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“I am?” She blinked up at him, moistening her lips and loving that she could tease him for a change. “Someone forgot to inform me.”
Chad released the suitcase handles, wrapped his arm around her waist, and pulled her tight to his chest. The breath whooshed out of her. She wouldn’t have been able to stand on her own two feet if he wasn’t holding her so close.
“I am informing you now,” he said in a determined voice. “You. Are. Taken.”
“By whom?” She couldn’t resist giving him a hard time. Soon she’d have to remind him of their ‘friend’ status, but it was too fun to banter with him right now.
“By me.” His stature was confident, but his green eyes revealed a vulnerability that touched a chord deep in her heart. Could the famed Major Chad truly be vulnerable? For her? “We upgraded my status from friend to boyfriend, didn’t we now, love?”
“Just because you say it doesn’t make it set in stone.”
He arched his brows and gave her a defiant look.
A fear she’d long held but tried not to dwell on surfaced. She was a challenge to him. She’d turned him down, and Chad didn’t know how to deal with that. It had to be the reason he so incessantly pursued her when women were lining up for a chance at him giving them that special look.
“I have an inspired idea, my beautiful Hope,” he said. “Allow me to devastate your resistance with my all-encompassing kiss. If you can still claim we are only ‘friends’ after the binding of our souls through our lips, the kiss that will change your life’s course and view on love, then we will revisit the ‘only friends’ nonsense.”
Hope’s pulse raced, and she trembled in his arms. She should pull away. Faith was somewhere nearby. But she couldn’t even yank her gaze from Chad’s long enough to see if her sister was watching them or ogling the supercars.
“That’s a pretty big claim, Major. ‘The kiss that will change my life’s course and view on love’?” Instead of pulling away and regaining some loose grasp on sanity, she wrapped her palms around his wide shoulders and savored the feel of his firm deltoid muscles under her fingertips.
“I only share the unaltered truth,” Chad said with a confident smirk, his captivating accent making her want to swoon. “Are you prepared to alter your life’s course, my love?”
She wasn’t prepared. If he kissed her, he would know exactly how smitten she was with him and she might not be able to keep up the ‘friends’ farce any longer. Why did she have to fall in love with the playboy of the century? She needed to find a nice, steady, boring man who would never break her heart—never cheat on her, never leave her to care for her younger sister alone, never die in battle because he was something safe and boring like an accountant, not a hot, irresistible military man.
The hot, irresistible military man who was easing closer with a special twinkle in his gaze. She could almost convince herself that twinkle was for her and her alone. That he never looked at other women that way and she truly was the only one for him.
A door opened and closed, and footsteps approached. Hope looked around but stayed in the fascinating circle of Chad’s arms.
“Chad!” a man’s voice cried out, and a couple approached them. The man was tall, fit, and handsome, with bright blue eyes and puckered burn scars on the left side of his cheek, jaw, and neck. He was easily recognizable as Prince Tristan August, the crown prince of Augustine.
Hope’s eyes widened and nerves twisted her stomach.
The woman was gorgeous, and the perfect fit to be a princess and queen someday. She was about the same height as Hope, maybe five-seven, fit, and had golden-brown curls. Future-princess Jennifer Shule. She was also the former prime minister’s daughter. It had been quite the horrific scandal for Augustine that Jennifer’s mother had inadvertently caused the queen mother’s death and then the prime minister and his wife had hidden that fact to stay safe from an apparently insane family pursuing the crown.
“T!” Chad released her and turned to his friend. They clasped hands and did a quick, manly hug. Then he hugged the lady. “There she is. My favorite future queen. How are you, Jenn?”
“Absolutely wonderful. I’m with this guy.” She settled into Prince Tristan’s side. He wrapped his arm around her, grinning down at her like he was the luckiest man on the planet.
“Ah,” Faith murmured from less than a foot away. Had her sister been that close during her and Chad’s exchange?
“And who are these beautiful ladies?” Jennifer asked.
Chad slid his arm around her waist. “This is my girlfriend and the enchanting love of my life, Hope Radisson, and her sister Faith. Faith was destined to be my little sister. Hope and Faith own Lady Fit and are incredibly talented, creative, and successful businesswomen.”
He was laying it on a little thick, but what did she expect? Enchanting love of my life? Maybe if he swore off all other women, did a press release declaring his monogamous relationship with Hope, and swore a blood oath to never date anyone else.
Who was she kidding? It would never work. Not only was it not in Chad’s nature to be true to one woman, just like her dad, but he was also constantly pursued by women.
Prince Tristan and Jennifer were both giving them welcoming smiles, but there was something in their eyes. The crown prince was Chad’s best friend and he and his fiancée had clearly never even heard of Hope. She shouldn’t be surprised, but it still stung.
“Hope and Faith, this is my closest friend from secondary school on up, T—some people call him Crown Prince Tristan—and his lovely and sweet fiancée Jennifer Shule.”
Hope and Faith both tried to bow, but the couple waved that off with a laugh. Instead, the prince and his fiancée each shook their hands.
“We’re thrilled to have you here,” Prince Tristan said graciously. “And if you can settle this guy down, that would be miraculous and very overdue.” He slugged Chad in the shoulder before stepping back to his fiancée.
Hope’s hopes took a nosedive. Settling Chad down would be ‘miraculous.’ From his best friend’s lips. Why had she let herself get so invested in Chad’s every look and touch and honey-sweet words? He was a schmoozer. She was too analytical and business minded to be schmoozed and tricked by him again.
