CHAPTER ONE
EMMA WALKED INTO her bank in downtown Santa Fe, her son’s hand clasped tightly in her own.
There had been a tech glitch with the automatic deposits on payroll this month and the company had been forced to cut paper checks for all their employees. She hoped it was an anomaly.
Errands like this with an active four-nearly-five-year-old were not her favorite thing. Besides, since she was now working full-time as a bookkeeper, Emma preferred her time with Mickey to be focused on things that her son enjoyed.
He’d gotten used to having her around as she’d worked as a childminder to put herself through college, taking online courses part-time. She’d kept him with her since birth. The past year had been an adjustment for both of them since she’d finally gotten her degree and landed a job with decent pay and benefits.
Waiting in line at the bank, where he had to be quiet and stay still, was not her son’s idea of fun. He liked to be moving, not still and quiet.
“Mom, how long?” he demanded, the spitting image of his father, his tone and manner only adding to the similarity.
Sometimes, Emma found it jarring how alike Mickey was to his biological father, though her son had never met the man. Anyone who knew the Prince would see His Royal Highness in his son within seconds of meeting Mickey.
Emma smiled down at her son. “Just a little while longer. See? There are only three people ahead of us.”
“Then we can go for shaved ice?” Her son loved his shaved ice, but always managed to cover himself in sticky syrup by the time he’d finished even a small cup.
Inwardly sighing at the mess to come, Emma nodded nevertheless.
“Yes!”
She laughed. “Indoor voice, all right?”
“Okay, Mom.” Could her son’s tone be any more long-suffering?
A disturbance near the back of the bank drew her attention and Emma looked up. A group of businessmen in polished suits were exiting into the large lobby of the downtown branch, the aura of power around them a palpable thing.
One of the security guards that discreetly accompanied the group seemed familiar to Emma. He turned his head and she recognized him only a second before her eyes collided with the decadent chocolate brown gaze of the man she’d been sure she would never see again.
Prince Konstantin of Mirrus.
Second son to the small country’s former King and the man who had not only broken her heart, but abandoned their son.
His eyes widened in instant recognition.
Memories of the last time they saw each other assaulted Emma like a bad movie she couldn’t look away from.
They’d both been at university when they first met. He’d been twenty-three, in his last year of getting his MBA. She’d been nineteen, in her first year of business school. They’d run into each other in the quad.
It had been such a cliché. She’d dropped some books; he’d picked them up.
Their eyes had met and she’d felt like she’d been hit by a train. She hadn’t known he was a prince, or that the men standing at a discreet distance were not other students, but his security detail.
He’d smiled, white teeth flashing below gorgeous brown eyes. Nearly six and a half feet tall, he’d towered over Emma’s respectable five feet seven inches. Muscular and handsome, he’d taken her breath away. And her ability to speak.
He hadn’t been put off by Emma’s inability to voice her thanks. Rather, he’d seemed charmed by it.
“I believe these are yours.” He’d held out her books.
She’d taken them with a silent nod.
“New to campus?”
They were nearing the end of the first semester of the year, but she’d nodded anyway.
“Would you like to go out with me?”