*Rowan*I'd been with lots of women. Too many, really. I was embarrassed that I had been so frivolous with so many people's emotions. With Genevieve, I knew I had been wasting my time, that I could never have shown love to someone the way I could for her.She deserved it. She deserved every lovely thing I could give her. Not only was she brilliant and strong, but she had saved me. I owed her my life.I had done nothing to earn her attention. I didn't deserve her love and affection, but she continued to shower me with it. I wanted to do the same for her.Her kiss was intoxicating. I was thirsty for more of her, drinking her in like water after a drought. Her lips moved against mine, passionate and hungry.Genevieve stroked her tongue along the roof of my mouth, sending sparks down my spine. I was coming alive at her touch, like nothing I'd ever felt before.I slid my hands under her sweatshirt. I wanted to take it off her, but I was afraid of hurting her arm. Instead, I sett

*Aurora*I sat staring at my reflection for far too long. I wasn't trying to be vain. I just wanted to look perfect. Jonah had stressed to me over and over again that being royal meant appearing perfect. It was the reason he spent so much money getting his look fine-tuned, so he could present himself to the world exactly as he wanted to be seen.I hadn't yet spent the money on the surgeries and procedures that Jonah had. But when I was queen, I would. When I was queen, I would get an entirely new wardrobe. I had believed that the exorbitant spending of the king and queen was just frivolous waste, but Jonah explained it all had a purpose.Jonah helped lead me through every decision I needed to make since coming here. Ever since meeting him by chance in that meeting during negotiations, I had felt so much more relaxed. I had someone who could help me navigate every potential pitfall in this situation.It felt like so much pressure. I was having to rely on Jonah more and more, loo

*Rowan*As I left Genevieve in the nook, my mind was racing. I tried to play it cool around her. She had enough to worry about already. I couldn't stop thinking about that first line in her note.'Aurora is suspicious.'Over and over and over again. It played like a warning message. I couldn't shake the thought free. If Aurora was suspicious of Genevieve, then we were living on borrowed time. I had to get Genevieve out of danger.I could send her away. I could have her removed from her post and sent home. I could send her on a mission. It might be a diplomatic nightmare, but I could find a way to send Genevieve out of harm's way. I wanted to come up with any excuse to get her as far away from here as possible, but I knew Genevieve.Wherever there was a fight, she was running headlong into it. The woman took a bullet for me, of course, she would want to stay and be a part of whatever happened next. I would never be able to stop her.That was something I loved about her. She

*Genevieve*Rowan went to the door while I smoothed my hair back into place. While Budge and Tony both knew that Rowan and I were together, they definitely didn't need all the gory details.I'd come down here early because I had listened to as much of the wedding planning as I could stand. I hadn't expected to fall in love here. I realized I didn't know if I was expecting to fall in love ever. I never had the luxury of imagining a lavish wedding, or even spending much time at all thinking about what my dream wedding would look like.Before Rowan, I had never imagined a wedding at all.I thought I was a simple kind of girl. I thought I was the kind of woman who would be happy getting married at the courthouse and moving on with my life if I ever got married at all. Marriage seemed so pointless when someone could always just walk out.My mother had left my father as soon as she'd been able to. They never actually got a divorce, she just managed to drop off the face of the plane

*Jonah*"He turned me down," Aurora reported, standing in front of my desk looking like a scolded dog."The playboy prince himself turned you down?" I scoffed. "If I hadn't seen exactly what you had to offer myself, I'd say you weren't trying hard enough."It didn't make sense. I hadn't known Rowan to ever turn down a woman. And Aurora was one hell of a woman. She might be a few cows short of a herd in the brains department, but she was the sort of beautiful that men went to war for. I still couldn't believe she'd been interested in getting to know me after our initial meeting.It was what drove me to make sure she stayed kicked down a peg. If she got too confident, she'd realize I was out of her league. Or maybe she wasn't. I would be king soon. I would go to war to conquer nations, stringing together an empire of islands. She should be honored to be offered the chance to rule at my side.If I offered her that chance.I was still considering letting her take the fall for a