Jane Millionaire

“Jessie!” Jill exclaimed, obviously too shocked at the woman’s appearance to sensor her response.

Damn. He’d been right on the money. This was her sister. The one he’d spoken to on the phone. What was she doing here?

“Rob, think about what you’re doing,” JP warned, tugging on his sleeve to hold him back.

Rob shrugged him off.

“Just let this play out. It should make for one helluva show.”

“Thirty seconds ago you were planning to sue,” Rob reminded, knowing JP was right. He had no business interfering. Actually, his business was not to interfere when something this juicy happened. Damn.

“Yeah, well, this just got better than anything we could have cooked up.”

If JP realized Jill was a fraud, he might cook her up. No, JP wouldn’t have to cook her up. Rob was going to do the job for him.

She deserved to be cooked up.

She’d lied to him. To them all.

What had she been thinking? And why the hell was her sister here? Didn’t she realize how obvious it was with the two of them together what had taken place? Anyone who’d seen the footage of the audition interviews would immediately make the connection.

Nothing good could come out of this.

“I came to rescue you,” the woman who looked remarkably like Jill answered. Jill’s sister. Jessie Davidson.

“Rescue me?” Jill’s forehead furrowed, staring in apparent amazement at her sister. “Since when do you rescue me?”

“Since I got you into this mess.” Jessie walked onto the platform, as if she owned the castle, smiled beatifically at all the men, dazzling most, if not all, Rob was sure. “You heard her. My sister is not available for your honeymooning pleasure. She’ll be accompanying me home tonight. That’s all, folks.”

And she winked outrageously at the camera, grabbed Jill’s hands, and tugged her from the platform and toward the door she’d entered through.

Rob blinked.

JP scratched his head and had an odd look. One of those that usually meant he was guilty of something. But for the life of him Rob couldn’t think what JP could be guilty of in this situation.

“They aren’t really leaving, are they?” JP asked.

Hell if he knew.

Leaving. Jill was leaving.

Heedless of JP’s continuing commentary, and Jeff Kensington and Princess Isabella--the real princess Jane--having a stare down, Rob raced after Jill.

# # #

“I suppose you are surprised to see me.” Isabella wondered how she was expected to run a country when she could not manage to form a cohesive thought. Jeff had always affected her in such a manner. She had wondered if time would have dulled her response to him. Now she knew it had not.

“Surprised?” Jeff’s eyes closed as he shook his head with disbelief. “Why should I be surprised?”

“I am sorry.”

“For exactly what? For disappearing during my shift at the hospital without so much as a goodbye? Or maybe for that crappy little note you left thanking me for a good time?”

“That is not what my note said,” she denied fervently. “I thanked you for making my trip special.”

Jeff continued as if she had not spoken. “Or maybe you’re sorry for the fact I came on this God forsaken show thinking I would find you. I mean, what are the odds of me being contacted out of the blue by a major network to appear on a reality television show? One with a princess named Isabella Strovanik? Oh, and she’s from the same country as Izzy Strover? I’d say the chances are zero to none.”

“I never meant to hurt you.”