Ways To Ruin A Royal Reputation (Mills & Boon Modern) (Signed, Sealed…Seduced, Book 1) by Dani Collins (best contemporary novels .TXT) 📕

She looked back, but Luca was already disappearing in another direction toward a handful of people waiting with tablets, folders and anxious expressions.

Amy went back to gawking at the opulence of the palace. She’d grown up with enough wealth to recognize hand-woven silk rugs and antiques that were actually priceless historical artifacts. She lifted her feet into a slight tiptoe when they reached a parquet floor, fearful of damaging the intricate artistry of the polished wood mosaic with her sharp heels. She could have stood upon it for hours, admiring the geometric designs.

This whole place was a monument to ancient wealth and abundance that stood on the line of gaudy without quite crossing it.

After a long walk through a gallery and down a flight of stairs, she was guided into a lounge that was a perfect mix of modern and period pieces. It had a wide gas fireplace, tall windows looking onto a garden with a pond, and Victorian furniture that she suspected were loving restorations. Everything in the room was the height of class—except the pornographic scene above the sofa. Amy blinked.

“The previous king commissioned a number of reproductions from Pompeii,” Guillermo informed her in bland, barely accented English. “I’ve ordered tea and sandwiches. They’ll be here shortly. Please let the maid know if you require anything else.”

Amy almost asked whether the sofa was a pullout, but he was already gone.

She poked around and discovered this was a self-contained flat with a full kitchen, a comfortable office with a view to the garden, and two bedrooms, each with more examples of Pompeii’s salacious artwork.

Her meager luggage was waiting to be unpacked in the bigger room alongside a handful of clothes that were unfamiliar, but were in her size. There was a luxurious bath with a tempting, freestanding tub, but she only washed her hands.

A three-tiered plate arrived full of sandwiches, savory pastries and chocolate truffles, and was accompanied by coffee, tea and a cordial that turned out to be a tangy sweet liquor meant to be served with the soda water that accompanied it.

She did her best not to reveal she was completely bowled over, but she was only around wealth these days. London Connection was doing well, but they were reinvesting profits and using them to hire more staff. Amy had conditioned herself to live on a shoestring after being expelled from school. She’d been unable to take her A-levels and had had to sell what possessions she’d had at the time—mostly designer clothes and a few electronics—to set herself up in a low-end flat. She’d come a long way since then, but the maid probably had a higher net worth than she did.

Amy asked her to set the meal on the table outside her lounge. The patio overlooked a man-made pond full of water lilies where a weathered Neptune rose from the middle, trident aloft. Columns that were buckling with age surrounded the water. This must be the ruins of the Roman villa that Luca had mentioned, she thought.

Between the columns stood statues that looked new, though. Huh. The gladiator had a bare backside that rivaled Luca’s, and the mermaid seemed very chesty.

After the maid left, Amy gave in to curiosity. She set aside her tea to walk out for a closer look.

“My father’s taste was questionable,” Luca said behind her. “To say the least.”

She swung around, but had to look up to find him. He stood on a terrace off to the right that she surmised was the best vantage point to admire the pond. He wore the clothes he’d had on earlier, but his jacket was off again and his sleeves were rolled back. His expression was shuttered, but once again she heard the denigration of his father’s waste of taxpayers’ money.

“I thought I wouldn’t see you until dinner.” She had been looking forward to reflecting, putting today’s events into some sort of order in her mind. Now she was back to a state of heightened awareness, watching his long strides make for a set of stairs off to the left. He loped down them and came toward her in an unhurried stride that ate up the ground easily.

“I don’t want any delay on your work.”

“Oh, um.” Her throat had gone dry, and she looked longingly back at her tea. “I was about to sit down and brainstorm ideas, but I’m having trouble understanding why you’d willingly give up all of this.” She waved at her small flat. His private quarters were likely ten times more luxurious and grand. Looking up, she suspected his was that second-level terrace that looked out to the sea unobstructed.

“Allow me to enlighten you.” He jerked his head at the pebbled path that wove through the columns around the pond, indicating they should walk it.

She started along and immediately came upon a soldier performing a lewd act with a nymph, one that made her cheeks sting with embarrassment. It grew worse when she darted a glance at Luca and discovered him watching her reaction.

Her heart lurched, but he didn’t seem to be enjoying her discomfiture. If anything, his grim expression darkened.

“Oh, those Romans,” she joked weakly.

“My father commissioned them. He could have used the funds in a thousand better ways. My first act once I was crowned was tax relief, but I couldn’t offer as much as was needed. Our economy is a mess.”

Their footsteps crunched as they wound between the columns and wisteria vines that formed a bower, filling the air with their potent fragrance.

The statues grew increasingly graphic. Luca seemed immune, but Amy was as titillated as she was mortified. She was mortified because she was titillated.

Even more embarrassing was a stray curiosity about whether Luca would have the strength to have freestanding sex like that, arms straining as his fingertips pressed into her bottom cheeks. His shoulders would feel like marble beneath her arms where she clasped them tightly around