Ways To Ruin A Royal Reputation (Mills & Boon Modern) (Signed, Sealed…Seduced, Book 1)

she might have on him were futile.
Message received, but that didn’t stop her from lifting her chin in challenge. “What’s wrong with being nice? With being kind and empathetic?”
“I’m not advocating cruelty,” he said with a curl of his lips. “But those are emotions, and emotions are hungry beasts. Soon you’re doing things just so you feel kind. So you have the outside validation of people believing you’re empathetic. Ruling a country, doing it well—” he seemed to pause disdainfully on the word, perhaps criticizing his father’s reign? “—demands that you remove your personal investment from your decisions. Otherwise, you’ll do what appeases your need to feel good and lose sight of what’s ethically sound.”
She considered that. “It seems ironic that you believe giving up the crown is the right thing to do when your willingness to do what’s right makes you ideal for wearing it.”
“That’s why my sister won’t challenge me for it. She refuses to throw Vallia into turmoil by fighting for the right to rule, not when I’m healthy, capable and wildly popular. From an optics standpoint, she can’t call me out as unsuited and install herself. She has to clearly be a better choice, recruited to save the country from another debacle.”
“Why was she passed over in the first place? Primogeniture laws?”
“Sexism. Our father simply thought it would make him look weak to have a woman as his heir. He was too selfish and egotistical, too driven by base desires to see or do what was best for Vallia. When it was revealed my mother was carrying twins and that we were a boy and a girl, he declared the boy would be the next king. Even though Sofia was born first, making her the rightful successor, the council at the time was firmly in my father’s pocket. No one pushed back on his decree.”
“Does that council still have influence? Can’t you simply abdicate?”
“I’ve tried.” Impatience roughened his tone. “Once I was old enough to understand the reality of my position, I began to question why the crown was coming to me.” He pensively tapped the armrest with a brief drum of his fingers. “Our mother knew Sofia was being cheated, but she worried that pressing for Sofia’s right to inherit would cost her what little influence she had. She used her mandate of raising a future king to install a horde of conservative advisers around us. They genuinely wished to mold me into a better king than my father was, and they are extremely devoted to their cause. That isn’t a bad thing, given the sort of people who surrounded my father.” He side-eyed her.
Amy briefly rolled her lips inward. “I won’t pretend I haven’t read the headlines.” Countless mistresses, for instance, sometimes more than one at a time. “I don’t put a lot of stock into gossip, especially online. Paparazzi will post anything to gain clicks.”
Even if Luca’s father had been into polyamory, it was merely a questionable look for someone in his position, not something that negated his ability to rule.
“Whatever you’ve read about my father is not only true,” Luca said in a dark voice, “it is the whitewashed version.” His voice rang as though he was hollow inside. “When he died, I brought up crowning my sister despite the fact I’ve always been the recognized successor. It was impressed upon me that Vallia was in too fragile a state for such a scandal. That we desperately needed to repair our reputation on the world stage and I was the man to do it.”
“It’s only been six months. Is Vallia strong enough to weather you renouncing your crown?” she asked skeptically.
“It’s the perfect time to demonstrate that behaviors tolerated in the previous king will not be forgiven in this one. A small, well-targeted scandal that proves my sister is willing to make the hard decision of removing me for the betterment of our country will rally the population behind her. I need something unsavory enough to cause reservations about my suitability, but not so filthy I can’t go on to hold positions of authority once it’s over. I don’t intend to leave her in the lurch, only restore what should be rightfully hers.”
“What will you do after she ascends?” she asked curiously.
“Vallia’s economy has suffered from years of neglect. Recent world events have not helped. Before the duties of a monarch tied up all my time, I was focused on developing our tech sector. We have a small but exceptional team working in solar advancements and another looking at recovering plastics from the waste stream to manufacture them into useable goods.”
“Be careful,” she teased, noting the way his expression had altered. “You almost sound enthusiastic. I believe that’s known as having an emotion.”
His gaze clashed into hers. Whatever keenness might have briefly brimmed within him was firmly quashed, replaced by something icy and dangerous.
“Don’t mistake my frankness for a desire to be friends, Amy,” he warned softly. “I’m giving you the information you need to do your job. You don’t know me. You can’t. Not just because we’ll never have a shared frame of reference, but because I won’t allow it. I’ve lived in the shadow of a man who made everything about himself. Who allowed himself to be ruled by fleeting whims and hedonistic cravings. If I thought my desire to go back to reshaping our economy offered anything more than basic satisfaction in pursuing a goal, I wouldn’t do it. It’s too dangerous. I won’t be like him.”
They were coming into a private airfield and aiming for a sleek jet that had the Vallian flag painted on the tail. A red carpet led to the steps.
Amy squirmed internally. He might not have emotions, but she did. And she was normally well-liked. It bothered her to realize he not only didn’t like her, but he didn’t want to. That stung. She didn’t want to feel his rebuff this keenly.
“Developing a rapport with a client is a way of building trust,” she