Rebecca Winters: Bride Fit for a Prince

REBECCA WINTERS

Harlequin Romance ®presents you with this emotional new duet by Rebecca Winters. She’s won many fans around the world with her wonderfully compelling, sparkling stories.

Welcome to:

TWIN BRIDES

Here come the grooms!

Callie and Ann may look the same, but when they jet off to Italy they meet two very different men—one’s a gorgeous prince, the other an enigmatic tycoon!

Bride Fit for a Prince

(#3739)

Rush to the Altar

(#3743)

Don’t miss this sensational duet brought to you by Harlequin Romance ®.

Rebecca Winters, an American writer and mother of four, was excited about the new millennium because it meant another new beginning. Having said goodbye to the classroom where she taught French and Spanish, she is now free to spend more time with her family, to travel and to write the Harlequin Romance ®novels she loves so dearly.

Rebecca loves to hear from readers. If you wish to email her, please visit her website at: www.rebeccawinters-author.com

If you enjoyed Callie’s story, don’t miss her twin sister’s search for her very own Mr. Right.

Look out for Ann’s story, on sale next month in Harlequin Romance ®!

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

EPILOGUE

“CALLIE? Wait up!”

Callie Lassiter had just finished strapping her satchel to the back of her motorcycle when her twin came running up to her. They hadn’t seen each other for five months at least. It was September already. Where had the time gone?

Her sister looked beautiful as always. As for Callie, she had mud all over her, even in her braided hair which no longer looked ash-blond. She smelled to high heaven.

“I better not hug you.” Callie laughed.

“Please don’t!” Ann laughed back, making no attempt to touch her.

“I thought you were in Los Angeles. Why didn’t you let me know you were coming to Prunedale? I would have made arrangements to take a couple of days off.”

“There wasn’t time. Something happened last night I have to talk to you about, so I caught a plane to San Jose today.”

“How did you know I was over here at the Oliveros’?”

“Dr. Wood said you’d ridden out this way earlier to help deliver a cow that was in trouble. I took a chance you might still be here.”

The heifer had been in trouble all right, but no longer. The cute little baby calf was doing great and so was its mother.

“What’s wrong?”

“My agent called me at midnight last night and told me I’ve been offered the big part in a new film with Cory Sievert that I auditioned for two weeks ago!”

“You’re kidding! That’s fantastic, Ann!” she cried, hugging her sister before she remembered not to.

Ann backed away, brushing herself off. “I couldn’t believe it. The actress first chosen for the part has turned out to be pregnant. Yesterday she went to the hospital with kidney stones and is out of commission. They needed to cast another actress immediately. I was the lucky one!”

After all the bit parts, she realized this was the big break Ann had been living for all these years, but Callie also knew her sister very well. She could have phoned her with this kind of news. There was something her sister wanted, otherwise she wouldn’t have flown up from L.A. without notice.

“I’m thrilled for you, Ann!”

“Me, too, but there’s just one little problem. Last night I won another contest!”

“That’s a problem? How much was the prize this time?”

Over the years her sister had entered more beauty contests than Callie could count. With those classic features and long legs, she’d won some considerable cash earnings, all part of Ann’s plan to stay afloat while she gained publicity to become a Hollywood star.

“Something really incredible, but I can’t follow through with it, not now that I have to report on the set first thing in the morning. This film is going to launch my career, Callie. That’s why you have to help me out. I’ve got a favor to ask of you.”

Uh-oh. “What did you win?”

“Let’s just say I was picked for something.”

Callie’s expressive brows furrowed. “Picked for what?”

“First I have to explain, so please hear me out. About a month ago I signed up to participate in a Hollywood charity benefit for the homeless called Who Wants To Marry A Prince? I heard about it from some girls while we were auditioning for a role—”

“Wait a minute!” Callie stopped her cold. “You signed up for a benefit like that after you were in that other ghastly, humiliating benefit last year, Who Wants To Marry A Billionaire?”

“It was for the publicity,” Ann defended. “Luckily I wasn’t chosen on that one. But even if he’d picked me, I would have pretended to faint, then refused to get married. The runner-up would have been forced to marry that overweight, over-the-hill American billionaire at his hotel in Las Vegas.

“But this benefit was different! A gorgeous, wealthy European prince was coming all the way to Hollywood to choose the right bride for him. It sounded so romantic and smacked of the days of Prince Rainier of Monaco coming to America to claim the actress Grace Kelly for his bride.”

“What it smacks of is a wolf in prince’s clothing,” Callie remarked in a scathing tone.

“How can you say that? The girls and I agreed that even if we didn’t get chosen, it was for a worthy cause and would give us great publicity because we knew there’d be a lot of talent scouts and film directors in the audience. The exposure might help land us a big movie contract.

“You should have seen this prince, Callie. He was wearing his royal outfit when he appeared onstage after I’d been chosen along with the other finalists. I have a picture of him. Here.” She whipped out a photo Callie had no choice but to look at. “Isn’t he incredible?”

Callie had to admit he resembled every little girl’s idea of Prince Charming. Dark brown hair, warm brown eyes. Dimples.

“I almost fainted when he walked past all of us, then knelt in front of me. He whispered that he’d made his decision the moment he’d seen my picture on the application.

“Before I could blink, he slipped this amazing betrothal ring on my finger. Can you believe that out of all the beautiful women there, he chose moi?”

Actually Callie wasn’t at all surprised. Ann was a raving beauty.

“So—have you informed him the wedding’s off because you’re too busy working on your next film?”

After a telling silence, “Not yet. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. You see, when my application was accepted for the benefit, the host was smart enough to put a clause in the contract I signed that wasn’t in the Who Wants To Marry A Billionaire contract.”

Callie’s black-fringed eyes spit green sparks. “You mean you made the same mistake again and signed another contract before you paraded back and forth in front of the prince like a prize steer at a cattle auction?”

“Don’t be so earthy, Callie. I’ll have you know I was careful to read the small print. It made all the difference. That’s why I signed papers in front of the attorney for the benefit, as well as the prince’s private attorney.”