Page 15 of Royally Matched

But I will say one thing for her, she sure knows how to look at you as though you’re the only man in the room. To make you feel special, like you could be the very person she’s looking for. And, I’ll admit, I felt the familiar rush of attraction for her. She’s a gorgeous woman in her prime—even if she dresses like her mother.

But it doesn’t matter if I feel attracted to her. I’m here because Enzo asked me to be. Nothing more. The fact this beautiful princess with the soft skin and inviting lips talked to me at all is simply an added bonus. A pleasant way to pass the evening. If you can call wrestling Austin away from her mid-proposal pleasant.

I’ll file my interaction with the princess away under particularly enjoyable memories, pulling it out to tell my grandkids one day about how I once met Princess Sofia at the Husband Hunting Ball, and saved her from an embarrassing situation.

“Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, ladies and gentlemen,” a booming voice begins. “Princess Sofia will now take a partner to the dance floor for the very first dance of the evening.”

There’s a ripple of applause and the music begins, something classical I don’t recognize.

“I need another drink,” Austin sneers as he staggers back toward the ballroom.

“Make it coffee,” I call out after him. He won’t belistening, and I can only hope he doesn’t drink enough to forget he’s already proposed tonight and try it again.

I catch a glimpse of the princess’s red dress as she moves between the guests. She steps onto the dance floor with one of the men in a perfectly cut dinner suit.

I blink at the unfolding scene before me.What the?—?

That’s my brother! The very first dance of the evening and Princess Sofia chooses Enzo to dance with him?

I blow out of breath. Tonight sure has been one for the books.

Enzo’s smiling rigidly as he leads her to the dance floor, looking every inch the kind of man a princess would want to marry. Sure, they both manage to look like a couple of mannequins with zero chemistry between them, but they match, somehow, both of them formal and composed, like they’ve rehearsed this moment together—despite the fact I know they’d not met until tonight.

He takes her hand in his, placing his other hand lightly at her waist and they begin to move around the dance floor, smooth and fluid, dancing as one.

Enzo is everything I’m not. He is sensible, mature, always knowing who he is and his purpose in life. A first-born son with all the weight of expectation on his shoulders, an expectation that I have successfully dodged. He’s everything a princess like Sofia would want in a husband. He’s grounded, never impulsive. You wouldn’t find him playing table tennis against Buddhist monks in the foothills of the Himalayas before he flew to Goa to go diving with sharks. That’s my style, not his. Enzo got a good education from an Ivy League university before returning to Ledonia to follow a sensible career path.

Perhaps he will be the man she chooses, if this ball really is for husband hunting as they say. Would my brotheragree to marry someone he doesn’t know, someone he doesn’t love?

As I watch them move around the dance floor, I admit she has her appeal. She’s beautiful, and I certainly saw a hint of the real Sofia beneath her carefully constructed facade earlier. Plus, she’s a member of the royal family, which, as Austin so delicately pointed out, has its appeal. I suppose Enzo could be detached about it all, practical. He could see the benefit of being a member of her family.

Me? I’d never agree to marry someone without feeling a deep, total, all-encompassing love. And yes, I know someone like Austin would say that makes me a total sap.

Good job I don’t care for his opinion on the matter.

The thing is, I believe in love. I believe in forever.

I’ve had relationships with women, brief flirtations as I’ve traveled the globe. But I’ve never felt that deep, all-consuming love, the kind that means you think about that person day and night, that you want nothing but to be with them, to see them smile, to know they feel the same way about you. A love that you would cross oceans for, climb mountains for.

That’s what I want. That’s what Ineed. And someday, I hope to have it.

And I’m certain you can’t get that through an arranged marriage with a princess who is determined to find a husband for no other reason than she thinks she needs one.

Marriage should be so much more than that.

As I watch them move together, she’s gazing up at him, a soft smile on her lips. An odd sensation worms its way across my chest, a sensation that feels a lot like… well, it feels a lot like jealousy.

Huh. I didn’t see that coming.

Me, jealous of Enzo because he’s dancing with the princess?

The feeling is fleeting at best. However attracted I am to Sofia, that’s all it will ever be.

I turn to look back at the gardens, imagining what I would do if I were given free rein to bring them up to date. Gardening is much safer than feeling anything for the princess.

Safer, and definitely preferable.

Chapter5