PROLOGUE
PRINCESS JUNO ALICE MONROYALE braked the hired snowmobile and wrenched up her goggles to take in the stunning view. Snow fluttered down, coating the Alpine landscape in pristine white, framing the ornate turrets and gables of a sixteenth-century castle perched on the clifftop across the gorge. The defiant structure looked magnificent against the gathering dusk of a December night. Like a cartoon fantasy made real.
Home.
Juno’s heart butted her tonsils and the cold air clogged her lungs.
Had it really been eight and a half years since she had visited her homeland and seen her twin sister, Jade—the Queen of Monrova—in the flesh?
Why hadn’t she come back sooner, much sooner?
But even as the question echoed in her consciousness, the disastrous events of the summer she had turned sixteen came hurtling back.
‘Kiss me, Leo, you know you want to.’
‘Why on earth would I want to kiss you? You’re just a spoilt brat. Now leave me alone, or I shall suggest to your father he give you the spanking you clearly deserve.’
Heat rose up Juno’s neck, warming her chilled skin.
She could still hear the amused contempt in King Leonardo DeLessi Severo’s voice, still see the bored superiority in his blue eyes, still feel the inappropriate goosebumps as he’d grasped her wrists in firm hands and dragged her arms off his shoulders.
Good to know the memory of that summer night—when she’d thrown herself at the King of Severene at the Monrova Summer Ball and been brutally rejected—still had the power to make her cringe, big time.
Quite impressive really when she considered all the other cringeworthy moments she’d accumulated over the last eight and a half years—the most recent being the social-media snafu in her new job, which this last-minute trip into her past had been a handy way to avoid.
Some things never change.
She tugged her goggles down, and revved the snowmobile’s engine.
Forget about it.
She wasn’t going to think about that last disastrous summer in Monrova or the mistake she’d made a couple of days ago in New York in her new job at Byrne IT. Luckily it wasn’t that big a screw-up and the big boss, Alvaro Byrne, knew nothing about it. It would all have blown over long before she got back to New York.
Juno headed across the gorge towards the unused entrance to the palace she and Jade had discovered during the summers they had spent together in Monrova after their parents’ divorce.
But as she located the path etched into the cliff face—result—she couldn’t seem to stop her mind from drifting to the past again.
Those summers had been so precious after she and Jade had been separated as eight-year-olds. They’d been so happy, so excited, at the chance to reconnect for two months each year, once Juno had been forced to live the rest of the year in exile in New York with their mother, Alice, and Jade—two minutes older and therefore the heir to the throne—had stayed with their father, King Andreas, to be instructed in her role as the future Queen. But as the years had passed, and Juno’s life in New York had become increasingly chaotic, she’d found it harder and harder
to live under her father’s strict rules, and not drag Jade into mischief with her.
That cringeworthy moment with Leo had been the last straw—once her father had found out about it. Juno shivered as she manoeuvred the snowmobile along the narrow path, every single word he’d said to her that day—and the cold, flat disapproval in his eyes—still fresh...
‘If you can’t behave yourself in a manner befitting your status, I will have you returned to your mother in New York immediately. Do you understand me? Each summer your behaviour gets worse. You’re insolent and disobedient, a bad influence on your sister, and now you’ve disgraced the Crown by behaving like a hoyden and throwing yourself at King Leonardo. You’re becoming as much of a liability as your mother.’
Of course, she’d told her father where he could shove his ultimatum, because she’d been hurt and humiliated and struggling desperately not to show it. But the chilling way he’d nodded and then had her removed from the palace—without even giving her a chance to say goodbye to her sister—still haunted her.
No wonder she hadn’t returned to Monrova while her father was still alive. Had he ever even loved her?
Shuddering, she brushed away the tear that had seeped out from under her goggles.
Jeez, Juno, dial down on the drama, before you end up freezing your eyeballs.