Amalie Berlin - The Prince's Cinderella Bride

Dear Reader Dear Reader Contents Cover Back Cover Text Introduction Dear Reader Title Page About the Author Dedication Praise CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN EPILOGUE Extract Copyright , I am fascinated by the concept of royalty—even if it also kind of horrifies me (I’m American—sorry). I love the drama, the history, the pageantry... And I also kind of hate myself for it. This is probably something to do with the reason why my royalty stories always end up involving duty versus desire concepts. It’s my duty as an American to see the world as ‘everyone is created equal’—and I do—but I also desire the fairytale. What can you do? This book is probably one of the hardest I’ve ever written because I had to put it down in the middle to write a different book, then go back to this one... And then pretty much rewrite it. A couple of times. But sometimes characters won’t let you go, and I couldn’t put Quinn and Anais away without finishing their story. Actually, even after finishing I’m having a hard time letting go. Quinn’s still talking to me louder than my new hero. And let me say—even though I know it makes me sound insane—I’m sort of hoping he moves out of my head and into the reader’s head soon so Gabriel (my new hero) has a chance. If Quinn shows up on your mental doorstep, good luck! He’s housetrained, but a bit of a handful... Amalie xo AmalieBerlin.com/Contact Facebook.com/AuthorAmalie

Title Page The Prince’s Cinderella Bride Amalie Berlin www.millsandboon.co.uk

About the Author AMALIE BERLIN lives with her family and her critters in Southern Ohio, and writes quirky and independent characters for Mills & Boon Medical Romance. She likes to buck expectations with unusual settings and situations, and believes humour can be used powerfully to illuminate the truth—especially when juxtaposed against intense emotions. Love is stronger and more satisfying when your partner can make you laugh through the times when you don’t have the luxury of tears. Books by Amalie Berlin Mills & Boon Medical Romance Hot Latin Docs Dante’s Shock Proposal Desert Prince Docs Challenging the Doctor Sheikh The Hollywood Hills Clinic Taming Hollywood’s Ultimate Playboy Return of Dr Irresistible Breaking Her No-Dating Rule Surgeons, Rivals...Lovers Falling for Her Reluctant Sheikh Visit the Author Profile page at millsandboon.co.uk for more titles.

Dedication Hina Tabassum: Your enthusiasm for my books is something I return to on hard days. Thank you for that. And for your smart reviews. Always a good day when one pops up! Laura McCallen: Thank you for two years of hard work, dedication and enthusiasm. You will be missed.

Praise Praise for Amalie Berlin Contents Cover Back Cover Text Introduction Dear Reader Title Page About the Author Dedication Praise CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN EPILOGUE Extract Copyright ‘Amalie Berlin has proved she’s one of the best Medical Romance authors of today, and her stories will for ever have a place on my reading shelf!’ —Contemporary Romance Reviews on Return of Dr Irresistible

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

IT WAS A strange sort of medical facility, but the changes made to Almsford Castle since ex-Princess Anais Corlow’s last visit made it seem almost like a new place. Or at least like an alternate version of reality that she could pretend she’d never been to, and never run away from...

Sometimes for several seconds at a time.

Dr. Anna Kincaid—as she was now known—checked her watch. Twenty minutes left in her lunch hour, right on schedule. She climbed onto the gym’s treadmill closest to the exit. She could run for fifteen minutes, shower like lightning, and be back in time for her first patient of the afternoon, same as yesterday.

As soon as she got the belt moving, she increased the speed until she had to push herself to keep up. Not a sensible way to exercise but, no matter how determined she was to remain in the new job that allowed her to stay in Corrachlean with her mother and the quiet life they’d built, every minute she was at Almsford she felt the need to run. It built over the day, faster when she wasn’t busy helping patients than when she sat alone in her office with just her memories.

Anais had more or less died the moment she’d left Prince Charming, Quinton Corlow, second son of Corrachlean. Without her husband, she’d had no title—something she’d never cared to have anyway—but she’d also lost her country, her home, for the last seven years.

Almsford Rehabilitation Center now belonged to Corrachlean’s soldiers, people who wanted her there. People who welcomed her, maybe in even greater proportion to how unwelcome she’d been the last time around. The people made it possible for her to set foot in the grounds. The physical changes to the building made it possible for her to stay, but running in one place kept her from running away.

Protective sheeting covered the stained-glass window running along the top half of the twenty-foot western wall in the ballroom-turned-gymnasium, adding another little barrier to her past, to keep those soul-crushing memories from overwhelming her.

To let her—almost—put it all away.

Laughter, warm and masculine, danced up the corridor that branched off the gymnasium to the first-floor patient rooms.

A sparkling sensation, like the meeting of a million tiny kisses, sprung to life at the top of her head and spilled in a cascade down her back, tickling across her neck and over her shoulders, all the way to her thighs, effectively wiping every thought from her head.

Everything but the thrill, everything but the smile she felt over the thrum of her muscles and the murmur of the machine.

Somewhere inside, part of her soul sat up, and a surge of excitement blossomed in her belly. Images of silk sheets and a field of daisies filled her mind, the brush of green leaves tickled her bare calves as she half ran, half danced through them...

She knew that laugh.

Oh, God.

She stumbled and would’ve fallen off the treadmill if not for the safety bars.

Not him. Not here.

She wrenched herself from the machine and careened backwards, her legs boneless and quaking.

Quinn’s voice came from some distance away, but he might’ve been walking down the corridor towards her. She could poke her head out to check and smack straight into those famed dimples.

Which way? Gardens?

Too exposed.

How awkward would it be if Corrachlean’s beloved, rascally soldier Prince came waltzing down the hallway and saw her there after seven years of self-imposed exile? She’d done her best to change her appearance, even beyond the ways the world and their divorce had changed her. Maybe he wouldn’t recognize her, at least long enough for her to skirt past him?

The patients hadn’t recognized her, and she’d stayed away from anyone who’d known her except for Mom.

He wasn’t supposed to even be in the country—the last she’d heard he was still on tour. At the very least, he should be in another country, castle, the palace or somewhere, with a svelte model on his arm, if gossip rags were to be believed... And why wouldn’t they be? They’d been right about their marriage spiraling down the drain, no matter how painful and horrible it had been for them to publicize it in increasingly callous ways.