“You,” I growled, stepping into her and feeling my blood run hot at the sound of the gasp from her lips.
“Hi,” she barely whispered, her eyes wide, her cheeks rosy and pink.
I’d ignored the tall blonde and the shorter, black-haired girl standing beside her, but the blonde cleared her throat, clearly recognizing me.
“Um, Imogen, this is—”
“I know who he is,” she said quickly, her lips quivering as she stared at me.
Imogen?
I was still frowning when the blonde curtsied and put her hand out. “Welcome to Avlion, Prince Magnus. I’m Ilana, King Lucian’s eldest daughter.”
“Hey,” I mumbled, barely glancing at her, my eyes still locked on the mystery redhead in front of me as if daring her to disappear again.
The blonde smiled. “And this is Princess Adele White, of Berne.”
I was half tuning her out again, when she continued, and everything went upside down.
“And this is my sister, Princess Imogen.”
That’s when I froze. That’s when it was my turn for my jaw to drop, and my eyes to go wide. Slowly, I turned to the blonde, recognition spreading over my face as I realized she was Princess Imogen Morningstar.
This is my sister.
The other shoe dropped, and slowly, I turned.
Claire D’Claire.
Or else better known as Princess Imogen Morningstar, one of Lucian’s three daughters, and one of the reasons for this ball. My mystery girl was one of the famously virgin princesses of Avlion, and this ball tonight was to find her a suitor for marriage.
Something primal growled inside of me.
She’d run from me once, but that would not be happening again. Because tonight, I was going to make this princess mine and only mine. Find her a husband, huh?
Fuck that.
She’d been mine the second I saw her. Tonight, I’d make sure she knew that.
Chapter 3
Imogen
No.
No-no-no-no-no.
This could not be happening.
I knew he’d be there, of course, but I’d planned on spending the evening camped out by the wall pretending he didn’t exist and that I’d never seen what I’d seen. He, I was sure, would be camped out surrounded by giggling, flirty, slutty princesses — the kind of girls who went for guys like him. The kind of girls that somehow found filthy talking, crude, gorgeous, renowned-as-being-sex-gods type men attractive.
I blushed.
Yeah, jeez, who could find THAT attractive…
I glanced up, shivering as I realized he was staring right at me. And of course, the heat pulsed through my face. The last time I’d seen this man, he’d been naked on my bed, with his cock in his hands and that grin on his face. He still had the same smug smile, though he was thankfully clothed this time.
I wondered for a second if I really was that thankful before I mentally chastised myself.
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.