Angelino Diamandis, the ruling prince of Themos is Saif’s younger brother. A legendary womaniser, he is disconcerted when he meets the girl who rejected him at university again in unexpected circumstances. Volatile and cynical, Angel is very different from his conservative sibling.

Gabriella always wanted more from Angel than he was prepared to give. He wanted her to sign a NDA before they had a casual fling. Her romantic hopes dashed, she said no and he walked away and broke her heart. Now that she is older and wiser, what will happen?

And will Angel get over his past experiences and finally offer Gaby what she truly needs to make her happy? Will she be able to trust him? Will he ever be able to trust her? Angel is a deeply emotional and damaged personality and I found it challenging to write him while at the same time keeping my heroine ( and the reader) in tune with him.

UPDATE (April 2021): Gaby and Angel’s story will be called “Her Best Kept Royal Secret“.

Excerpts From the Book

When am I going to marry?

‘When am I going to marry?’ Angelino Diamandis rolled his dark heavily lashed eyes with slumbrous amusement in receipt of his brother’s question.

Christened Angel by his friends, it being an in-joke that he was anything but angelic, the ruling Prince of Themos sprawled back on the upholstered ottoman in an untidy but indisputably graceful tangle of long lean limbs and simply smiled over his cup of coffee. The movie star good looks that had long made him a favourite of the paparazzi had rarely been more breathtakingly obvious.

Prince Saif of Alharia, clad in the traditional silk finery of a bridegroom, studied his younger half-brother with an unimpressed frown.’ Why are you smiling? As though I had asked you something foolish ?  You are a head of state and one day, just like me, you must marry. Neither of us has a choice.’

Her infatuation

Naively, she had associated the giving of flowers with romance and the next time she had run into  Angel had been at the library.  Over coffee she had thanked him for the flowers and she had been ready to say yes to dinner should he have asked her again, only Angel had told her instead that he was flying home for three weeks. Regrettably, his disappearance had only fuelled her infatuation.

‘Angel plays with girls like you, that’s all…don’t start building fantasy castles in the air just because he’s interested in you at the moment…a moment is as long as Angel’s interest lasts,’ Cassia Romano had told her bitchily, going out of her way to bump into Gaby after a lecture and deliver that unnecessary warning.

Into the mountains

In addition, Gaby didn’t like attacking or confronting people. Perhaps resentment had sent Cassia recklessly over the edge and she would regret her wild claim and the subject would never be mentioned again. Did she really want to be responsible for Cassia being disgraced and losing her job? Gaby didn’t believe that Cassia was Angel’s occasional mistress, she really didn’t…but she supposed there was always the chance that she was being foolishly blind and naive and she had to share that little scene with Angel.

‘So,’ Gaby whispered under cover of the music during the meal.’ Are we going anywhere after this ends?’

‘Into the mountains to my grandparents’ hideaway,’ Angel murmured.’ Although we have many other more glamorous options. I have a yacht and property in several major cities but I thought that right now we would both enjoy time to decompress in a peaceful setting. Alexios and Marina will join us there tomorrow.’

‘Oh…’