Georgie shot a glance at Dree. “You know her?”
Dree bobbled her head back and forth. “She was nice to me a couple of times, but she sneaked into Maxence’s bed and tried to have her way with him a few nights ago. It was weird.”
Georgie’s jaw dropped. “Did he sleep with her?”
“I walked in right after he had hurtled out of bed. He was holding a pillow over his dick and defending his honor.”
Georgie laughed. “They’re first cousins, right? I mean, Marie-Therese is Alexandre’s first cousin, and Alexandre is Max’s first cousin. That’s the transitive property, right? I was never very good at math.”
“Yeah, first cousins. They would’ve had babies with three heads.”
“Ew,”Georgie said. “And, between you and me,typical.”
Dree turned and looked straight at Georgie. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t want to say anything if she’s a friend of yours—”
“I just said she tried to screw my boyfriend.”
“Good point. Anyway, one of my best friends is Reagan Stone-von Hannover.”
Dree came up with nothing. “You said that like I should know who she is.”
Georgie looked up like she was trying to do a difficult mathematical calculation. “So, if you start with Max’s older brother, Pierre,hisex-wife is Flicka von Hannover. My friend Rae married Flicka’s older brother,Wulfvon Hannover.”
“I wouldn’t have followed that at all, except for Flicka. She and Maxence used to—date.”
Georgie raised her eyebrows. “Oh?”
“I’m not saying anything bad about Flicka because I’ve never met the woman, and she has the perfect right to do what she wants to with her life and shouldnotbe obliged to marry someone she doesn’t love because otherwise the guy will be sad, but I’m still picking up pieces of Maxence.”
Georgie’s eyes widened, and she nodded.“Oh.”
“I get the feeling that these royal people should’ve started branching out earlier in their dating processes. They’ve all broken each other’s hearts at least once.”
Georgie continued, “Anyway, after Rae and Wulf were married, they took a babymoon down to Argentina to go skiing last June. Marie-Therese showed up at the ski resort in Argentina and triedtostealWulfaway from my best friend. Marie-Therese had some song and dance about how Wulf’s father had put her up to it and she didn’t know they were married already, but Marie-Therese obviously has few scruples aboutpoaching.I mean, everybody in this upper-upper-upperclass social circle knew Rae and Wulf were together. He was kind of notorious for not dating anyone for forever, and then they were seen together at several events all of a sudden. Everybodyknew.Marie-Therese must haveknown,even if she did go down there with the intention of stealing a fiancé and not a husband.”
Dree nodded, biting her lip. “And two nights ago she ended up in bed with Max, her first cousin, wearing trashy red lingerie.”
Georgie rolled her eyes. “Like I said, par for the course.”
Dree stared across the room at Marie-Therese, who was still accepting congratulations from her friends and had draped herself over the shoulder of a tall, extraordinarily handsome man whom Dree had never met.
She would’ve remembered a guy like that.
His hair was a dark brown that looked like it might be auburn in the sunlight, and his shoulders appeared broad enough to balance several girls on them at one time. His pale blue, Nordic eyes scanned the room.
When Marie Therese melted against his side, he glanced down at her and raised one eyebrow. Marie-Therese looked exhausted with just how pleased she was with herself.
Maxence raised his arms like he was about to announce something.
Dree asked Georgie, “Can we just walk over there, or is that area just for the electors?”
Georgie shrugged. “That giant guy in the uniform over by the doors told me to stay in the back. He was herding people earlier. I think that guy that Marie Therese appears to be climbing isn’t one of the electors. I saw him standing over in the corner. He had been sitting on the couch by the far doors, but there was an older lady standing beside him, so he gave his seat to her.”
When Georgie pointed out the uniformed giant, Dree glanced around the room. Ten uniformed guys, all with guns, were stationed around the room.
Dree scowled. “Screw it. I’m not from Monaco. These security dudes don’t have any authority over me.”
