The Princess and the Playboy

Thirty Eight

"They're not coming?"

Lexi couldn't tell if she was relieved or disappointed that the Vargas' had postponed their trip another week.

Althea had just relayed the message from Leonardo's secretary two days after the state dinner saying they regretted having to cancel but there was a family emergency. She couldn't very well ask what that emergency was and it hurt just a little that if things had gone better; she would have been a part of that family.

It also crossed her mind that there was nothing wrong in the family and they just didn't want to see her. Not that she could blame them but surely they would want to get everything over and done with as much as she did?

That's a lie

Sure, she wanted to be able to explain that she hadn't meant to hurt them but in another weird and twisted way; the longer she put off having to see them; she'd still have the option to see them. It was just a shame that the meeting would never include Andro.

He was well and truly over her and their whirlwind affair if the headlines had anything to say about it. He had been seen with the same woman two days in a row; a personal best in recent months; or so the papers said. How they hadn't managed to see Andro with her in the beginning was beginning to look like a miracle!

Either way, she knew she should stop reading trash magazines about him but she couldn't help it; she missed him terribly. Just because he hated her, it didn't mean she stopped loving him.

"They will be here the following week ma'am," Althea said apologetically and Lexi just nodded. She would see Leo and Leia when the time was right and apparently that wasn't just yet.

"Very well," she said to Althea as she drummed her delicate fingers over the desk in her reception room. "We will continue as before until their arrival."

"Yes your majesty...there is another matter that requires your attention before todays schedule."

"And what might that be?"

"His Highness Sheikh Hamdan has requested you visit him in Nudai."

Lexi immediately stopped drumming her fingers as her heart caught in her throat at the shock. Althea was blushing and in turn it made her bashful about the reasons for his invitation.

"Did he mention when he would like me to visit?"

"As soon as possible ma'am," Althea said quietly. Lexi couldn't help how excited she felt.

Despite having met Hamdan many years before and travelled across the world; she had never actually been to Nudai.

"He writes that he would be your personal guide to the wonders and delights that Nudai have to offer."

Lexi couldn't help it, she practically beamed and Althea smiled despite herself.

"May I...speak freely your majesty?"

"Yes,"

"You are young and deserve happiness. One unfortunate event with a gentleman should not stop you from being a young woman." Lexi smiled and nodded her head,

"I think so too. Please respond to Sheikh Hamdan and tell him that I would be delighted to join him at his earliest convenience."

"Yes your majesty," Althea bowed. "Shall we continue with Imperial Women's Society Brunch?"

"Indeed."

----

Lexi sat in her bed later that night going through some letters that required her attention and official signature. As she signed one letter after another and sealed with her official seal; her mind began to wander and eventually she discarded the papers and just lent back against her pillows and stared.

Hamdan's office had replied almost immediately and she was going to see him in a few days but now she wondered if it were the right thing to do so soon after her would-be wedding.

She knew she had no obligation to wait for Andro as it were, they had never been in a real relationship but it still felt weird to be entertaining another man when one still lived in the deepest reaches of her heart.

Andro had been a breath of fresh air, light in a world of darkness but she did wonder if any man would have been that had she met them before him. What did she really know about him?

The positives: he was good looking, intelligent, funny and charismatic. On the other hand he was impulsive, hot headed and mean when he was angry with her.

Isnt everyone mean to people theyre angry with

Yes, but considering he h ad been proven wrong during their first real argument she had thought he would be more open to listening to her reasons now.

Apparently that wasn't meant to be the case. Andro might have cared for her during their time together and while she was sick but when it truly mattered, he had never been on her side.

He defended you against Duchess Lydia

He did, but only after seeing her attitude for himself; not because he believed what Lexi had been going through.

The biggest thing in all of this was that Andro had appeared to move on. He was still in the papers and thinking back, he had even been with women the day after he took her virginity!

"Bastard," Lexi mumbled under her breath as she made up her mind.

She was going to Nudai to spend time with the Crown Prince.

They would secure a trade deal in the process and she would be treated like the Queen that she was.

***

Andro had never liked the British press; too invasive and a lot of the time not even accurate but he truly hated it the Wednesday morning he opened The Times and saw Queen Alessandra of Aldovia arriving for an "official though informal visit with the Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan of Nudia".

He speed read through the short article that only told him that she had arrived as the prince's guest amongst ongoing negotiations over trade but her return date was as yet unknown.

Andro crushed the newspaper into his hands and threw it in the trash before heading out to work.