Review: The Prince's Virgin Wife

The Prince's Virgin Wife by Lucy Monroe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3 ⭐⭐⭐ - OK decent reads.
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==>Reread July, 2019
==> Re-read March, 15 2016
==> Read september, 05 2012

According to her past employers, she was efficient, content in the domestic environment and peaceful to be around. Traits he hadn’t appreciated nearly enough at the time. He’d been too interested in outward beauty to understand how much her presence meant to him…until it was gone.

Liana had been jealous of his relationship with Maggie and quite vocal in her desire for him to sever ties completely with the other woman. The unreasonable jealousy had flattered him at the time.

He refused to be like his father, finding sexual solace outside the marriage bed.

Since then, his father had had a string of mistresses.

Unfortunately, just like the man on the screen, Tom Prince had married another woman. A beautiful, sophisticated, sexy woman. The kind of woman that drew every male eye when she walked into a room. The kind of woman Maggie knew she would never be.

“Why is your housekeeper sleeping in your bed?” she asked Tom, her voice laced with suspicion.

If she’d been naked, she wasn’t sure she could have survived the humiliation.

She’d been so stupid to think he really wanted her. She’d thought he was avoiding her because he couldn’t handle the fact she’d said no, when in fact he’d simply found another woman and had been spending time with her. Her foolish dreams mocked her with painful indictment.

“Liana doesn’t know you came to my bed to make love. She believed my excuse last night.”

When he wanted Liana to dine with him, she made the extra portions without complaint, but never shared another meal with him herself. Not even breakfast.

When he asked the other woman to marry him, Maggie was not surprised, but being prepared for it did not soften the blow, and her heart bled.

Maggie hadn’t been his type back then. She was too ordinary, too innocent and sweet. He went for gorgeous women with sophisticated tastes and a similar outlook on life. He’d thought that was what he wanted, but he’d learned that kind of woman came with a cost.

It didn’t hurt quite so much anymore, but a sense of incompletion gnawed at her. It was horrible, as if a huge crystal promise of pleasure had shattered into jagged edges that were cutting at her nerve endings. She couldn’t believe she’d waited twenty-six years to experience this.

What woman turned over in bed and invited a man she hadn’t seen in six years into her arms? A promiscuous one, the logical albeit cynical side of his brain insisted. She’d climbed into his bed six years ago, too…she’d said she was a virgin then, but what if that had been a lie?

“Perhaps you are concerned I will fire you for the blatant promiscuity you exhibited last night, but my children are much too attached to you for me to take such a drastic measure before I assess the situation completely.”

“You were a virgin?” He looked well and truly horrified by that prospect. “Yes. Not that it matters. It’s not an experience I plan to repeat anytime soon.”

“Or maybe this whole ‘it was a dream’ story is a ruse and you exchanged your virginity for the hope of a crown? You thought to trade on the guilt you knew I would feel when you told such a story? It was a good gambit, and may yet work.”

She’d learned six years ago that she could not even hold it for a couple of weeks.

She was his nanny…his servant. But then, when had she ever been anything else?

“A plan to find an acceptable mother for my children. An acceptable wife. When I met Liana, I was swept away. I married her because she was a beautiful, glamorous woman, but she was not a natural mother, nor did she take on the responsibilities of her position. I could not risk another such mistake by setting out to ‘marry for love’ again.”

He wanted to marry her, but he did not want to love her and he made it clear that what he wanted her for most was her Girl Scout loyalty and willingness to serve.

Passion, not love. He’d loved the beautiful Liana, now he wanted a marriage of convenience with the ordinary Maggie. “Then why didn’t you?”

Six years ago, Liana’s beauty and charm dazzled me, but I am not so easily swayed by a pretty face now.”

“Let me make sure I have this straight. You had me brought here to the island so you could try me out as wife material?” Just saying the words offended her.

“In other words, you really wanted a nanny who was willing to sign a longer contract than two years.”

“You’re only thinking about what is best for you and trying to convince me that it is what is best for me too.”

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