The Royal’s Pretend Wife (2 page)

There was still a spoiled part of her, the part that had grown up in a forty-room mansion in Silicon Valley, that fumed at the way the world was treating her. She had been going on vacations to Europe and South America ever since she was three. She graduated from one of the most prestigious drama schools in the country. She had been raised believing that she was one of life's chosen, and that was a hard thing to give up.

Trinity thought that there was a chance that she would still be in the mansion, racking up huge credit card bills and doing exactly as she pleased if she hadn't seen The Shaking Woman when she was six. In it Claudette Robbins
had blocked the path a marching army with only a baby in her arms. When she saw the actress stand up with pride, determination and fear all mixed, Trinity had made her decision.

“I want to be an actress when I grow up,” she declared, and at the time, Randall Phillips had grinned, tousled her hair and scooted her along.

“Of course you do, sweetie,” was his only response.

His amusement had grown steadily less as she grew up, and when she had struck out for Hollywood, she had done so with five hundred dollars, his dire warnings, and a bus ticket.

If Trinity were being honest, she knew that it was time to throw in the towel. She knew that if she went home, it would be to open arms and a sneering condescension that would never go away, but was it really worse than getting groped by guys at diners and trudging to work on two different buses?

That same spoiled part of her was more than ready to go back and live as the perfect Silicon Valley princess that she had been raised to be. She wanted to jet across the United States whenever the whim took her, she wanted her old friends back, she wanted to eat without looking at her dwindling bank account.

Deep inside her, however, another voice was making itself known. There was a part of her that was grimly determined to make it, no matter how her father ruined her chances or what she was doing with the family name. It was the spitting mad part of her that couldn't stand it when people told her she couldn't do a thing, or when they tried to take away something that should have been hers. It was proud, it was angry, and it was determined to last until she was a success.

Trinity wiped her eyes with her palms, shaking her head. A sensible woman would be calling her father right now. She would be making arrangements to get back to her suite in the manor and to her real life.

Instead, she pulled her phone out of her purse to look for a new job. Then, maybe after that, she could call Tonya and see about getting a few more auditions. She hadn't been interested in live theater before, but perhaps if she only got her foot in the door…

Her phone rang the moment she pulled it out of her purse. Trinity blinked in surprise. Of all the people in the world, it was Tonya.

“Hello?”

“Long time no chat, sweetie,” said her agent. “Listen, are you at work? Can we chat?”

“Well, I'm definitely not at work, so yes, I can chat. What's up?”

“So there's this opportunity that's come up, and you are definitely the girl for the job…but I don't exactly know how you are going to feel about it.”

Trinity felt the earth shift underneath her. Her green eyes darkened, and she dug her fingernails into the bench underneath her.

“Well, there's only one way to find out,” she said, and then a horrible thought struck her. “Look, Tonya, it's not…adult stuff, right? Because I'm not going to—”

Tonya's laugh was bright.

“Oh sweetie, no, not at all! I promise, I wouldn't do that to you. Okay, listen, here's the deal…”

Trinity listened with growing apprehension as Tonya explained the job to her. Apparently, she would need to pretend to be the wife of an obscure Greek royal who had somehow gotten roped into a reality television show.

“But where's his real wife?” she asked.

“Hasn't got one. That's the problem. He'd like to keep up his dignity, and reading between the lines, I think that everyone wants him to look settled and stable.”

Trinity frowned. “Okay, it sounds like I'm providing a cover for some guy who's a cross between Quasimodo and Hannibal Lecter. You really think this is a good idea?”

Tonya's long pause could have meant anything. “I'll be honest, sweetie. I don't know. What I do know is that life's hard out there for actresses, and I'd rather you stay in LA rather than heading back to the Valley. This job is going to last for three weeks, and after that, you'll get paid nicely.”

“How much?” asked Trinity suspiciously.

