This is not an April Fool's Joke!
The first of April is here! With it comes the next chapter of A Paramedic to Tempt Her free online read on the Harlequin webpage.
I just got the advanced reader copies for How to Tame a King. Want the chance to get the book in exchange for a review? Fill out the ARC review team request here.
This book has one of my favorite meet cutes between a hero and heroine.You can read a short except below.
The door opened, and a striking young woman walked in. Brown curls falling to her shoulders. A blue dress custom-fit to her hips. Soft caramel eyes that looked him over with more than a hint of hesitation.
“Anastasia.” He bowed. This wasn’t the way one planned to meet a forever partner. Except it was in many aristocratic circles. Luckily, the Galanis twins had been trained since birth to expect this.
“I’m Breanna.” She let out a soft sigh, then curtseyed. “Your Highness.”
“Breanna?” He cleared his throat. “I—I...” There was no diplomatic way to ask why she was here instead of Anastasia.
“I am to be your bride.” She didn’t lift her head, and she didn’t elaborate.
There was no script for this. “I asked for Anastasia.”
“Why?” Breanna lifted her head, the caramel eyes catching his gaze. A few freckles dotted her nose.
She was gorgeous. Fierce. Challenging a king within moments of agreeing she was to meet him at the altar.
“Why?”
“That is what I asked. Why Annie?”
Sebastian shrugged. “You both had a full year’s worth of entries in the bridal lottery.”
“For Prince Alessio.” Breanna clenched her fists, and her stance wavered for just a moment, but she didn’t break eye contact.
Not for you.
The words were unstated, but they echoed in the room. The pinch of pain that brought was not to be acknowledged. Alessio was the fun one. The one who got to have a life...and love. The one who broke the rules. The one allowed to break the rules.
Most of his childhood he’d spent annoyed that Alessio refused to follow the rules. That he questioned the life they’d been brought up in. Part of him was probably jealous that his brother had choices—not many—but more than Sebastian.
Then Alessio had stepped in for him when he’d fallen apart after the crown landed on his head. The bond they should have had as brothers growing up finally solidified. Better late than never. He would not subject Alessio to the crown, or any woman who didn’t want it.
Anastasia and Breanna had wanted it a year ago. And she wanted it enough now to switch places with the woman he’d asked for.
“I promise a queen’s crown is far prettier.” He leaned a little closer, hoping his smile looked convincing. The press was waiting. This was the only plan he had.
The deep brown eyes ignored the comment on the crown, and she crossed her arms, then looked to the door and uncrossed them. “You still haven’t told me why you chose Annie.”
“I pulled her name out of a hat.”
Silence hung in the room for a moment before Breanna hugged her stomach and let out a chuckle that soon turned into a belly laugh. “A hat. A hat. Our lives decided by what you plucked from a hat. What if you’d pulled a rabbit out, Your Highness? Would a bunny have met you at the altar?”
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