Twisted Games (Twisted, #2)

by Ana Huang

A grim half smile touched Rhys’s lips. “I’d rather you hate me alive than love me dead.”

The only thing I could focus on was the not one but one thousand butterflies invading my stomach.

“Come here, Princess.” I opened one arm. She stepped into it and buried her face in my noninjured shoulder. It was the most vulnerable we’d been in front of the other since we met, and it chipped away at something inside me. “It’s all right.”

“It’s okay. I know I look horrible,” Bridget said. “Elin, our communications secretary, would pitch a fit if she saw me like this.” I snorted. “Princess, you couldn’t look horrible if you tried.”

“I’m going to miss you.” He went still, so still I thought he didn’t hear me. Then, in an uncharacteristically, achingly soft voice, he said, “I’m going to miss you too, Princess.”

But even though I was still upset with Rhys for leaving in the first place, I realized something. The empty, gnawing feeling had disappeared.

A small smile touched Rhys’s lips. “I always knew you would make a great queen.” “I’m not queen yet.” “You don’t need a crown to be queen, Princess.”

She didn’t respond, but she tightened her arms around my neck and pressed a soft kiss to my jaw that made my heart twist in the strangest way. Then again, nothing about my life had been normal since Bridget von Ascheberg came into it.

I was addicted.

No matter how much it felt like forever, we would eventually have to part ways…unless I did something drastic. Something no one had ever done before. Like repeal the Royal Marriages Law.

“Trust me, Princess. I would rather end my own life than ask you to do anything that might hurt you.”

She wasn’t mine to take, but I was taking her anyway.

“Baby, we’re way beyond like.”

“You have to move.” “I beg your pardon?” “Your house. It’s a security nightmare. I don’t know who signed off on this location, but you have to move.” “Have you ever been in love?” “No. But I hope to be one day.” “Good night, Princess.” “Good night, Mr. Larsen.”

The best rulers are those who can wield both the carrot and the stick in equal measure.

This is the life we were born into. We have nine months. We will figure. It. Out. Baby, we’re way beyond like.

It was the same request I’d made at the hospital, but this time, Bridget didn’t break our gaze as she asked, “Have you ever been in love, Mr. Larsen?” “Only once.” I slid my hand up from her neck to the back of her head, cupping it. “And you, Princess. Have you ever been in love?” “Only once,” she whispered.

Bridget’s eyes turned liquid beneath the moonlight, and her hold on me tightened. “I love you.” Another breath rushed out of me. “I love you too,” I said, my voice gruff with long-buried emotion.

Bridget felt better than heaven. She felt like home.

The first kiss was for the world. This one was for us.

I’m proud of you, honey. The soft female voice returned, and emotion welled in my throat.

And as Bridget wrapped her arms around my waist and Andreas returned, grumbling about a delayed bachelor trip to Santorini, I finally identified the odd sensation gripping me. It was the feeling of having a family.

I shook my head with a grin. I’d been doing a lot more of that lately—grinning.

“Trust me, that’s not something I’ll ever forget.” My mouth quirked up at the warm rose creeping over her cheeks. “But that’s not the surprise. This is.” I held up a set of keys. “I bought the house.”

“Rhys, are you a secret romantic?” “I don’t know.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small velvet box, the knot of nerves in my stomach doubling.

Bridget sucked in an audible breath, but otherwise everything hushed—the wind, the birds, the roar of the Pacific in the distance. It was like the entire world held its breath, waiting to see what happened next. “You tell me.” I opened the box, revealing the glittering diamond ring that had burned a hole in the back of my dresser drawer for two months.

I took a deep breath. “Bridget, will you marry me?” The question hadn’t fully left my mouth before Bridget threw her arms around me and kissed me. “Yes. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!”

“You and me.” I cupped her face and brushed my lips over hers. “Always.”

“Her Majesty Queen Bridget of Eldorra,” the archbishop declared. “Long may she reign!”

Eldorra officially had a new ruler and its first female monarch in over a century.

“So tell me.” I looped my arms around his neck. “Was this where you expected to end up as a kid? Hiding in a royal drawing room with your wife on the night of your wedding?” “Not exactly.” Rhys brushed his thumb over my bottom lip. “But someone once told me we always end up where we’re meant to be, and this is where I’m meant to be. With you.”

Kidnapping, blackmail, betrayal…our path to where we were now was anything but conventional. I wasn’t a storybook princess, and Rhys wasn’t Prince Charming. I didn’t want us to be. Because while what we had wasn’t a traditional fairy tale by any means, it was ours. And it was forever.