A Royal Wedding(34)

But it was much more than that. He was much more than that. Right now he was talking to someone hidden by the crowd, his beautiful scarred face animated and alive.

He caught her eye across the space and held it, and she felt that now familiar slow burn of heat flare up inside her as he excused himself and headed her way, looking neither left nor right as he cut a swathe towards her. He was at her side a heartbeat later, sweeping her up in one arm and swinging her around.

‘Have I told you how beautiful you look today, Countess Volta?’

She smiled. ‘Maybe once or twice,’ she said, though they both knew it was many, many more times than that. ‘And have I told you how magnificent you look, my husband?’

‘So many times,’ he growled, nuzzling her ear, ‘that I fear I may just start to believe it.’

‘Believe it,’ she said. ‘You are the most handsome man here.’

‘Grace—’

‘No, it is true. You are smiling so much you are like a beacon. Everyone wants to talk to you. Why else has it taken this long to have a moment with you alone?’

‘I was just talking to Professor Rousseau.’

Grace looked around, trying to find her through the crowd. ‘Oh, I should have come over to you. She doesn’t know many people here, Alessandro.’

‘She’s fine. I left her talking to my best man.’

‘To Bruno? I wouldn’t have thought they would have much in common.’

‘On the contrary. It turns out they both have pirate ancestors.

Bruno has offered to show the Professor through the caves below the castle.’

‘He has?’ She scanned the crowd, which finally parted enough that she could see them both in deep conversation. As if aware he was being discussed, Bruno suddenly looked up and gave a bashful smile. ‘He smiled at me,’ she said. ‘Bruno actually smiled.’

The man beside her laughed, and she found so much joy in the sound that she wondered … ‘Do you think it’s true, Alessandro—the legend of the Salus Totus? Do you think it really is a book of healing? Do you think it a coincidence that it was found here?’

He took her hands in his own. ‘I think you are the healer here, Grace. You came to an island where a monster resided, where only darkness existed. You lit up that world and shook it until your light and your love chased the darkness and the monster away. And I will love you for it for ever.’

He kissed her as tears sprang to her eyes. Tears of love. Tears of joy. Tears for the wasted years, and tears for all the years that were yet to come.

Years they would spend together.





The Reluctant Queen

CAITLIN CREWS





About the Author



CAITLIN CREWS discovered her first romance novel at the age of twelve. It involved swashbuckling pirates, grand adventures, a heroine with rustling skirts and a mind of her own, and a seriously mouthwatering and masterful hero. The book (the title of which remains lost in the mi- of time) made a serious impression. Caitlin was immediately smitten with romances and romance heroes, to the detriment of her school social life. And so began her lifelong love affair with romance novels, many of which she insists on keeping near her at all times.


Caitlin has made her home in places as far-flung as York, England and Atlanta, Georgia. She was raised near New York City, and fell in love with London on her first visit when she was a teenager. She has back-packed in Zimbabwe, been on safari in Botswana, and visited tiny villages in Namibia. She has, while visiting the place in question, declared her intention to live in Prague, Dublin, Paris, Athens, Nice, the Greek Islands, Rome, Venice, and/or any of the Hawaiian islands. Writing about exotic places seems like the next best thing to moving there.


She currently lives in California, with her animator/comic book artist husband and their menagerie of ridiculous animals.





Look for Caitlin Crews’ latest exciting novel, The Replacement Wife, available in July.





Dear Reader,





I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of an ordinary woman, going about her ordinary life, only to look up and find herself face to face with her destiny.





If it involves far-off kingdoms, thrones, and a dangerously compelling hero, all the better.





That was my premise for The Reluctant Queen. I wondered what my heroine would feel when she found herself caught up in a fate she’d thought was little more than a childhood dream. And I wondered what her long-lost betrothed would be like, so determined to win back the only woman who’d ever captured his heart—and who he must convince to marry him if he is to take the throne that was always meant to be his.