When Tonya relayed the offer to her, her eyes popped wide.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, and you are the first woman I thought of. He's looking for a high society type, and well, sweetie, that's you. I can understand your misgivings. It's not real acting work, but it's going to pay the bills. It shouldn't hurt your career, because it's in reality television and you want to be in movies, and I've heard the guy isn't bad. So, in or out? Unfortunately, there's no time to think about it. If I can't tell him something in the next half hour or so, he's going to move on.”

Trinity chewed her lip. It absolutely wasn't what she had wanted to do when she came to Hollywood, but with that amount of money, it meant that she could live without working at a diner for a year or more.

“All right,” she said. “I'm in.”

Chapter Two

The private air strip in Spain was warm and windy, tugging playfully at Apolo's hair even as he scowled at the clear sky. He had had business to conclude in Madrid, and he still wore his tailored black suit, though it was perhaps a little less crisp than it had been when he first walked out this morning.

I really don't have time for this
, he thought dismally.

The plan that he had come up with was the best they had on short notice. He would meet his loving “wife” in Spain and bring her back to the country estate a few hours outside of Barcelona. Over the weekend, she could be trained up as someone who had known him for at least a year, and who would act the way a wife acted.

Apolo was grimly prepared for the worst. The actress—he wasn’t sure he’d even bothered to read her name when he’d looked at the file—was American, and when he thought of the American actresses he had known, the impression was not favorable. He was fully expecting to deal with a bubble-headed girl who simpered and clung and who had a hard lesson in front of her regarding what it meant to represent the royalty of Greece. Of course he had seen a picture of her, but he knew full well that headshots said nothing about a person’s personality or attitude, or even what she really looked like. That blond hair might be red now, and her makeup for the photoshoot, let alone the Photoshop work afterward, could be covering a multitude of flaws. God knew if she had any sense of style or decorum at all.

The small plane appeared, descending quickly. Apolo took a deep breath, ready for a brightly dressed, high-voiced young girl to come bouncing down the stairs that were being pulled up the plane.

Instead, the woman that appeared at the top of the stairs had more in common with a classic film star than she did with a Hollywood wannabe.

From what Apolo could see, she was a tall woman with her platinum blond hair—the same color as in the picture—pulled back elegantly in a French braid. Dark glasses concealed her eyes, but her tastefully tailored black dress showed off a body that was lean and elegant. She smiled at the attendant who came to hand her down off the plane, and Apolo couldn't help but notice how shapely her legs were as she stood on the pavement.

For a moment, the actress simply looked around, but then she caught sight of him. Her gorgeous red lips curled into a smile that was at once happy and intimate, and she walked across the tarmac towards him.

“Thank you for coming out to meet me,” she said as she approached. “Are we heading home now?”

“Yes,” he said after a stunned moment. “Yes, we are.”

Without thinking, Apolo offered her his arm, and she tucked her hand into with a soft laugh.

“So gentlemanly,” she teased.

There was something about this woman that grabbed his attention and held it. He felt like a knight of old, attending the beautiful queen at court. There was a kind of presence to this woman that made him want…

He shut his mind against the thought.

She was an actress, though an amazingly beautiful and skilled one. He knew that he needed to keep his wits about him if he wasn't going to make a complete fool of himself.

“I trust your flight was comfortable?” he asked guardedly.

She shrugged, sighing just a little.

“Just fine,” she said. “Everyone treated me wonderfully. It was only a little long.”

Apolo wondered if it was his imagination that she stepped a little closer, leaning against him for support. He felt her squeeze his arm a little, and even that small motion sent a tingle through him.

I might be in trouble
, he thought.

Prince Apolo was a surprise. She had read the dossier that Tonya had given her, and though she had seen his picture, Trinity was still startled by how handsome he was. In the scattered photographs she had seen of him, he was good-looking, but she was also used to the camera tricks that were used on the rich and famous to trick others into thinking that the rich were always beautiful. On top of that, she had been living in Los Angeles, where the girl who bussed the tables might easily be a beauty of epic standards.

