‘About the Winter Ball,’ Juno said. ‘I suppose I could come. But why don’t I turn up unannounced?’ she added, already enjoying the joke. ‘Everyone will think they’re seeing double.’
See, Father? Still not behaving in a manner befitting my status.
‘That’s brilliant...’ Jade’s grin widened. ‘Except...’ She hesitated, the grin disappearing and her excitement deflating. ‘Except King Leonardo is going to be there as the guest of honour. He might not find it amusing.’
What the...? Was this some kind of test? Or a sick joke? Why did he have to be here?
‘Leo the jerk’s here?’ Juno said, hoping Jade couldn’t see the blush heating her collarbone.
She’d never told her sister about that disastrous attempt at seduction on her last night in Monrova, and she never would. Her mortification did not need company.
‘King Leonardo is not a jerk, Juno.’ Jade’s smile softened. ‘He’s a brilliant diplomat. A conscientious and extremely intelligent ruler. And a...’ Her sister paused and Juno spotted the flicker of doubt cross Jade’s face. ‘He’s a good man even if he has sowed a few wild oats.’
‘A few?’ Juno shot back. ‘The guy’s a player. He hasn’t sowed a few wild oats, he’s sowed enough to put an industrial grain conglomerate to shame since he became King...’ Two months before Juno had developed that ill-advised crush on him...
‘That’s not true,’ Jade said, protesting a bit too much. What was going on here? ‘He’s curbed his romantic engagements in the last few months and—’
‘Hang on...’ Juno interrupted, recalling the avid press speculation recently about a ‘fairy-tale marriage’ between King Leonardo of Severene and Queen Jade of Monrova. A rumour Juno had dismissed as hype. Jade had never mentioned Leo in all their email and text conversations over the years, not once. Because Juno would have remembered. ‘Why is Leo the guest of honour? You’re not...?’ Why wasn’t Jade meeting her gaze? ‘The rumours aren’t true, are they? You’re not actually dating him?’ Juno hissed.
The thought of her sweet, kind, gentle and totally innocent sister hooking up with Leo the man whore was the literal definition of leading a lamb to slaughter.
‘No, we’re not dating. I don’t...’ Her sister’s blush subsided. ‘He’s good-looking, I suppose, but we just don’t c
lick.’
‘Well, thank goodness for that,’ Juno said, the twist of horror in her gut releasing a little. Although she had to wonder if her sister was blind.
Leo might be an arrogant jerk but, unfortunately, he’d only become more impossibly attractive in the years since she’d fallen for his dark charms.
At twenty-two, he’d been moody and magnetic and totally gorgeous, at thirty he was even more so. Not that Juno had spent any time perusing the many, many photos of him plastered all over the celebrity press. Much.
‘But...’ Jade’s gaze rose and Juno did not like what she saw, because she knew that expression—stubborn, loyal and scarily pragmatic.
‘But...what?’ Juno said.
Jade sighed. ‘But I am considering King Leonardo’s offer of a political union between us. Father was in favour of the idea before he died. And the benefits to both our countries are undeniable. A shared heir would...’
‘Hold on!’ Juno lifted her hand. ‘Did you just say shared heir? As in a baby? What kind of a political union are you talking about?’
Her sister had the grace to look sheepish. ‘A... A marriage.’
Juno’s stomach twisted into a pretzel. ‘You’re not serious?’ She took a breath, because she was starting to hyperventilate. ‘You just told me you don’t even find him attractive. And now you’re saying you want to marry him and have his babies?’
Couldn’t her sister see how nuts this sounded?
‘Want would be too strong a word,’ Jade said carefully. ‘But I am considering it, yes. Our advisors are strongly in favour of the political union. And we wouldn’t have to be intimate to have an heir. There’s...’ The blush returned. ‘Well, there are other ways of conceiving.’
Ways Juno would bet Leo the Player King was not going to be interested in. The guy oozed hotness in every photo and news clip Juno had ever seen of him—even if Jade couldn’t see it. No way would a guy like that consider getting his wife pregnant via in vitro fertilisation. Not unless it was absolutely necessary.
‘Have you talked to Leo about the other ways?’ she asked.
‘Well, no,’ Jade said, because she really was that innocent. ‘We haven’t negotiated anything. Yet.’
‘Yet?’
‘I said I would give him an indication tonight if I was willing to proceed with—’
‘Good, so there’s still time to stop this madness,’ Juno interrupted, her mind working overtime.