by Imani King
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Copyright
Dirty Princes
By Imani King
© 2016 Imani King
All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the author’s imagination.
Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.
Kindle Edition
CHAPTER ONE
I felt the tears gather in the corners of my eyes as I took in the lovely vision of my best friend, Abby, standing in front of me. She, in turn, was standing in front of the mirror swishing the hem of her wedding gown back and forth like a bell.
“Oh, Abby, you look so…royal,” I managed as I dabbed my eyes with a tissue. Luckily, my bridesmaid dress had secret pockets, and I had a stash of tissues inside. I cried like a blubbering baby at weddings, and that was for people I didn’t know half as well as I knew Abby.
Abby continued to swish in front of the mirror with a look of wonderment on her face, and she met my eyes in the reflection. She grinned. It didn’t take a psychic to know what she was thinking. How many little girls dreamt about someday marrying a prince? A lot. How many of those girls grew up and actually got to do it? Abby was a rare exception.
She turned to me and held out her hands. “I’m so glad you’re here with me, Eva. You’ve always been the sister I never had.”
I took her hands and pulled her into a tight bear hug. Abby’s parents had her and her sisters later in life, and given that protocol required the ceremony to take place in the royal family’s chapel on the palace grounds, her aging parents had been unable to make the transatlantic flight to be there. While the staff had graciously arranged for a live feed of the ceremony for them, it still wasn’t the same as having her parents there in person.
“Focus on the big picture. This is the day you’ve been waiting for your whole life. Kian is the luckiest man on the planet to have landed you,” I said trying to distract Abby from her thoughts. I didn’t want her to start crying and ruin her elaborate make-up that I knew was mostly for the video cameras and pictures that would follow.
“Yes, he is,” she said in a resolute voice as we pulled apart. Then we both started to laugh. As far as luck went, Abby had hit the proverbial jackpot of love. We both knew it, and I even envied it a little bit, although I’d never admit it out loud.
Abby turned back to fuss with the skirt of her dress, and I moved to the other side of the room to gather up her bouquet and make sure we weren’t missing any other details. The ceremony was due to start in five minutes, and I felt butterflies in the pit of my stomach.
I could pretend to chalk those feelings up to the fact that there were several TV crews outside and what felt like half the country of Sorenia packed into the church waiting with bated breath to see their prince marry the American. But if I was honest with myself, I knew that wasn’t entirely the cause of my anxiety.
Everything came back to the other prince in the picture, His Royal Highness, Aidan Ilves. Also known as Kian’s older brother, who was today playing the part of the Best Man, the counter to my Maid of Honor. He was hot as fuck, charming as hell, and a menace to womankind everywhere. I had firsthand experience on that front.
We’d had a brief, tumultuous fling six months ago during a girls’ trip that Abby and I had taken to Gibraltar. She met Kian, fell in love, and got married… even if it was accidentally. This service would make it official for the public in Sorenia. But no matter what, it was a romance unlike any other I’d known. Meanwhile, well, Aidan and I were a different story. Aidan and I had screwed each other’s brains out for five unforgettable nights, and then I dumped him without a backward glance.
I wiped my brow with the tissue. Had someone turned up the heat in the room?
“So have you talked to him yet?” Abby’s voice caught my attention and pulled me out of my stupor.
“Who?” I asked as I handed her the bouquet, which was practically bigger than my head. For such a small country, Sorenia seemed to overcompensate by going big with everything else I had seen so far.
“Don’t bullshit a bullshitter,” Abby said, rolling her eyes. “You know who.”
“Would your new in-laws approve of that mouth?” I said mockingly. It was a slightly low blow. Kian’s parents had warmed to Abby ever since the whirlwind announcement of their engagement. Warmed in so much as a glacier’s surface thawed during a particularly warm afternoon.
“Quit trying to distract me,” Abby warned. “How many times has he texted you now?”
I hated that I had told her about the text messages at all. Ever since my arrival in Sorenia the day before, my phone had been abuzz with messages of the sultry variety. I had changed my phone number after our Gibraltar trip, but I figured someone with Aidan’s kinds of connections could have found it easily enough. Couldn’t the guy take a hint?
“It doesn’t matter. He’s the heir to the throne, and he probably figured I’d be an easy lay this weekend. Been there, done that, over it.” I sniffed as I pretended to straighten her dress’s train, which could have easily required an attendant of its own.
“You like him,” Abby said with a sly smile.
“I don’t,” I repeated for what felt like the millionth time. “It was fun while it lasted, but there was never anything practical or real beyond that with His Royal Hotness except for our time between the sheets.”
“And on the beach, in the sauna, and on the golf course!” Abby chuckled.
