The Prince I Love to Hate: A Steamy Romantic Comedy (The Heir Affair Book 1) by Iris Morland (book club recommendations txt) 📕

asked Sofie. She looked at my sneakers, to my ripped jeans, to my worn t-shirt. Damn, I’d felt that in my bones.

Before I could answer, Olivier took my hand and squeezed it. “We are. We met recently but have been traveling together for the past week.”

I stared at him. The girls stared at him. Did he want me to get murdered?

“Are we dating?” I gave him an incredulous look then laughed. “That’s the first I’ve heard about it.”

No one else laughed. You could’ve heard a pin drop. No wonder Olivier had been terrified: these girls weren’t easy to please.

Astrid was assessing me, her arms crossed over her chest. “Are you American?”

“Guilty as charged.”

“How did you even meet?”

Klara shot Astrid a look. “You can’t just ask people that,” she hissed.

Astrid remained unperturbed. “Why not? Maybe they met on Tinder.”

I choked on my drink. This time, Olivier had to pat me on the back.

Sofie’s eyes lit up. “How did you meet?” She sighed then put her chin on her hands. “I bet it was super romantic.”

“Sofie, do you even know what Tinder is?” This was from Mia.

“Duh, I know what it is!”

The girls began to snipe at each in German. Anna, the shy one, just watched with wide eyes.

“We didn’t meet online,” said Oliver, loudly. He cleared his throat as five pairs of eyes swung to him. “We met in a library.”

I scowled at him. If these girls found out I’d hit him with a book, they might beat me with their phones and upload it on TikTok.

“Oh, like in Beauty and the Beast,” said Klara.

“Exactly like that.” Olivier slid onto the table in front of the girls. “Niamh, you see, is actually very shy—”

I made a face that caused the girls to laugh.

“Don’t believe anything she says,” continued Olivier. “She’s very shy around handsome men, like yours truly.”

“I could never talk to a boy like you,” whispered Mia.

“Of course you could.” Olivier resumed, “Niamh wouldn’t meet my eye when we found ourselves in the same aisle in the library. But it must’ve been fate, because we both reached for the same book at the same time. Our fingers touched…” Olivier let the moment lengthen. “And then the rest is history.”

I had to admit, he could spin a tale. I nearly believed that was how we’d met. The girls were now hanging on his every word, rapture in their expressions. Prince Charming had charmed the swarm of adolescents. It was both obnoxious and adorable.

“Now, who wants to take pictures?”

Five hands shot up at once, and then Olivier was in the midst of taking selfies with the girls. I wandered off to the food table. Strangely, I felt a pinch of jealousy. I had no idea why, and it ate at me.

My stomach turned. Suddenly, I wasn’t hungry anymore. Turning, I nearly ran into Stefan’s wife Luisa.

I apologized, and despite my ruffled nerves, hers seemed completely intact. Despite bumping her arm, she hadn’t spilled a drop of her drink. Amazing. I needed to know her secrets.

“Your prince is very charming,” Luisa remarked as we both watched the girls ask him questions.

“He can be.”

Luisa raised a slim eyebrow. “You sound…envious.”

“They’re just kids.”

“You look at him like my daughter looks at him, you know.”

“I do not.” I sounded so defensive that I forced myself to laugh. “If you mean I look annoyed, then I would agree.”

“You look at him like he’s everything you’ve ever wanted, but he won’t pay you the same compliment.”

That hurt. I couldn’t help but wonder if Luisa had some ulterior motive, but why would she? We would be gone tomorrow. Her daughter had gotten her night with a prince and seemed thrilled.

“I don’t say these things to hurt you.” Luisa placed a long-fingered hand on my shoulder. “Merely to put you on your guard. I was once an impressionable young woman with a big heart. Like you.”

“You don’t even know me.”

Luisa hummed and sipped her drink. “True. But I’ve seen that expression on the faces of many of my female friends. Even I was one of them, if you can imagine it.”

I felt like I was on a ship that kept rocking back and forth. My legs felt wobbly. My eyes burned, and I hated feeling so vulnerable in front of this stranger.

“I appreciate your concern, but it’s not necessary. I’m well aware that Olivier isn’t the man for me.”

“I hope your heart knows that as well as your mind does, my dear.”

I watched Olivier from across the terrace, my heart pounding in my ears. Stefan had joined the group while Luisa sat nearby. When Stefan motioned to me to join them, I put on a strained smile and walked over. I wanted to go hide in the bathroom, but I wouldn’t let Luisa see me crack.

If I cracked, it meant that she was right.

Olivier was still telling stories about his life as a prince to the girls. Castles, crowns, horses, the whole nine yards. He told of how he’d dropped one of the royal crowns before his father’s coronation ceremony, denting the soft gold. “I’d tried to hide it with paint,” said Olivier, “but when my nanny had discovered me, she nearly had a stroke.”

Fortunately, the crown had been repaired in time, and Olivier hadn’t been tossed in the dungeon. We all laughed, although mine was strained.

Luisa has no idea what she’s talking about, I told myself. You aren’t stupid enough to be falling in love with Olivier.

Yet as I watched him charm all of these people, I felt that prick of jealousy once again. When he caught my gaze and smiled, I wished he’d only smile at me. No one else.

It was selfish, and silly, but I wanted him to look at me and listen to my every word. I wanted him to charm me. Mostly, I wanted that story he’d told about us in the library to be true.

But none of it was true. We weren’t dating. We weren’t in love. It was all a lie he’d concocted