Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 26177 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26177 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
He’s a Yankee for one.
Didn’t know he was a prince until two years ago.
Was raised in the Bronx and got his own butler drunk within a month of arriving at the castle.
I prefer King Frederick, I’d even take my chances with King Arthur.
But King Zautland? The king of the three small countries? Ruler of all?
No. Just no. This isn’t a Hallmark movie.
Except it feels like I just fell into one after a certain misunderstanding.
I mean, there’s a cabin in the woods.
Tears are shed.
Emotional bonding happens.
And through a series of unfortunate events, I’m basically naked with the new king while the other two arrive to… um… save me, from his body heat.
Now I have no choice. I have to marry my king on Christmas and try to survive.
I hope I at least get egg nog after.
Cheers…
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
Zautland
Ten Days Before Christmas 2021
I could not be any more cliche—but I loved Christmas. The sights, the smells, the way people used one day to put down their swords and get together, even if it meant an extra shot of rum in their eggnog was needed in order to do it. It felt peaceful.
I walked through the streets, quiet as usual, observing all the things I’d never really had after not knowing my biological parents, not that I didn’t adore my adopted parents, they saved me when I needed saving the most as an infant, but I always knew I was different, despite their inability to tell me how.
I was from a small country in Europe.
That’s all I knew.
And from birth, they swore an oath to take me, to protect me, to make sure that I was completely safe and cared for.
I was an infant when they brought me to New York; I grew up in a nice brownstone in Brooklyn, went to private school, had an annoying little adopted sister that looked nothing like me constantly batting the girls away from me all the way through high school and even more so in college.
The day she found a condom in my room was the day our pact started, I kept her secrets, she kept mine, and now it felt like she was keeping something else from me.
She was paler than me.
Her blonde hair was pulled back under a green beanie, and she wasn’t really saying much as she walked with me to the ticket counter.
“It’s only a few days.” I laughed and pulled her beanie from her head, then put it back on, frizzing her hair out on all sides.
If looks could kill.
She averted her eyes and swatted at me with her small hands. She was only five foot two, but she could still somehow pack a punch. “I know, it’s just, it’s Christmas and”—she swallowed and looked down—“I’ll miss you.”
“You know, I told you that you could come with me. It’s a business trip, you could shop around London, hang out, drink champagne.”
She made a face, her nose scrunched up while her lips formed a thin line. “I’d get bored and probably arrested.”
“And then I’d have to bail you out.” I nodded, then leaned in. “Like when you got in trouble in that Wal-Mart parking lot for racing carts into cars on accident when it really wasn’t an accident, but on purpose because the guy you had a crush on bet you?”
Her green eyes narrowed, it was the ultimate betrayal, but I wanted to put a smile on her face or at least get a reaction. I’d miss her.
Her finger poked into my chest. “You swore to secrecy.”
“It slipped.” Just like the smile I had on my face at how adorable she was.
“Humbug.” She crossed her arms. “Just promise to call, Mom and Dad are weird about you leaving the country and I can’t help but think something’s off, I mean, Dad literally cried on the sofa holding your baby picture against his chest.”
I burst out laughing. “He’s always emotional during the holidays. Last year he wept over a dry turkey, then said things will never be the same again once I’m twenty-four.”
She snickered. “He said the same thing this year when you said you were leaving for business, what business is this anyway? I mean, you passed the bar exam a year ago and now you’re already off on official business. It’s like hiring someone and being upset when they actually do the work!”
I grinned. We were always on the same wavelength me and her. “What can I say, I’m extremely important at my firm.”
She held out her pinky finger. “Just promise me, pinky promise, like the total simp you are, that you’ll make it in time for Christmas.”
“Days, Danica, actual days and I’m home.” Yet something did bother me about not getting any information from the firm other than I was needed for my first project.