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  Mila shook her head at Sloane’s antics. “I agree. We’re all here to support Jameson, er, I mean whomever you marry, and help with the transition. If you want my advice, I’d talk to Jameson. Sloane was here in Lexington, but I gave up my life to move here.”

  “Do you regret it?” Ari asked.

  “No. Never. Relationships are compromise. You work together to find solutions to everything from work to where you’ll live to what’s for dinner. Look, we all saw it. Jameson is crazy about you. You two love each other. Talk to him about what’s expected if things go further. You’ll both feel better with it all laid out and knowing where you both stand.”

  “I agree. Honesty and communication are key. All this added stress you’re feeling will go away when you have a true partner by your side because you know that you two can face anything together,” Sloane told her.

  “Thank you. He texted that he can’t talk tonight, but that we will talk in the morning. I was so worried that my feelings weren’t normal.”

  “Why be normal?” Sloane asked.

  “Yeah, and what’s normal? To each their own,” Mila agreed.

  “Thank you, both. I love you.” Ari hugged her sisters-in-law and felt wrapped up in peace. They were right. All she needed to do was talk to Jameson and together they would step into their future on the same page. “I guess we have to go back now.”

  “What’s up with the creepy assistant?” Mila asked as they all headed back into the hall.

  “I know! Something is off,” Ariana said a moment before plastering a pleasant yet bored expression on her face and heading back into the never-ending dinner.

  * * *

  Kale had whisked her from dinner as soon as possible. Then Ari drank way too much bourbon-spiked tea and spilled her guts to Kale. Surprisingly, Kale gave the same advice as Mila and Sloane. He pointed out that Abby and Dylan had both had their own lives and careers but worked together to forge a new path that they couldn’t be happier to share together.

  Somewhere around midnight, Poppy and Zinnia finally kicked them out of the café and Kale had to practically carry Ari to her room—a room with three Rahmi guards standing outside of it.

  “Goodnight, boys!” Ari slurred.

  She closed her door, shed her clothes, and climbed into bed. Then she stared at her phone. She would just call Jameson and leave a voicemail. It would be a late-night, sexy message to lift his spirits when he got it.

  The phone rang, but then she heard Jameson pick up, not his voicemail.

  “Ari? Are you there? Are you okay?”

  “I’m in bed, naked.”

  The line was quiet for a moment and then she could hear Jameson practically smile over the phone. “Phone sex? I’m in.”

  “I thought I would be speaking to your voicemail and that somehow made it seem easier. And it wasn’t phone sex. It was just going to be a message about how much I love you and that I was thinking of you.”

  “Ari, are you drunk?”

  “Maybe. Kale got me out of dinner and to the café and I might have had the Rose sisters’ tea.”

  “Tea doesn’t have alcohol in it.”

  “The Rose sisters’ tea does. A lot of alcohol.” Ari giggled as she tried to remember how many glasses she’d had. “Rumor is it’s more potent than truth serum.”

  “Really?” Jameson asked, and she heard the smile in his voice again. “Let’s test that theory. What happened tonight that you needed to get plastered?”

  “Two things. My uncle is making us host Deming.”

  “Is he in the house with you?” She could tell he wasn’t smiling anymore.

  “No. Mom put him in the cottage. I have three Rahmi guards outside my door because Deming’s assistant is creepy and did nothing but stare at me all through dinner.”

  “What’s the other reason?” Jameson asked.

  “I love you so much and I feel horrible about it,” Ari blurted out.

  “Why do you feel horrible about it?”

  “Because I learned tonight it’s not a plus that I’m a princess, but a major hurdle for us to overcome. That you’ll have obligations to the crown, but that you’ll also be able to do whatever you want for a job because Zain isn’t second in line for the throne anymore.”

  “Okay,” Jameson said slowly. “Tell me more.”

  “I talked to Sloane and Mila tonight and they told me they loved my brothers even though they were princes. Mila had to move and give up her life to marry Zain. I don’t want to make you do that. I’m sorry I’m not a normal person. I feel horrible you’re faced with the dilemma of what it takes to marry me. We haven’t even talked about marriage. But that’s all I’ve been thinking about for the past week. I love you and I want to marry you, and I’m scared you don’t want the same, and I’m scared that it’s too soon and you’ll think I’m a crazy princess clinger because I’m thinking about marriage and kids and a life together,” Ari rushed out in one long breath.

  The line was quiet. As her head spun from the alcohol, Ari worried she’d just blown this whole thing.

