Royally Wild (Crazy Royal Love #2) - Melanie Summers Page 0,2

me being a total badass.”

“Me too. Tell you what, let’s watch every episode together, just you and me. In bed.”

Wincing, she says, “I already told my family we’d watch the premiere together. You’re invited too, of course.”

My gut flips at the thought. “Oh, well, brilliant. Just as good. Give them a chance to observe me in my element.”

“That’s what I was thinking. You can impress them straight out of the gate.” Arabella smiles, then, after a second, bites her lip. “It’ll be all right, won’t it?”

“Yes, it will. We’ve already more than proved our love to each other. And now we can prove it to the world.”

Nodding, she says, “Yes. Five episodes, then onto bigger and better things.”

“Speaking of which…” I say, leaning in and letting my lips brush along the nape of her neck.

Arabella makes a little moaning sound, indicating that round three is about to begin. She murmurs, “We should be sleeping but we also need to make the most of the time we have left.”

“You say that as if these are our final moments together forever.”

“Well, not forever, obviously. But things are about to get considerably more difficult.” Kiss. “I’m going to miss having you in my bed every night.” Kiss. “Although I imagine I’ll get a lot more sleep.” She nips at my bottom lip.

I freeze in place. “What do you mean you won’t have me in your bed every night?”

“Well, we’re not married, so it’s not like you can stay over at the palace or I can stay with you. Not without causing a scandal.”

It’s not? “Would it really be such a scandal? I mean, you’re almost thirty, for God’s sake.”

“Not for another five months, thank you very much,” she says in a warning tone.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to imply you’re old,” I say, then narrow my eyes. “When is your birthday, anyway?”

“March third.” Her expression screams, ‘we barely know each other.’

“We do so.” Lifting myself up, I flip us, so I’m now on top of her.

“What?”

“We do so know each other. Very well.”

Chuckling, Arabella says, “You did know what I was thinking just now, didn’t you?”

“Yes, so stop worrying. We’ll be fine.” I kiss her again, but the thought of us being apart for the next several weeks has me pausing. “You know, sex before marriage is widely regarded as acceptable these days.”

“Premarital sex is acceptable for everyone other than the royal family, I’m afraid.”

Pulling back, I give her a confused look.

“The general consensus among the taxpayers is that if they’re paying for our lives—which they aren’t—we must conduct ourselves in a manner befitting the ultimate role models for society. I’m quoting the senior advisors there.”

“Doesn’t that seem rather silly?”

“Oh, yes, it’s absolutely ridiculous and leads to all sorts of pretending.” She lifts her head and kisses me hard on the mouth. “But with great privilege comes… a great deal of hypocrisy.”

I roll off of her and lay back, my mind racing to figure out where I’m going to stay when we land. Like an idiot, I assumed we would stay together, obviously at her family’s massive palace where there are probably a hundred empty bedrooms.

She turns on her side, her face filled with concern. “I’m sorry, I thought you knew.”

“I suppose I should have. I guess I didn’t think it through.”

“Now I’ve totally killed the mood when my intention was to drink in every last drop of our alone time together.”

“No, it’s totally fine.” I shake my head and smile. “Obviously, I can’t stay with you, but it’s all good. It’ll be fun, actually. We’ll have to sneak around. It’ll add a sense of danger to the whole thing that an all-access pass doesn’t have.”

Arabella grins at me and raises and lowers her eyebrows. “Oh, I like the sound of that.”

I go straight for her earlobe and do that thing that makes her make that noise.

Ah, there it is—victory.

And now she’s kissing me again in that way that tells me she’s had enough chitchat. And I couldn’t agree more.

2

Overbearing Older Brothers, Accomplished Older Women, and Princesses Acting Like Ostriches…

Arabella

“Well, that was rude,” I say as I slide across the backseat of the limo. My older brother Arthur, the heir apparent who apparently thinks he can run my life, sent his driver into the airport to get me and told him to refuse to give poor Will a ride under the pretence of me needing to be back at the palace immediately on urgent family business. “You couldn’t even be bothered to get out