Royal Surrender - chapter two

Outside the walls of this majestically appointed suite, he was known by many names.

At his birth, his names and ranks and titles had been read out from the heights of Enrosadira Palace.

But here, he was only Cajetan.

Just a man waiting for a woman and not at all certain she would appear, when Cajetan’s life had always been a grand procession of absolute certainty.

He had been born the heir to the kingdom and would, in due time, ascend its throne. His life had been mapped out for him. Where he would go to school, what activities he could consider as hobbies, and even what friends he could allow close.

That he would marry a woman of his mother’s choosing had never been an item of contention between them. He had ancient duties and responsibilities, the mosaic of his family’s legacy. There was—always—the kingdom to think of.

It was tiny but secure. The subjects of Enrosadira valued their security. They expected scandals to come from abroad, but never to pollute the shining slopes of the kingdom itself when even the great wars of Europe had passed them by.

Cajetan intended to give them what they wanted. Peace, prosperity, and the serenity to enjoy it.

He’d barely paid attention when his mother had announced that she would choose him a bride by the end of summer. Cajetan knew that any woman who met with the Queen’s approval would have lovely manners. She would know how to present herself in public. She would know her role.

He’d never imagined that he would have the luck his own parents had—to have their marriage arranged by the palace and then fall in love. Cajetan never dreamed of such a miracle.

But then he had met Noe Ravenna, and it was as if lightning had struck him where he stood.

He noticed that he was pacing the length of the expansive reception room in his suite and made himself stop. But he couldn’t put his first sight of her out of his mind. She had been like a shot to the heart.

It was as if his whole life had been cleaved in two. Before and after Noe Ravenna.

That shot to his heart had led him here, to this club he’d declined to join at first. What purpose could there be for a place like the Diamond Club but to create precisely the kinds of scandals he needed to avoid?

But now he was here.

A full member of this exclusive place that allowed only ten members in full, all of them the richest and most powerful people alive.

Not that Cajetan cared about any of that. What he cared about was the privacy he could get nowhere else.

And the buzz at the door that told him his guest had arrived.

It was happening.

For the first time in his life, Crown Prince Cajetan of Enrosadira was going to act like a man.

Not a prince at all.