Matched to a Prince. Kat Cantrell
who’d stabbed him in the back but not the same. Tension coiled in his gut, choking off his air supply.
“Thanks. Elise gave me a few tips on how to be a girl.” Juliet extended a hand to show off long coral-tipped nails. “Don’t expect me to hoist any sails with these babies.”
Finn couldn’t help but grin. If she was going to play it as if everything was cool, he could too. “I’ll do all the hard work. Looking at you is reward enough for my effort.”
Her brows rose as she repositioned her hand at his waist. “Like the new me, do you?”
He could feel those nails through his jacket. How was that possible?
“I liked the old you.” Before she’d skewered his heart on the stake of her stubbornness. “But this you is great too. You’re gorgeous. What prompted all of this?”
Long nails, swept-up hair. A mouthwatering backless dress he easily recognized as high-end. She was double-take worthy and then some.
“It’s part of Elise’s deal. She has a lot of high-powered, influential male clients and they expect a certain refinement in their potential mates. She spends a couple of months enhancing each of us, though admittedly, she spent far more time with me than some of the others. Voila. I am a new creation. Cinderella, at your service.” Juliet glanced at him with a sweeping once-over. “She didn’t tell you how all that worked?”
“Not in those terms. It was more of a general guarantee that the woman she matched me with would be able to handle everything that comes with being a princess.”
Which, in Juliet’s case, had never been a factor. He couldn’t have cared less if she flubbed royal protocol or never picked up mascara. Because he’d loved her, once upon a time.
But that was over with a capital O and in an arranged marriage, he might as well get what he paid for—a demure, non-scandal-inducing woman who could erase the public’s memory of the past year.
“Are you disappointed you got me instead?”
His laugh came out of nowhere. “I honestly don’t know what I am, but disappointed is definitely not it.”
Juliet could have been a great princess. She’d always understood his need to escape from his position occasionally. Finn gave one hundred percent to his job protecting Delamer’s citizens, gladly participated in charity events and didn’t have a moment’s guilt over taking time away from the public eye. A lot of women wouldn’t support that, would insist on being treated to the finer things in life.
Juliet had been perfectly content with a beach date or sailing. Or staying in, his own personal favorite. No, it wasn’t a surprise the computer had matched them.
The surprise lay in how much he still wanted her despite the still-present burn of her betrayal.
“What about you?” he asked. “Has the jury reconvened on whether seeing me again is a pleasant surprise?”
“The jury is busy trying not to trip over your feet while wearing four-inch heels.”
The wry twist of her lips pulled an answering grin out of him.
He relaxed. This was still neutral ground and as long as everyone kept a sense of humor, the night was young.
“Let’s get some champagne. I’m dying to know how you ended up in Dallas in a matchmaker’s computer system.”
As they turned to leave the dance floor, light flashed from the crowd to the left and then again in rapid succession. Photographs. From a professional camera.
Finn sighed. With the time difference, his father’s phone call would come around midnight unless the king’s secretary somehow missed the story, which was unlikely.
Finn would ask Elise to match him with someone new. Later.
Juliet waited until he’d led her to the bar and handed her a flute of bubbly Veuve Clicquot before responding. “It’s your fault I sought out Elise.”
“Mine?” He dinged the rims of their glasses together and took a healthy swallow in a futile attempt to gain some clarity. “I didn’t even know Elise existed until a few days ago.”
“It was the engagement announcement. If you were moving on, I needed to, as well. I couldn’t do that in Delamer, so here I am.” She spread her hands, flashing coral tips that made him imagine what they’d feel like at his waist once he’d shed his jacket and shirt.
The temperature in the ballroom went sky high as internal ripples of need spread. He’d only thought he was uncomfortable before.
“Like I said, there’s no engagement. Not yet. My father and I agreed it was time I thought about settling down and he went on the bride hunt. Here I am, as well.”
It was a sobering reminder. They’d both been trying to move past the scandal and breakup by searching for someone new. Was that what she truly wanted?
The thought of Juliet with another man ripped a hole in his gut. A shock considering how angry he still was about what she’d done.
“As much as I’ve tried to avoid it, I’ve seen the pictorial evidence of why your dad thought you needed to settle down. You’ve become the Party Prince.” She shot him a quizzical glance, her gaze flat and unreadable. “It seems so unlike you. Sure, we had some fun dancing at clubs and stuff, but we usually left after an hour or so. Did I miss the part where you wanted to stay?”
“I never wanted to stay. I was always thinking about getting you alone.”
“Some of the pictures were really hard to take,” she admitted quietly, and he didn’t need her to elaborate.
Heat climbed up his neck and flushed across his ears.
He’d always known she’d probably see all the photographs of him with other women and hear about his exploits, but he’d honestly never considered a scenario where they’d have an actual conversation about them. There wasn’t a lot about the past year that filled him with pride.
“As long as we’re handing out blame, that was your fault.”
To her credit, she simply glanced at him with a blank expression. “How so?”
She had changed. The Juliet of before would have blasted him over such a stupid statement. “Well, not your fault, per se, but I was trying to drown out the memories. Focus on the future. Moving on, like you said.”
“Did it work?”
“Not in the slightest.”
Their gazes crashed and his lips tingled. He wanted to pull her against him and dive in. Kiss her until neither of them could remember anything other than how good they felt together.
She tossed back the last of her champagne as if she hadn’t noticed the heavily charged moment. He wished he could say the same as all the blood rushed from his head, draining southward into a spectacular hard-on.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
“Have dinner with me,” he said hoarsely. “Tomorrow night. For old time’s sake.”
Neither of them thought this match was a good idea. He knew that. But he couldn’t resist stealing a few more forbidden hours with Juliet. No matter what she’d done in the past, he couldn’t walk out of this ballroom and never see her again.
“I should have my head examined. But okay.”
Her acceptance was fortuitously timed. A svelte woman and her friend nearly bowled Juliet over in an enthusiastic attempt to get a photo with him.
It was a common-enough request and he normally didn’t mind. But tonight he wanted to be selfish and spend as much time with Juliet as he could, before his father interfered. Before all the reasons they’d split in the first place surfaced.
She’d always be the woman who burned a Delamer flag at the palace gates. The