Wickedly Charming by Kristine Grayson Page A

Ten minutes of quiet. Ten minutes before he had to make decisions again.
    He got home from the book fair—and his life immediately turned into chaos.
    His mother had called him on his other cell phone, the magical one, the one that could contact anyone in the Kingdom at any time. She had snuck away from his father and gave Charming the scoop:
    Ella had decided she didn’t want to be a mother any longer. So she dumped the girls on the castle doorstep. Charming’s father, the King, took the girls back in, so long as they remained quiet and didn’t appear in public until it was time to make an “advantageous” marriage. Charming’s mother had contacted him, quietly, without her husband’s knowledge, saying she didn’t like what was happening with the girls.
    Neither did Ella’s stepmother, Lavinia. She had called moments later and said (among other things): You have no idea what they’re learning here. With your father’s negative attitudes, the Kingdom’s reaction to the divorce, and the way women are still second-class citizens, your daughters are getting the wrong message.
    Lavinia was the one who urged Charming to sue for full custody. She said Ella wouldn’t fight him. She also stressed that things had turned dire.
    She wouldn’t say why, and neither would Charming’s mother.
    But anything that concerned his girls and the word “dire” made him run to the Kingdoms immediately.
    Although he had found a moment to call Mellie. And once again, he had sounded like an idiot.
    He’d told her he had an emergency in the Kingdoms with his girls. She had made some kind of protest, but he didn’t hear it all because his Kingdom phone was ringing again. So he had said something stupid about being back within a month and helping her then.
    He had no idea why he had chosen a month, but he had been right to do so. It had taken forever to get the new custody decree, even though Ella didn’t fight it. Ella hadn’t even shown up in court, forfeiting her rights to the girls by that move alone.
    Charming’s girls were a mess, grateful to see him, but more uncertain of themselves than they had ever been. He had made a decision then and there to bring them back to the Greater World with him. The Kingdoms were destroying them, taking their strong personalities and molding them into simpering things.
    He liked strong women, even though his father didn’t. And whenever his father started talking to him about the way he was encouraging the girls toward bad behavior, Charming let his mind wander to Mellie—and that kiss.
    That kiss. It had sustained him through the transition to the Greater World. Through the purchase of a house appropriate for raising children, not a condo for bachelors. Through the hiring of staff, particularly since he had left his most trusted valet and his closest friend in charge of the bookstore in the Kingdom. No matter how much Charming’s father pushed, Charming wouldn’t give up the Charming Way.
    Although he thought about it. Then he realized he had enough money to start a bookstore in the Greater World. Enough money. He shook his head.
    He had money. That wasn’t an issue. He’d learned long ago that gold bought a lot in the Greater World. He wasn’t as rich as he was in the Kingdoms, but he was better off than almost anyone else in the Greater Los Angeles Area, which was saying something.
    He could just spend his days managing his money, reading, and parenting his girls, but he knew that wouldn’t be enough. So he was looking for a storefront, and trying to figure out how he could build a place that wouldn’t lose money. Independent bookstores seemed to be an iffy proposition in the Greater World, which was proving to be a shock.
    But first, he had had to deal with his daughters and their transition. He had spent most of his time searching for a school, one that would tolerate his daughters’