THE

       SANTINA CROWN

       Royalty has never been so scandalous!

       STOP PRESS—Crown Prince in shock marriage

       The tabloid headlines …

      When HRH Crown Prince Alessandro of Santina proposes to paparazzi favourite Allegra Jackson it promises to be the social event of the decade

      —outrageous headlines guaranteed!

       The salacious gossip …

      Mills & Boon invites you to rub shoulders with royalty, sheikhs and glamorous socialites. Step into the decadent playground of the world’s rich and famous …

       THE SANTINA CROWN

      THE PRICE OF ROYAL DUTY – Penny Jordan

      THE SHEIKH’S HEIR – Sharon Kendrick

      THE SCANDALOUS PRINCESS – Kate Hewitt

      THE MAN BEHIND THE SCARS – Caitlin Crews

      DEFYING THE PRINCE – Sarah Morgan

      PRINCESS FROM THE SHADOWS – Maisey Yates

      THE GIRL NOBODY WANTED – Lynn Raye Harris

      PLAYING THE ROYAL GAME – Carol Marinelli

       Ben stared at her for a moment, long enough to make her lose her edge of defiance and start to squirm. Or at least want to squirm. Thankfully she remained quite still. ‘Are you always this pleasant?’ he finally enquired.

      ‘No, I’m not,’ Natalia told him. ‘You happened to catch me at a good moment.’

      He let out a dry chuckle, surprising her. So Ben Jackson possessed a sense of humour. A small one.

      ‘I shudder at the thought of catching you at a bad one,’ he told her, and his voice was low and honeyed enough to slide right over her senses.

      Natalia knew she had been rather rude to him, but only because she’d felt so defensive. As soon as she’d met Ben Jackson he’d examined and dismissed her, all in the space of a few minutes. She’d spent a long time perfecting her air of polished, jaded sophistication, and she didn’t like someone like Ben blowing it. Seeing right through it. Laughing at her.

      ‘Shudder away,’ she told him. ‘Somehow I don’t think we’ll be meeting again.’

      About the Author

      KATE HEWITT discovered her first Mills & Boon^® romance on a trip to England when she was thirteen, and she’s continued to read them ever since.

      She wrote her first story at the age of five, simply because her older brother had written one and she thought she could do it too. That story was one sentence long—fortunately, they’ve become a bit more detailed as she’s grown older.

      She has written plays, short stories, and magazine serials for many years, but writing romance remains her first love. Besides writing, she enjoys reading, travelling, and learning to knit.

      After marrying the man of her dreams—her older brother’s childhood friend—she lived in England for six years and now resides in Connecticut with her husband, her three young children, and the possibility of one day getting a dog.

      Kate loves to hear from readers—you can contact her through her website, www.kate-hewitt.com.

      Recent titles by the same author:

      THE DARKEST OF SECRETS

       KHOLODOV’S LAST MISTRESS

       MR AND MISCHIEF (The Powerful and the Pure)

       Did you know these are also available as eBooks?

       Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

      The

       Santina Crown

       The Scandalous Princess

       Kate Hewitt

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      To Meg Lewis and Anna Boatman,

       who helped me see this book through to the very end! Many thanks,

       Kate

      CHAPTER ONE

      ‘NOW there, at least, is a Jackson who has bettered himself.’

      Princess Natalia Santina glanced at her mother, whose arctic tone belied what had sounded like a compliment. Queen Zoe’s eyes were narrowed, her lips pressed together in disapproval. Her usual look then. Natalia turned to see who was the subject of her mother’s grudging praise. Her gaze moved through the crowd of well-heeled guests who had come to the engagement party of her older brother Alessandro and his unexpected fiancée, Allegra, daughter of British tabloid fodder and ex-footballer Bobby Jackson, to finally rest on Ben Jackson, Allegra’s older brother and self-made millionaire. Not that the money made a difference to her mother. Anyone, she liked to say with a sniff, could make money. Breeding was what mattered.

      After all, the fiancé who had thankfully just broken Natalia’s own engagement—Prince Michel of the small mountain principality of Montenavarre—hadn’t had much money. He’d claimed Natalia had possessed impossibly expensive tastes, which was undoubtedly true for him. Prince Michel might be second in line to the throne but he was practically penniless, and in any case Natalia had no intention of spending her life in some draughty castle in the Alps, listening to her husband go on and on about his country’s tediously noble history.

      The question of just how she intended to spend her life remained, as yet, unanswered. For the moment Natalia was simply glad to enjoy her reprieve from matrimony. Nothing in her experience so far had recommended it.

      Now her own gaze narrowed as she took in Ben Jackson’s powerful form. He was dressed in a well-cut grey silk business suit, his tie a sober navy, his movement restrained and precise as he chatted to another guest. Unlike his father, whose flashy tie, booming voice and expansive gestures proclaimed new money like nothing else could, Ben Jackson was the epitome of understated male elegance. Queen Zoe, Natalia had noticed with a stab of amusement, had held out only two fingers for Bobby Jackson to shake and flinched visibly when he’d lavishly kissed her hand instead.

      ‘What does Ben Jackson do exactly?’ she asked her mother, who stiffened at the vulgarity of such a question. Natalia knew you weren’t supposed to ask what people did, because of course people of class didn’t do anything. Not for money. Queen Zoe didn’t even like to mention the successful business ventures of her own son and heir to the throne. Sometimes Natalia wondered if her mother had stepped from the pages of a Victorian novel, or even a time machine. Her attitudes certainly did not belong to this century.

      ‘He’s an entrepreneur, as far as I can tell,’ Zoe said stiffly. ‘Something in finance.’

      How boring, Natalia thought, even as she eyed the oldest Jackson with undisguised feminine appreciation. The set of his shoulders underneath the tailored grey silk was impressive indeed. He lifted one long-fingered hand to make a point, his blazing eyes and set mouth creating an expression, Natalia decided, of controlled enthusiasm. He felt deeply, but he didn’t want anyone to know. She’d always been good at reading expressions, and gauging a person’s attitude. It had certainly helped her through twelve years of incomprehensible education, when often the curve of a mouth or lift of an eyebrow was the only clue as to whether she’d got it right or wrong.