I felt the flush of heat rising in my cheeks. I had been adventurous before meeting Aidan, but even I had to admit that our hormones had run wild that week. I squeezed my thighs together remembering the feel of his fingers underneath my golf skirt when he brought me to climax on the ninth hole. And the twelfth. And the seventeenth. It was no wonder I had no idea what my score was at the end of that game.
“Today is your day,” I said. “We’re not going to talk about me and Aidan because there is no me and Aidan to talk about. Don’t forget. He was the one who told me that nothing serious could ever happen between him and a commoner after all. I should thank him for being so upfront with me.”
“Man, he got under your skin bad,” Abby said with a shake of her head.
“Miss, it’s time.” I was saved from having to refute the claim when the young attendant who had been assigned to keep us on time peeked her head into the room.
“Let’s get this show on the road,” I said with a smile. I gave Abby one more quick hug and took a deep breath before following the girl out into the hallway.
As we stood in the church vestibule waiting for the massive wooden doors in front of
us to open, I took a deep breath. The last text message I’d gotten from Aidan had come in just over an hour ago.
I know what I’m planning to have for dessert tonight, and it isn’t wedding cake.
He was so cocky and self-assured it was infuriating. I hadn’t responded to a single text, and that fact didn’t seem to faze him at all. If anything, it seemed to encourage him to get more detailed in ways that made even me blush. Definitely not talk that I would have expected from a prince, not that I had ever met one before to compare his behavior to.
Of course, that was one thing that Aidan had kept trying to tell me during our time together. He might be a prince, but he was a man just like every other hot-blooded man out there. He’d proved it time and time again. What had gotten me, though, was when the subject of his future came up in a casual conversation the very first night we met.
It all came back to the simple math of the first-born son versus second-born son. Kian was second in line to the throne of Sorenia, but he would only be expected to take the throne if Aidan died without producing a male heir. There seemed to be a lot more leniency when it came to what was expected from Kian in that case, which was why it hadn’t been a huge barrier to clear the way when that time came to marry Abby.
Aidan, on the other hand, was next in line to be king. It was kind of awe-inspiring and felt overwhelming to me, even though Aidan shrugged it off as if it was no big deal. Of course, he’d had twenty-seven years to get used to the idea. Like many old conservative European royal families, it was expected that Aidan would marry a nobleman of a certain kind of lineage to bear his future heir. It was another thing that Aidan mentioned casually and off-handedly, but one that had definitely made me sit up and take notice.
He had even used the word commoner and joked that I had probably read in the tabloids about his reputation with various women over the years who could never be marriage material because of where they came from. It had quickly become crystal clear to me that in our little fling in Gibraltar would never be more than just that, a fling. Fun. Sexy. Memorable for a multitude of reasons. But always squarely limited to that small window of time. So, no matter what Abby said, I refused to be swayed to believe that there was any emotional connection between us at all.
I stubbornly repeated that to myself as the doors in front of me opened, and I took in the massive room on the other side populated by a sea of strangers staring at me as if I was some oddity in a museum. Then the music started cueing that it was time for me to move, and I gulped. Thankfully, my feet knew what to do. One foot in front of the other. Simple as that.
Staring resolutely ahead, I plastered a smile on my face and walked slowly down the aisle. Halfway to the front of the church, I saw him. Every thought of keeping the next few days on a friendly, yet cool, playing field was laid to waste as the sly smile crept across Aidan’s face.
Damn the man. Dressed in his royalty finery, he looked every inch a king. He was almost a foot taller than my own five feet four inches, and his golden curls were perfectly placed to accent his gray-blue eyes. I knew that when he was annoyed or frustrated, they smoked more gray. When he laughed or was in the throes of pleasure, they were as deep blue as the ocean.
I couldn’t keep my heart from speeding up and said a small prayer of thanks as I reached the front of the church and stepped off to the side without stumbling and twisting my ankle. That would have been quite a sight during such an official affair.
I refused to look at him even as I turned my attention to the back of the church. The music changed, and everyone stood up. Abby was a vision as she serenely swept down the aisle. Her face lit up in a gorgeous smile as she spied her fiancé waiting for her. I snuck a glance at Kian and couldn’t help but smile at his puffed chest and broad grin. He was a man in love, and I felt a rush of happiness for my friend and her future.
Before I could slide my eyes back to Abby, I caught Aidan’s gaze. Everyone in the church was looking at Abby. Everyone except Aidan, whose attention appeared to be solely focused on me. I scowled at him before turning my gaze away but not before I saw his smile grow wider. I would have thought that I’d made it clear that I had no further interest in a tryst with the future kind of Sorenia, but Aidan clearly had different ideas about the matter.
As the ceremony started, I focused on the words as the priest began to speak. It was hard to believe that we were standing there, and Abby was getting married.
