Prince: Royal Romantic Suspense (Billionaires in Disguise: Maxence Book 5) Blair Babylon (ebook reader screen txt) đ
- Author: Blair Babylon
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âPretty words,â she said.
âMen have been blaming women for âtempting them to sinâ for far too long. Everything I do is my decision.â
âYou shouldnât keep making wrong decisions.â
He sighed, âYouâre right.â
Dree pushed on his chest to prop herself up so she could look him in the eyes. âI am?â
âMy loyalties have always been divided. I was born a prince of Monaco, and that comes with certain responsibilities. I chose to be ordained as a deacon even though I knew I was conflicted. I shouldâve waited until Pierre had had legitimate children, so I could be free. Because I wasnât and everyone knew I wasnât free to make that vow, Pope Vincent de Paul ordained me with an altered sacrament. Itâs not valid. It canât be valid. In a baptism, if a priest says âwe baptize youâ instead of âI baptize you,â the baptism isnât considered valid. Iâve been desperately playing at this because I wanted so much to believe, because I wanted so much to belong.â
Dree tried to wrap her head around it. âI canât believe he did that. It seems like he was cheating you or like he was mocking it.â
Maxenceâs eyebrows twitched upward, but the shake of his head was rueful. âI donât think he was mocking it. Monarchs have been getting away with mortal sins and crimes for millennia. Whenever they wanted to invade somewhere or get a divorce, past popes rubber-stamped it.â
âExcept for Henry VIII.â
Maxence grunted a laugh. âAnd thatâs why he was so pissed that Pope Clement VII wouldnât grant him the annulment and divorce from his first wife. He didnât have a male heir. The last time England didnât have a direct male heir, they had a civil war for a hundred years. There were a lot of politics going on there, just like here.â
It was a good thing that her brother wanted to take over the family sheep farm, and she was happy being a nurse. At least the sheep wouldnât be caught up in inheritance issues. âAnd now youâre the next male heir.â
Max nodded. âAnd thatâs why my uncle wouldnât budge. Both Pope Vincent and Pope Celestine VI, the current Pope Emeritus, were exceedingly good friends with my uncle and my grandfather before him. When youâre one of the last Catholic monarchies in the world, you tend to be on first name terms with the Pope. I think they gave me something so they wouldnât lose me.â
Dree grabbed his hand and held on. âLose you?â
His shoulder moved under the fine fabric of his shirt. âI canât remember how many times Iâve threatened to abdicate and renounce everything. That was always my ace in the hole, to walk away to where they couldnât get me. Iâve debated cardinals, insisting that if I walked away from Monaco, that there would be no reason why they couldnât give me Holy Orders. It always came down to the fact that Pope Celestine VI had commanded me not to renounce my place in the line of succession, so if I did, I would be disobeying a papal order. We canât have priests doing that, so I didnât. Pope Vincent de Paul ordained me as a deacon so I wouldnât leave everything. So, Iâm both, and here, my loyalties are divided. When Iâm here, my vows during my diaconate ordination say Iâm a royal in the line of succession first.â
âThatâsâthatâs just wrong.â
He nodded. âNo matter what, I canât be a practicing deacon here in Monaco before the election and coronation. My loyalties cannot be divided.â
She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. âSo, when youâre in Monaco, youâre not a deacon? My B.S. detector is going crazy on that one.â
âI was a member of the royal family before I was a deacon.â
Dree tilted her head. âThatâs logical.â
âI am here in my capacity as a member of the royal family.â
Those were just facts. âAlso true.â
âThe change in the wording specifically references Monaco. Thereâs a clause in it that states if there is a conflict with my duties to the church and my duties in Monaco, that I âam releasedâ from my vows as a deacon. It doesnât say âwill be released.â It doesnât say âcan be released.â It says that I âam released.â That was how Pope Vincent justified it to my uncle, Prince Rainier IV, that literally when I set foot on Monegasque soil, I was un-conflicted in my duties in the line of succession.â
Prickles ran down Dreeâs neck because this felt like blasphemy. Altering the text of a sacrament sounded like the first scene of a horror movie that would end with fighting the Antichrist to keep the Seventh Seal from opening. âPopes usually take things like sacraments pretty seriously. Itâs weird that he did that.â
âI donât assist at the Mass or do any of my other duties of a deacon while Iâm in Monaco. Itâs one of the reasons why I didnât stick around for my uncleâs funeral. I wouldâve desperately wanted to assist at his Mass. But I couldnât, or I shouldnât have. Besides, I had already been back in Monaco for over a month. Pierre was getting ready to have me knocked off, I think, and Iâd delayed that trip to Nepal as long as I could.â His fingers alighted on her knee and trailed up the sensitive skin of her inner thigh. âNow, where were we?â
Dree stilled, every ounce of her attention laser-focused on the smooth, cool trail of his fingers up her leg.
He whispered near her ear, âSay something if you want me to stop.â
Dree stopped breathing again so he wouldnât mistake a moan for her telling him to stop.
His fingers ambled up the tender skin of her leg and reached the lace of her new panties, stroking the thin fabric with one fingertip.
Dreeâs heart sped. His fist was big between her thighs, pressing on her soft flesh, and she moved her leg
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