Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 29008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 145(@200wpm)___ 116(@250wpm)___ 97(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 145(@200wpm)___ 116(@250wpm)___ 97(@300wpm)
These possessive princes and kings won’t settle for just any woman. They want their queen. The one true love who can bring these powerful royals to their knees.
New standalone stories by your favorite best-selling steamy romance authors, Hope Ford, Olivia T. Turner, and Michele Mills.
A crown has never been so sinfulHe’s a cold, ruthless billionaire.
Royalty by blood. Heir to danger itself.
And now he wants me as his bride.
I rescue stray animals.
He destroys empires before breakfast.
We have nothing in common… except the sparks I can’t ignore.
He’s infuriating, arrogant, and somehow gentle when no one’s watching.
But I know better than to fall for a man like him.
He’s being forced into an arranged marriage.
And instead of a tiara-wearing heiress, he chooses me.
If I say yes, I give up my simple life.
If I say no, he loses everything: his crown, his control, his future.
Either way, I’m not walking away untouched.
Because behind his icy mask is a man who burns only for me.
And I’m not sure if I’m strong enough to walk away…
or foolish enough to stay.
Glamour. Intrigue. Desire hot enough to burn down a palace.
These possessive princes and kings won’t settle for just any woman. They want their queen. The one true love who can bring these powerful royals to their knees
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
CHAPTER 1
COLE
I lift my wrist and look at the time. Fuck.
I’ve got ten minutes to make it to my father’s house, and we’re sitting in traffic. My father is not someone you make wait.
I ask my driver, “What’s the holdup, Stone?”
He leans his head out the driver's side window, trying to see down the road. “Shit, I dunno. Maybe someone's having car trouble.”
I look out the window, and the worry about meeting my father disappears when I see what’s happening on the sidewalk in front of the animal shelter.
A man is shoving his finger in a woman’s face, and I can hear his raised voice even through the glass, but I can’t make out what he’s saying.
“I’ll be back. Stay here,” I tell Stone.
“Cole… where… what?”
I don’t care that we’re sitting on Main Street or that I have somewhere to be. I’m a Kingston, and even though I do a lot of wrong things, I will never stand by when a woman is being verbally or physically attacked. I ignore Stone as I get out of the car and walk over to where the man is still shouting.
As soon as I reach the two of them, I put my hands at the waist of the woman, lift her up, and place her behind me, and I’m shaken as I look into the blue eyes of the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
She’s mad. Fighting mad. I want to soothe her, but first I need to deal with the Neanderthal. I turn back to him. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
The man pounds himself in the chest. “Me? There’s nothing wrong with me! It’s that little bi—”
He doesn’t get the word out. I punch him in the throat, and he falls to the ground with his hands around his neck, trying to catch his breath.
“Cole—” Stone says.
I raise my hand to stop him. I don’t need a lecture right now. I should have known he wouldn’t stay in the car. He may be my driver, but he works for my father, the mafia king of the South, Robert Kingston. And if something happened to me on Stone’s watch, we all know how that would turn out.
Ignoring Stone, I approach the woman. “Are you okay?”
For the first time, I notice she’s holding a white cat protectively against her chest. She blinks up at me. “Yes…yes, I’m okay.”
“What is going on here?” I ask her and instantly regret the harshness of my voice. I fist my tattooed hands at my side to stop from reaching for her.
She takes a step back. “I’m just trying to—”
She stops suddenly and shakes her head, wiping the tears from her eyes. “This is my fault. He owns the building and can do what he wants. I’m just trying to save the animals.”
I put my hands on her shoulders, and she tenses. I hate that I have that effect on her. Yeah, most people fear me and my family, but I don't want that from her.
My first instinct is to lift my hands off her, but I don’t. “Talk to me. Tell me how to fix it.”
She holds the cat tighter, and I realize I need to go about this another way. I release my hold on her and instead run my hand lightly across the cat’s head and down its body. “What’s her name?”
“His. I mean, Leo is a boy.”
The cat starts to purr loudly and lifts his head to look at me. It’s as if he’s judging me, trying to figure me out, and I’m not sure which of us is more surprised, me or her, when Leo stretches and climbs into my arms.
I hold the cat to me, and it curls into a ball against my chest. I can feel the change in the woman standing before me. She steps toward me. “Leo likes you.”
I look into her blue eyes and demand, “Tell me your name.”
She tilts her chin. “Luna.”
The man on the ground starts to shuffle to his feet, starting to cuss again.
Stone stands between him and me. “Cole, your father is waiting.”
I huff out a breath. He’s right. I gesture to the man that Stone is holding back and ask Luna, “What can I do to help?”
She shrugs her shoulders. “Nothing. There’s nothing anyone can do.”
I tilt my head to look at her. “Try me.”
“You can’t—”
Leo moves around and slides into my jacket. I hold him to me and reach for Luna. This time she doesn’t tense. “Tell me. Why is this man bothering you?”
She blows out a breath, and I hate it because her face shows defeat. “I owe him twelve hundred dollars for rent. He’s closing the shelter down.”
It’s my turn to tense. “I’ll take care of it.”
I put my hand on her chin and lift. “Did he touch you?”
I wait for her response so I know if I’m about to kill a man or not.