera lenses zooming back at her.
    “Anna Novak, a Los Angeles businesswoman who was recently appointed the head of the Princess Alyxandretta Dagmar Scholarship Fund for Foster Children—”
    She grimaced at the name. That was not what the scholarship would be called, but the reporter’s phrasing seemed to diminish the project—as if it weren’t important.
    “—is working closely with the prince as he brings the fund under the oversight of the Dagmar Foundation. The foundation as we have reported is Grand Duke Armand’s pet project and has been since he founded it nearly a decade ago.”
    Licking the frosting off the fork slowly, Anna paused. She hadn’t realized he began the foundation himself.
    “Like many royals, Grand Duke Armand travels frequently and spends a great deal of money furthering the causes closest to his heart. His long-established bachelorhood has never been in this much question before. ACE has learned that Anna Novak and the prince attended college together and according to Vance Anderson, the couple lived together...”
    The screen changed and a man with a weak jaw and a hint of jowls smiled at the camera. “We were in economics together, I think it was their first class in freshman year—could be wrong. Anyway, they dated a lot and were pretty inseparable. I noticed because she was hot and they moved in together just a couple of months later—”
    “It was a year later, jackass.” Anna stabbed the cake again and gave herself another chocolategasm to numb the stupidity of that interview. She didn’t recognize the name and the man looked vaguely familiar, but that could just be his build and conversation.
    “In the meanwhile, the prince’s former flame, the model Nikole, had this to say...” The reporter blathered on.
    The screen cut away to a close-up with the exotic Somalian beauty with the caramel-dipped-in-gold skin and too-blue eyes. “Hmm, I do not believe there is much to this relationship beyond the press speculation. As lovely as a happily ever after would be, if she were that important, he would have mentioned her to me, n’est-ce pas ?”
    Anna scowled and stuffed another bite of cake in her mouth. The woman continued to talk about her most recent vacation with the prince—less than a month