Of course I was.
This night was going from bad to worse. First, this whole mess. Then, we’d arrived, and my younger sister, Isla, had immediately been pulled out onto the dance floor by Prince Logan Anders, of Torsund — a man with a reputation about as terrible as Magnus’s. Prince Logan — if you believed the rumors — was cursed. But whether you believed nonsense like that or not, you only had to look in the tabloids to see the way the once charming, upbeat, heartthrob of a prince had turned into, well, what they called him now.
The beast.
So, great. My secret shame was undressing me with his eyes from across the ballroom, my younger sister was off being eaten or whatever by Prince Logan the beast, and here I was, just wishing I could get through this night.
“Evening, Princess.”
That voice.
My eyes snapped up from their gaze at the floor to see him standing right in front of me, that damn smirk on his face, those blue eyes flashing fire.
“Prince Magnus,” I said curtly.
“My close friends call me Magnum, actually,” he purred, moving closer to me — way too close, as if we were at some pick-up bar and not a royal function at my father’s palace. I moved back, only to find the ballroom wall at my back.
Damnit.
“I’ll have to remember that,” I said icily. “Magnus,” I added, pointedly.
Ilana coughed beside us, clearing , or at least trying to clear the tension between us.
“Do you two, um—”
“Nope,” I said quickly.
Crap, too quickly. I felt my oldest sister’s eyes on me. Yep, I’d be getting interrogated on that one later.
“Are you sure?” he said with that damn grin on his face. “You do look awfully familiar. I feel like we’ve met somewhere.”
“I doubt that, and I look familiar because you know my father.”
“No, no, that’s not it,” he said with this big elaborately mimed thinking face. “No, I think it was… hmm, where was it that we met?”
“No where,” I said icily.
Ilana cleared her throat again. “So, I’m going to go get some, uh, punch or something.”
Yeah, I wasn’t hiding my disdain for Magnus or the awkwardness of this meet in the slightest bit, and she’d caught on.
“I’ll go with you.”
“Actually,” his hand shot out, grabbing my bare arm. I shivered at the sudden electric shock that traveled right through my body. It centered on that touch and fizzled through every single inch of me. I whirled back at him, my breath catching as those stunning blue eyes caught mine.
“I’d love a dance.”
I frowned. “Excuse me?”
Magnus grinned. “It is a ball, right?”
““It is, but I’d rather—”
“Oh, go dance,” Ilana nudged me.
I glared daggers at her that said “I’ll kill you later,” but she either didn’t catch it or ignored it.
“Chester will be here soon, and—”
I gasped as I suddenly felt Magnus just pull me away, marching us towards the dance floor.
“Get your hands off of— oh!”
I gasped as he suddenly spun me, and before I knew it, his arm was around my waist and pulling me right against him. I gasped again as my palms hit his thickly muscled chest through his tuxedo, my eyes going wide as they flicked up to his.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
I almost shrieked as he suddenly spun us and dipped me low. My heart leapt into my throat, and I felt a tingling sensation flicker through parts of my body it shouldn’t have.
“Dancing,” he growled, yanking me back up, his lips by my ear. “That is what people do at a ball, right?”
“Some people, maybe, not us,” I hissed back.
“I beg to differ.” He chuckled, spinning me and dipping me once again, grinning as I flushed and gasped again.
“You do that a lot.”
“What?”
“Act scandalized.”
“You are scandalizing. You’re scandal personified, if the tabloids are to be believed,” I said icily.
“And are they? To be believed? Can't trust everything you read, Princess.”
I instantly flushed, thinking about the enormous appendage thrusting up from his body lying in my bed back at the hotel. Apparently, you could believe some things in the tabloids.
“What are you doing here,” I muttered, trying to swallow the heat from my face.
“Looking for a bride. A soulmate,” he said with a grin.
I rolled my eyes. “Please, you?”
“Yep.”
He said it flatly, without a hint of sarcasm, and I bit my lip as my eyes narrowed at him.
“What are you really doing here?”
“Honestly?”
“I asked.”
“I came here because I had to. Because it was expected of me,” he said quietly, turning us in time to the string quartet in the corner of the ballroom. “And then I found Claire.”
I blushed.
“And here’s the thing, Princess,” he growled, suddenly pulling me tight against him and making my pulse skip a beat.
“I’ve been thinking about Claire for four solid weeks now. In fact, I can’t think of anything else. Or anyone else. She consumes me,” he growled. “She’s taken over my mind.”
“Pity she doesn’t exist,” I said flatly. “She’s not real.”
“I beg to differ.”
I gasped as I felt his hand grab my ass — right there on the dance floor.
“I think she’s very real.”
I gasped, jerking away from him and knocking his hand away.
“Are you insane?”
He smirked. “Maybe?”
“You do not touch a princess like that!”
“Oh, so you’re not Claire D’Claire?”
I rolled my eyes.
“I suppose I could ask your father why you use that name when you stop by Ibiza.”
I quickly shook my head, and he grinned at my paling face.
“Oh now, what’s this?”
“Nothing.”
“Let me guess, fake name means Daddy didn’t know you were there?”
I blushed.
“Naughty little girl,” he purred.
Heat bloomed between my legs at his words, and I quickly took a breath of air as I stepped away from him.
“We have to stop dancing now.”
“They’re still playing.”
“Well, I’m waiting for someone.”
I saw his eyes flash fire. “Who,” he growled, as if this was offending him.
“My boyfriend.”
His jaw tightened. “Boyfriend.”
I nodded, swallowing and hoping the lie wasn’t so obvious on my face. Chester was not my boyfriend, at all. We’d only spoken once or twice, actually, and in large formal functions.
I didn’t even know why I said it.
“Who,” Magnus growled.
I chewed my lip. “Prince Chester, of—”
Magnus laughed, loudly.
“Montagne?” He chuckled.
I scowled at him. “Yes.”
“His name rhymes with molester.”
I rolled my eyes.
“There’s no way a girl like you is dating a guy like that.”
I frowned. “Pardon me?!”
He just grinned.
“And just what the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means Chester is a fucking dork, and you’re the most gorgeous girl I’ve ever seen, and if you’re dating that fucking guy, the world is out of fucking balance, Princess.”
I blushed, looking away.
“Dance with me.”
“Why?”
“Because you’ve seen me naked.”