When she had scanned the tarmac, she recognized Apolo easily, but she hadn't expected her heart to thump quite so hard. The man was intensely handsome, but more than that, there was a kind of grace to him that took her breath away. He moved like a dancer, and when he spoke, there was a resonance to his voice that made her think of warm velvet.

“He needs to be impressed with you right away,” Tonya had said. “I've talked to his assistant, and he's a notoriously picky man. If he sees you and you don't suit, he'll put you back on the plane and send you right back where you came from.”

“Harsh,” Trinity had said, taken aback. “What do you recommend?”

“If it were me? Start before you even get off the plane. This isn't exactly a real acting gig, sweetie, but you can bet your life on the fact that you'll be performing. Live and breathe being his wife. Show him you are serious and that you can hit the ground running.”

She had taken Tonya's advice to heart. Over the full day that she spent traveling, she had read over the dossier and come up with the persona she wanted to present. Of course she knew that over the weekend, she would refine it, or perhaps have to throw it out altogether before the cameras rolled, but it was good to get started.

Trinity had studied the pictures of Apolo, wondering what kind of wife he might have. He wasn't smiling in any of his photographs, making her wonder if he was a serious or cold man. In that case, she thought he might perhaps be drawn to a warm woman, someone easygoing who loved to laugh. Perhaps he was looking for someone who took her life seriously, but who always let him in on the joke. That was what she started with, and from there, she went on to flesh it out a bit.

When she walked towards him, she took advantage of her dark glasses to scan him carefully. Something about her startled him, but he hid it well. He was feeling cautious about her, perhaps doubting the wisdom of the entire affair. It was her job to keep him from deciding to send her home.

Acting had always been a revelation for her. Until she started, she had never known how wonderful it was to slip into someone else's skin to be someone who didn't have her worries or her cares. They had their own worries and cares, of course, but because they weren't hers, they felt refreshing, even fun.

She slipped into the persona of Trinity Phillips, wife of one of the most mysterious royals in Europe, and she smiled a perfect smile.

He was a gentleman—she could tell that right away. He opened the door of his midnight blue Mercedes for her, handing her in with a courtly grace. She smiled, but she did not allow herself to look impressed. After all, she was a rich woman who knew her own worth, and who had come to expect this kind of treatment.

Apolo got in and started the car. For a few minutes, she simply relaxed against the buttery leather seats, watching the beautiful countryside go by. She knew now that it was a waiting game, and he didn't disappoint her.

“You aren't what I expected,” he said, his voice uncertain.

“Oh really?” she asked lightly. “What did you expect?”

He frowned at the road unspooling in front of them.

“I do not know. Someone…more like an actress, maybe. Someone flighty, more eager.”

Trinity laughed a little.

“I got on a plane at three a.m. in Los Angeles,” she teased. “You don't think that makes me eager?”

That won at least a small smile from him. Trinity thought that perhaps he was not a man who smiled very often.

“I don't know,” he admitted. “But you walked off that plane, you walked towards me, and you were…”

He broke off, and she risked guessing.

“I was perfect?”

He let out a long breath.

“Yes. As if you knew what I was expecting and what I wanted to see.”

“You can give my agent Tonya some of the credit there,” she said lightly. “I have a dossier on who you are, and I read it cover to cover.”

He shot her a narrow look, and suddenly Trinity wondered if he knew how much work she had put in.

“It didn't give you everything you need to know,” he said shortly. “We're meeting with a trusted therapist tomorrow who will help us build what we need to build.”

She tilted her head, watching him through her dark glasses. Though her body was perfectly relaxed, Trinity was completely alert.

“Is there anything about me that you would like to change?” she asked, and he narrowed his eyes.

“Doesn't this seem a little strange to you?” he snapped. “I have essentially rented you to pretend to be my wife, the woman that I love and cherish above all others. Does it bother you to think that we are going to be molding you to create something palatable for a television audience and that won't embarrass my family?”