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CHAPTER ONE

HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS Prince Patricio, the dom of Kitzinia—if not the entire world—and the bane of Adriana Righetti’s existence, lay sprawled across his sumptuous, princely bed in his vast apartments in the Kitzinia Royal Palace, sound asleep despite the fact it was three minutes past noon

And he was not, Adriana saw as she strode into the room, alone

According to legend and the European tabloids, Pato, without the pressure of his older brother’s responsibilities as heir apparent, and lacking the slightest shred of conscience or propriety, had not slept alone since puberty Adriana had expected to find him wrapped around the trollop du jour—no doubt the same redhead he’d eht before

Jackass

But as she stared at the great bed before her, the frustration that had propelled her all the way through the palace shifted She hadn’t expected to find the redhead and a brunette, both women naked and draped over as known as Kitzinia’s royal treasure: Prince Pato’s lean and golden torso, all smoothscandalously low on his narrow hips

Although “scandalous” in this context was, clearly, relative

“No need to be so shy” Soleaaze when she looked up to find hi her, his eyes sleepy and a crook to his wicked mouth “There’s always room for one more”

“I’ but “But I’m afraid I must decline”

“This isn’t a spectator sport”

Pato shifted the brunette off his chest with a consu practice, and propped hi that the sheet slipped lower as he moved Adriana held her breath, but the sheet just preserved what little remained of his modesty The redhead rolled away fro tawny hair back fro in eyes Adriana knew perfectly ere hazel, yet looked like polished gold

And then he set out”

Adriana eyed hilorious flesh Prince Pato, international manwhore and noted black sheep of the Kitzinia royal faest waste of space alive He stood for nothing save his own hedonism and selfishness, and she wanted to be anywhere in all the world but here

Anywhere

She’d spent the last three years as Crown Prince Lenz’s personal assistant, a job she adored despite the fact it had often involved handling Pato’s inevitable messes This paternity suit, that jilted lover’s vindictive appearance on television, this crashed sports car worth untolde headlines He was the thorn in his responsible older brother’s side, and therefore dug deep and hard in hers

And thanks to his inability to behave for one single day—even at his only brother’s engagement party!—Pato was now her proble up to Kitzinia’s first royal wedding in a generation

Adriana couldn’t believe this was happening She’d been de to taking out the royal family’s trash After her years of loyalty, her hard work Just when she’d started to kid herself that she really could begin to wash away the historic stain on the once proud Righetti name

“Pato needs a keeper,” Prince Lenz had said earlier thiscalled Adriana into his private study upon her arrival at the palace Adriana had ached for hi he asked, anything at all; she only wished he’d asked for so else Pato was the one part of palace life she couldn’t abide “There are only twoand I can’t have the papers filled with his usual exploits Not when there’s so much at stake”

What was at stake, Adriana knew full well, was Lenz’s storybook e to the lovely Princess Lissette, which the world viewed as a fairy tale come to life—or would, if Pato could be contained for five h in the Alps, rich in world-renowned ski resorts and stunningwith castles and villas and all kinds of holiday- splendor Tourist economies like theirs thrived on fairy tales, not dissipated princes hell-bent on self-destruction in the glare of as many cameras as possible

TwoPato’s aeable wo but his own pleasure