Abby and I had met in school. Deciding that I needed to broaden my horizons, I shocked my entire family by applying to a university in Scotland. I arrived not knowing anyone else and had been relieved to discover my roommate was also from the States.
Abby was from a small town, just like me. She had gotten engaged right after high-school graduation to a guy she had been dating practically since birth. The jaunt across the pond had been meant to be temporary, but she fell in love with Scotland just like I did. Her semester abroad turned into three years, with her fiancé patiently waiting at home. She’d finally cut him loose the week before our Gibraltar trip. It was a good thing too; her high school sweetheart wouldn’t have stood a chance next to the dashing young prince with an easy smile and killer abs.
Kian was good-looking, but I thought that Aidan was the true ladykiller. The sixteen months he had on Kian resulted in a kind of cool confidence and overt charm that would easily make a girl’s knees wobbly. I had managed to play hard to get for almost a full day, which Aidan had assured me was some kind of record.
As the ceremony closed, I found myself facing him as he offered me his arm with a cocked eyebrow. My knees were wobbly. It wasn’t fair. We didn’t speak as I put my arm into his, and he guided me down the aisle. I knew all eyes were on the newly married couple behind us, and I was grateful. I was sweating a monsoon.
The next thirty minutes was a whirlwind as we were escorted across the wide plaza outside the church and over to the grand hall that was the location of the wedding reception. We were efficiently organized into a receiving line. Luckily, I was placed near the front while Aidan was shuffled next to his parents just on the other side of Kian and Abby. It was the first time I could tell Aidan was less than thrilled, but it gave me the space I needed to get my emotions back in check.
When the last guest finally moved through the line, we were escorted into the grand hall and to the long table that was set up in the front of the room on a platform that allowed it to be seen by every eye in the room. Just as I was getting ready to climb the steps to find my seat, Aidan appeared next to me and took my elbow.
I was tempted to pull away but was aware that everyone was watching the royal family with great interest, which meant they were watching me too. Being the center of attention was not something I was comfortable with.
“A word?” he asked out of the corner of his mouth even as he smiled and waved to someone passing by.
“We’re supposed to be gathering for dinner,” I said in an equally low tone. I plastered the smile on my face again despite the fact that my jaw ached. I had no idea how people who lived their entire lives in front of cameras did it.
He pulled me around the side of the platform which hid us partially from view. “You’ve been ignoring my text messages.”
“You’ve been texting me?” I asked innocently.
“It’s nice to see you again, Eva.” His tone was suddenly so earnest and sincere that it was shocking.
“As if I’d be anywhere else the day my best friend got married,” I said. I watched the happy couple as they attempted to make their way across the room to the platform. They were being stopped every few feet by well-wishers, and at this rate, dinner wouldn’t be starting for another hour.
“I would have liked to have been able to speak to you before the ceremony. We have a lot to catch up on.”
“We have nothing to catch up on. We said everything we needed to say in Gibraltar,” I replied, refusing to be baited into a pointless conversation.
Aidan’s mother, Queen Constance, sudde
nly appeared as if out of nowhere. She looked back and forth between the two of us, and I felt as if I had been called in front of the principal, except worse. It was clear where Aidan and Kian had gotten their good looks. Constance might have been going on fifty, but she didn’t look a day older than thirty-five.
Was I supposed to curtsey? I was woefully ignorant on the protocol of interacting with royalty.
“Everything okay here, Aidan?” she asked as her eyes flitted to me again.
“Of course, Mother,” Aidan said smoothly. “I was just ensuring that Miss Wilson had a smooth journey into Sorenia yesterday evening.”
“It’s time to take our seats,” she said nodding toward the table.
“Yes, ma’am,” I said quickly. The Queen gave a small nod in my direction and started to climb the platform steps.
“We need to go,” I hissed under my breath as I moved to follow her.
“Don’t forget, no matter what you like or don’t, the first dance is mine.”
His low, seductive reminder burned in my ears.
CHAPTER TWO
I tried my best to remain politely interested in the story my Uncle Robart was telling me about his latest hunting expedition, but my attention kept being drawn down to the other end of the table and the enchanting green-eyed pixie who was making her best effort to ignore me.
Eva Wilson was as enticing as she was infuriating. I couldn’t figure her out. We had five fantastic days together in Gibraltar six months ago, and then she disappeared without a call or text as soon as it was over. I knew that I was supposed to be grateful; after all, it wasn’t as if she and I could have had any real kind of courtship, but I wasn’t used to being the one spurned.
I told myself that’s why I was still so interested in her. Once it was a given that my brother and her best friend were on the path to marriage, it was inevitable that our paths would cross again. I told myself to be patient and wait. Eventually, she would come to me.