Royal Secrets is Live on Readict!
Have you heard of Readict? It’s a popular new reading app. At the urging of an author friend, I submitted my contemporary romance about a price and a commoner and their rocky relationship. When it was accepted, I set to work in earnest at polishing it ready to send into the editor.
Fast forward and it is now ready to read on the app. You have to download the app (needless to say) and start reading. Many of the books are free reading. The way it works is that you subscribe for a big $.99 per month and can download whatever you want. The books are available in chapter format. The only drawback from an author standpoint is that the book never appears in print.
Royal Secrets’ Blurb:
Finally, Desjardins, a wealthy European principality, has negotiated an ambassador from the United States. The ambassador’s daughter Chrissy is hosting her childhood friend Ginny MacDonald for the summer. Both young women idolize Desjardins’ dashing prince Alexander. When they’re introduced to him, that meeting sparks a cruel competition between the two friends. The trophy? Alexander’s heart.
Alexander Leandres is everything a handsome prince should be. His dark hair and blue eyes melt women’s hearts. But there is something missing from his life of glitz and glamor. When he is introduced to the new ambassador’s guest and acting secretary, his life will change in ways he’d never dreamed possible.
Ginny had watched Alexander from afar, never dreaming that one night, in a cape, its hood shadowing her face, she’d creep up the palace’s back stairs, the sound of her own footsteps reminding her of mistresses in a century long past.
Inspired by the famous love affair of Edward VIII of England and the American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, Royal Secrets is a poignant story of love and loss…and of the power of love.
Excerpt:
As I spun Ingrid into the final turn of the waltz, I was thinking of the new American Embassy we’d finally won for my country. This morning, I was at the King’s righthand when he signed documents finalizing the long negotiations. I knew how much this meant to him because I am Crown Prince and Heir Apparent to the throne of Desjardins, a province-state in southern Europe, captured between the mountains and the sea. This embassy would create more financial strength and give us a stronger voice in world politics. My lover gazed up at me, totally unaware that my thoughts were elsewhere. Necessarily, I’m good at hiding behind a smile.
Between one turn and the next, suddenly, I lost focus…on Ingrid, on the embassy, and on the Spring Ball dazzling around us. Something inside me—the restless hunger that had begun to eat at me often late at night—lifted its anonymous face. Her perfume engulfed me, suffocating and cloying. What was this? I loved the fragrance. I’d bought it for her on our last escape to Paris. But like a dying man, I sucked in a last breath and exhaled a long sigh.
“That was a heartfelt sigh if I’ve ever heard one.” Ingrid tilted her head, trying to gaze beyond my smile…trying to read my soul.
“Nothing of the sort,” I said and would have left it at that, but Ingrid is a tenacious woman.
“I just wondered why you seem so distant,” she said.
“I have a secret.” The American embassy had yet to be announced.
The waltz ended, and the band in Leandres livery switched to another classic. Ingrid’s hand slid to my elbow, ready for the next dance. It wasn’t that she was a great dancer. I knew Ingrid. By keeping me on the dancefloor, she kept me away from the dozens of beautiful women sparkling beneath the crystal chandeliers. The theme of the Ball was the newborn colors of Spring, and the ladies’ attire showed how closely the nobility listened to my mother.
When I covered my lover’s hand with mine, my signet ring flashed gold. The piece had been handed down from my grandfather to my father, then to me when I turned eighteen. “Let’s sit this one out.”
She tossed me a flirty wink and a wicked grin. “Must we? Surely, you’re not tired. You’ve hardly danced with me all evening.”
“Not tired.” I bit down on, “merely bored,” confining the admission to my thoughts. “Merely on duty.”
“You poor thing.” She patted my hand. “Dancing with all the pretty girls is such a chore.”
As I escorted her from the dancefloor, we earned envious glances from some and curious glances from others. Ingrid wasn’t a woman to be ignored. Her blonde, blue-eyed beauty alone turned heads. Her stunning gold lame gown spiked her allure. The mysterious smile—as if she knew something you didn’t—drew reporters like a magnet. However, had she not been my almost constant companion, she wouldn’t be on the cover of various and sundry magazines and tabloids.
“This is our second anniversary, Lex.” She flung the accusation at me as we passed a crop of this year’s debutantes, all of whom my father had thrown in my path at one time or another. “I bet you’ve forgotten.”
Guilty as charged, I winced, stiffened. I had forgotten. It was hard to believe that Ingrid and I had been lovers for two years. Already, the media had us engaged, dogging our steps waiting for the big announcement. She was intelligent, gorgeous, and good in bed, but there was just that something missing. Surely, a man my age shouldn’t believe in romance or soul mates. Father constantly reminded me that at twenty-six, he’d had a wife and an heir. Three years later, my sister had been born. Therefore, as Heir Apparent, I should have a devoted spouse and offspring by now. Yes, the King of Desjardins littered my path with nubile young maidens, but much to his dismay, I had Ingrid, and no one else appealed to me quite the way she did. Until now, when her very presence annoyed me.
At each island of guests, we halted for the obligatory brief conversation. I’d far prefer to be hand-carrying the embassy documents to America or arguing world politics with my sister. In an unwavering path, I guided Ingrid toward a quiet alcove that was my favorite hiding place. Didn’t they say you could hide in plain sight? If only I could ditch Ingrid and the Spring Ball for a precious moment of solitude, I’d decipher these strange longings, but I owed a duty to the people of my country—even if that duty is merely to be seen in a tuxedo.
Frowning, Ingrid tugged me to a halt. “Are you ill? You’re very quiet.”
I gave her a quick one-armed hug and darted a kiss to her cheek. “I’m fine.”
“Eugenie upstaged us on the front page of the Mirror today.” She squeezed my arm to the side of her breast, presumably to recapture my wandering attention. “They caught her leaving her Paris flat in dark glasses with a scarf tied around her head. She looked like a 50s film star.”
“My sister can have the front page,” I said with a wry smile. “She hates the spotlight. That’s why she escaped. She’d enjoyed all of the media she could stand.”
“Ha!” Ingrid laughed. “I thought she liked to make waves.”
“She merely wants her freedom.” I flung a gesture encompassing the ballroom, the guests, and all the trappings. “From all this.”
“Sometimes, Prince Alexander Abelard Philippe Leandres, you sound like you want to escape…” She imitated my gesture, her gaze gliding around the faces turned our way. “Would you?”
“Careful, Ingrid, you speak treason,” I joked with an edge to my voice. “You’d be subject to public execution.”
“You are in a mood this evening.” She frowned, shaking her head, then smiled as we passed a visiting dignitary.
I had to give it to Ingrid. The woman could turn on the charm. I think she prided herself on being a lady—which she was not—another bone of contention with the King. I turned my head to look at her, really look at her, from a point of detachment as some stranger might. What I saw was a beautiful woman. She tilted her head and met my gaze. Her pale blue eyes were mirrors in which I saw my reflection. I couldn’t see past the façade she showed the world. Regret squeezed my heart. I knew that, like Ingrid, my eyes, too, were mirrors. I’d never allowed this beautiful woman to touch me deeper than the skin, nor had she let me pierce her ice-cool barriers. In essence, we were strangers. I wanted more than that. I needed to share myself with someone who’d risk loving me.
Readict Web Address:
https://www.readictnovel.com/#/Happy Reading, Ladies and Gents! It’s a perfect day for it herein rainy SC.
Linda
