Cinderella's Royal Seduction / Crowned At The Desert King's Command. Dani Collins
target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#u3c9c4de2-324f-50a8-a94a-977b3d824452"> CHAPTER THREE
Crowned at the Desert King’s Command
Dani Collins
His until midnight
Will she wear his crown?
Sopi is exhausted! With Prince Rhys Charlemaine staying nearby, the luxury spa she calls home is overflowing with aspiring princesses! It’s frantic…until working all hours leads to a late-night encounter with charismatic Rhys himself…
Untouched Sopi gives herself one chance to feel like a princess in Rhys’s arms. She knows it cannot go further, until Rhys stuns her with his convenient proposal! He promises exquisite pleasure, but Sopi has seen the man behind his royal mask—dare she believe he wants her for more than desire?
My long-suffering family always deserves a dedication for cheerleading me in this career I’ve chosen, but when it comes to the nuts and bolts of actually getting a book written there are two people I absolutely cannot do without.
First and foremost, my editor. I’ve been lucky enough to work with Laurie Johnson on and off in the seven years I’ve been published. Thank you for helping me turn so many pumpkins into carriages, this book very much included.
Second and no less important, my RMT, Loretta. Thank you for keeping the carpal tunnel and shoulder gremlins at bay, for being a fan of romance, and for recommending I visit Sparkling Hills in Vernon, the spa that inspired the one in this book.
JUST ONCE, CASSIOPEIA BRODEUR wished she could be given enough time to sit and think before having to react to whatever catastrophe her stepmother, Maude, had set in motion.
She really wished that when she’d been fifteen and thinking she was welcoming her stepsisters into her family, she hadn’t told them her friends called her Sopi.
“Soapy?” Nanette and Fernanda spoke English as their fourth language, but they’d heard the pun and laughed hysterically.
Seven years later, all of Sopi’s childhood friends, including the ones who’d given her the nickname when they’d been in grade school, had moved on to university and world travel, interesting jobs and serious relationships and cities.
While Sopi was still here in Lonely Lake, scrubbing up after her spoiled stepfamily and the guests of the hotel and spa that bore her name.
Why couldn’t Maude and the girls shove off back to Europe and quit destroying what was left of her life? They certainly made no effort to hide their disdain for this “backwater village” in the remote wilderness of the Canadian Rockies.
Oh, right, they had run through all of Sopi’s father’s money and had nowhere left to turn. Yet they seemed determined to drive this place into ruin, too.
“All the reservations?” Sopi repeated with disbelief. “You canceled all of March?”
“Yes.”
“On purpose?”
“Sopi.” Maude used her most hideously patronizing tone. “We can’t have families with children running around when we’re entertaining royalty, can we? And we’ll need the rooms.”
“Royalty?” Sopi asked with a choke of hysterical laughter. “Is that a figure of speech?” The odd aging pop star turned up—emphasis on odd—but real celebrities with real money went to Banff or Whistler for their spring skiing.
“Rhys Charlemaine is the prince of Verina.”
“Never heard of him,” Sopi said flatly, even though it rang a distant bell. She barely had time to keep up with weather reports and the latest safety regulations, though. She didn’t follow gossip on fading royalty.
“Honestly, Sopi. Your lack of education.” Maude shook her coiffed silver head in despair.
Was she referring to the education that hadn’t been paid for because instead Sopi’s father’s money had been used to keep Nanette and Fernanda in boarding school in Switzerland? The girls’ absence had turned out to be a blessing, so Sopi didn’t complain much about it, but honestly.
“Why on earth would a prince come here?” Sopi asked.
“Because I’ve arranged a week of heli-skiing for