Excerpt 1:
“Hello?” I fumble with my phone to locate the torch app, which suddenly seems to have disappeared. “Who’s in here?” I demand, half expecting to find a murderer or some kind of psychopath, wielding a knife, ready to attack.

“Who are you?” an indignant voice responds.

Finally, I locate the torch app and flick it on, scanning the closet.

I suck in a breath as it illuminates a woman, her features lined with fear as she squints at me, her hands held in tight fists in front of her chest.

I relax. She doesn’t look like a murderer or a psychopath, or even a ghost. Well, a little like a ghost. The woman is rather pale.

But there’s something recognizable about her. The look in her eyes is like a deer in headlights. A beautiful deer. A familiar deer.

I take a step closer to her.

“Get back!” she screeches. “I’m warning you; I know tai chi.”

I press my lips together to stop a smile. “You know how to do slow, controlled movements at sunrise?” If I tried to keep the amusement from my voice it wasn’t much of an effort.

“I meant… karate. I know karate and I’m not afraid to use it!” She unfurls her fists and brandishes her flat hands at me.

A laugh bubbles up, and I do my best to style it out as a cough. “I come in peace, I assure you.”

“How do I know that?” She does a chopping motion with one of her hands, presumably to demonstrate her karate prowess. 

“Why don’t you put those weapons of yours down?” I reach for her hands to hold them in mine reassuringly. This woman is freaked out and I need to do something.

As my hands fold over hers she snaps them away, raises one in a fist, and before I have the chance to ask what she intends to do with that fist, she jabs it straight at my face. 

“Argh!” I call out, my eyes watering as my nose throbs in pain that pulses painfully across my cheekbones. I stagger back, clasping my nose “What did you do that for?” 

But no sooner have the words left my mouth when she yanks the cupboard door open and bursts from the room, her skirt billowing behind her as she rushes away from me down the hall.

“What the—?!” I trail after her, muttering in disbelief. Who punches someone in the face in a hallway cupboard when all they were trying to do was show they weren’t a threat? 

Through watering eyes, I blink at her as she tears away from me down the hallway—only to fall flat on her face, her skirt billowing up behind her to expose her plain white cotton underpants, and her tiara pinging off her head and bouncing across the carpet.

Who is this woman and what the heck is she playing at?

My instinct kicks in, and before I have the chance to second guess myself, I hurry down the hallway to her aid.

“Are you all right?” I ask. 

Her eyes are wild as she yells, “Stay away!” She clamors back to her feet, clutching her head.

“Are you hurt?” I ask, and she shakes her head, her eyes searching the floor.

She must be looking for her tiara.

“It’s over there.” I point at the tiara on the ground, still in one piece.

She grabs it and turns back to me. “I—please don’t tell anyone.”

“Okay.”

She doesn’t say another word, instead she turns on her heel and dashes away, rounding a corner and disappearing from sight.

I stand, rooted to the spot, my brain scrambling to make sense of what just happened. I sought a brief moment of refuge in a cupboard only to be attacked by a beautiful woman in a tiara with an American accent.

My nose throbs painfully as realization dawns on me.

She’s Madeline, the American here to claim the throne. The woman a nation has pinned their hopes on. 

The woman who wields a strong right hook.

 

Excerpt 2:
I turn to see a man in a red buttoned-up jacket, a blue sash crossing his body from shoulder to hip, his stride strong and confident. His face looks like the image in Chloe’s magazine, extremely handsome with a head of dark hair, a strong jaw covered in a cropped beard, and the kind of olive skin I always wished I had instead of my pale skin prone to freckles. Although now that I look at him, his nose is red and swollen and looks like he might have been—

Wait.

His nose looks like it’s been…punched?

Ice cold seeps across my chest.

It was him. It was Prince Alexander in the closet!

I freeze, every nerve in my body on high alert.

He stops to speak with someone and although I wouldn’t have thought it possible, he looks so much more handsome in person. Dangerously handsome. 

And angry. Definitely angry.

I swallow, my mouth suddenly dry. The guy in the closet was Prince Alexander. The guy I went NHL in a bad mood on, who I thought was a murderer or worse, is in fact the Crown Prince of Ledonia, heir to the throne, brother to my new friend. 

And the worst thing of all? He’s heading our way.

 

Excerpt 3:
My mind wanders to the top of the hill, where Alex took me on the motorcycle. We opened up to one another, and I feel so much closer to him now. 

So much so I almost acted on my feelings for him and kissed him. Almost. 

Let’s just say it was a good thing Vlad interrupted us, or I don’t know what would have happened. 

Okay, that’s a lie. I know exactly what would have happened. Alex would have kissed me and I would have kissed him right back, all those pent-up feelings I’ve been carrying around for him since the day we met would have come bursting out in an explosion of want.

I sigh.

So not a good idea for a whole host of reasons, least of all the fact that he has this reputation that suggests he goes around kissing women in picturesque spots all the time. 

The problem is I’ve grown to know something about myself when it comes to Prince Alexander of Ledonia. And it’s a doozy. 

I don’t want to be simply the next girl in his long line.

I want to be the girl.

I know. It’s crazy. I’ve gone from despising the man to realizing I got him wrong to now fantasizing about wanting to be with him. Not just kiss him. 

Be. 

With. 

Him.

I want to be the one he ends up with, the one who means the most to him. The one he’s with for the rest of his life. And I want him to be the one who means the most to me.

I blow out a breath. 

This is not the way I saw this playing out, but here I am. I’m falling for him, this strong, loyal, loving man who is nothing like I expected.

I’m in deep. Way too deep.

 

Excerpt 4:
A smile tugs at the edges of my mouth, the way it always does when I think of Maddie. There’s something about her that draws me to her, like a magnetic pull. It’s not just that she’s a beautiful woman, but there’s no denying she is. She’s got long dark hair that frames her fine features perfectly, highlighting her iridescent blue eyes—and the most kissable of mouths with full, inviting lips.

Yes, those lips. 

I admit, I’ve thought about kissing her. More than once. That day we rode the bike to the top of the hill, I could think of nothing else. I mean, really, what’s a guy to do when the woman he can’t stop thinking about licks her ice cream in the sexiest way imaginable?

It took all my self-control not to take her in my arms and insist she replace her ice cream with me before I gave her the most long-awaited and anticipated kiss of my whole life.

There have been other moments, moments that would have done for a woman I didn’t care for the way I do Maddie. There’s no denying I wanted it to happen. 

But when it does happen—and I so hope it will happen—I want it to be perfect. This isn’t just some girl with which I’m having a flirtation. This is Madeline. She’s special. I want our first kiss to be nothing short of perfect.