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I need the kind of woman I will want beside me not just in sickness and in health, but in kingdom-ruling as well. I don’t have the luxury of choosing a woman just for myself. I’m choosing a woman for the people of Elsinore too. And so far, no woman I’ve met fits this description. Not even close.
Who are you? I find myself wondering as I study the picture. To have lost so much but not break under the weight of it.
see strength and a simple, raw beauty in her dark eyes and the curve of her cheek.
But I know you’ve got a good heart in there somewhere, overshadowed perhaps by your logical brain.”
So then, the handsome stranger is not a hallucination or daydream.
Mr. Handsome.”
I’d happily be commanded by him any day.
It’s just attraction, pure and simple. A chemical thing. My hormones reacting to his pheromones—I
“I think Alessia probably knows how she feels better than you do.” Maybe Marco isn’t so bad after all.
my brother made it his personal mission to supply me with advice on women. Callum’s Charm School, he called it, and it was every bit as dreadful as it sounds.
“Ohhh, yes. We’ve all heard about him. The tourist with the perfect package!”
Prince Perfect Package.”
“Let him carry you if he asks. He looks like he could manage. It could be fun. You could definitely use some fun.”
Playing hard to get isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Trust me.”
“Well. I do like mornings, yes. I’m up early. But I tend to be very busy late at night.”
It’s not a date. It’s not even quite a yes. But as I hurry to catch up with Alessia, I realize I’ve never looked forward to anything more.
when she gets fixated on an idea, she goes feral.
“Not Goonies again,”
You’re a romantic but pretend you’re not.”
I hate cell phones. Everyone is glued to them and they cause cancer and—”
You know that you’re the bravest person I know.”
Everything feels different with him,
“He’s leaving,” I whisper. “So, go with him,”
He could be the start of your happily ever after.”
“Happily ever afters aren’t real,” I whisper. Hope disappoints, I think. Love hurts.
Real happily ever afters are messier and involve fights and making up and heartache and happiness all tangled up. They are real. Just not like the books. And you’ll never experience the beautiful parts and the messy parts unless you take a chance.”
“Hey—you’re the one with the Sean Astin obsession. It’s not my fault.”
The grin he gives makes me regret my compliment. It’s the kind of smile it’s hard to come back from. The kind I wouldn’t mind seeing every morning for the rest of my life.
“I didn’t take you for a thief.” Of anything but my heart,
I think I got a little lightheaded.” I am lightheaded, but it has nothing to do with being tired or spending too long on my feet.
“You could hardly make your own way up the hill, Just Phillip. How could I expect you to carry me down?”
“You hardly know me.” “But I feel as though I do,” she says, and I have to agree.
“I know you love your family, even if you don’t want to tell me what kind of business they’re in. You’re responsible and thoughtful, patient and humbled, despite whatever your high-level position is.”
“She is beautiful but not a songbird,” Sal says. “And she cannot cook,”
“We just haven’t defined things in a specific way.”
“Still want a big family?” I teased, hoping my tone hid my curiosity. I still remember the way he looked as he met my gaze. “Only if I have the right woman beside me.”
“Did he give you the flower?” Luci asks. Smiling, I touch the delicate bloom Phillip tucked behind my ear earlier. “Yes.” “That’s definitely a boyfriend thing.”
Romantic and practical—be still my heart!
I’ve never met a woman whose beauty rivaled a summer sky.
there’s even the tiniest crumb of gossip. “What? It’s me! You can tell me anything. Anything,” Luci says more pointedly, making sure I don’t miss her wink. “You know I tell you every detail.” “Sometimes too many details,”
“Any man who makes you come alive is a man I like. Too long, you have been in the shadows. He is worthy of you, tesoro mio.”
He is your farm boy.”
“Come here.” They are two simple words, but Phillip’s tone carries the kind of command I find myself responding to almost instinctively,
What else but love could make you forsake your duties?”
instalove.”
if Alessia doesn’t want me or doesn’t want me because of my title and my life, I can’t imagine being with anyone else.
“You are reason enough to stay.”
You want me? Then you better want my curves.
“You might be the only one in the world to really see me.” “Then everyone else in the world is missing out.”
“I like you growling my name,”