  “Ari, I’ve been thinking about the future, too. I want that with you. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have committed to our relationship. You’re not crazy, you’re not horrible, and yes, you being a princess is different, but I’d love you no matter what. Princess or crazy cat lady, I’m yours.”

  Ari felt the tears start to flow. “Really? What about your job? What about my job? What about going to diplomatic functions? I know you don’t like diplomats and yet you’d marry one and kind of become one. You’d be a prince.”

  “Honestly,” Jameson said, and she wiped her tears from her cheeks, “I’ve never thought about being a prince, Ari. I don’t need that title. The only title I want is husband. Everything else is what it is. If I have you by my side, I’m happy. I can find a job anywhere. I want to see you succeed in helping people around the world with trafficking and other human rights violations. I could help you with that or I’ve heard Keeneston has a military training facility. I can apply there. Maybe I can knock Cody unconscious with Draven’s dildos and take his place at the sheriff’s department. I’d do anything, be anything, to be with you. I have no hesitation walking away from my job for you.”

  “Wouldn’t you regret that and resent me later on?”

  “No. I can state that as a fact.”

  “I love you, Jameson.”

  “I love you, too. Ari, go to bed. There is nothing to worry about. I’ll talk to you in the morning, okay?”

  Ariana took a deep breath. “Thank you for talking to me tonight. I miss you.”

  “I miss you, too. Also, I think we could sell that tea to the government.”

  Ariana laughed and after hanging up she snuggled into bed and dreamed of a life with Jameson in it.

  26

  The interstate was empty as Jameson crossed from West Virginia into Kentucky at four in the morning. The discussion he’d had with Ariana rolled around in his mind until he pulled over to fill up the gas tank. At the first stop, he’d unzipped one of the bags he’d packed and pulled out the binder Dani had given him and started to read. At every stop he read more of it. Sure enough, there was a whole section written by all three of the women about what it means to marry into the royal family.

  Jameson read until the tank was full. He put away the binder and felt he had a better understanding of what Ari was saying tonight. When Dani had given it to him, he’d scanned the first couple of pages and found them to be about how to properly address people with titles, the Rahmi family tree, and the line of succession. He saw that Ari was fifth in line and put it away. Now he skimmed the rest of the section headers and found letters from Dani, Mila, and Sloane about how to handle the spotlight, how to handle the press, how to handle gossip, and how to handle it when you’re at odds with the ruling family. He also saw sections titled Happiest Moments, What You Can Accomplish, What’s Great about Being Royal, and a tongue-in-cheek section about perfecting the royal stare.

  Th
e sun wasn’t up yet as he pulled into the drive of Desert Sun Farm a little before six in the morning. The guard nodded at him and opened the gate as soon as he recognized him. A minute later he pulled up to the house. Jameson hadn’t even turned off his car when the front door opened as Zain, Gabe, Mo, and Dani stepped outside.

  “What took you so long? You’re a government agent. You could have driven faster,” Mo said as they walked down to meet him in the early morning darkness.

  “Not anymore. I quit to come here. You all don’t mind that I’m here?”

  “What we mind is you left in the first place,” Zain said, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “No one leaves our sister behind,” Gabe said, following suit and crossing his arms over his chest, too.

  Jameson had to laugh. He thought they hated him. They didn’t. It was just his initiation. “I’ll never leave her again,” Jameson looked to Dani and Mo then. “With your permission, that is.”

  Dani smiled so widely Jameson let the dream he’d been dreaming the past week of being Ari’s husband come alive inside him. Mo, on the other hand, crossed his arms over his chest and now three men were glaring at him.

  “Are you asking permission to marry my daughter?” Mo asked seriously.

  “Yes, sir,” Jameson said, standing up straight and answering with no hesitation. Everything about Ari was right. The second she had said she’d been thinking about their future, he knew he was going to ask her. He’d been thinking about it, too, and telling himself he couldn’t marry a princess. His family might be considered to be “American royalty” but he’d spent his whole life eschewing that life, even though he realized now that it trained him remarkably well to become Ari’s husband.

  “Let’s give my parents time to consider their answer,” Zain said diplomatically as he winked at Gabe.

  “Yes,” Gabe said, picking up the conversation. “Come on, Jameson. Let’s go work out those kinks from the long car ride while my parents talk this over.”

  Jameson went to open his trunk, but Zain stopped him. “You don’t need anything. Right this way.”

  “Um, okay.” Jameson followed them to the security building where Kale opened the door.

  “Took you long enough,” Kale said with annoyance. “Were you the slow person in the left lane that everyone has to pass?”

  “No, I was the one who made an eleven hour trip in eight hours.”

  Kale scoffed. “Eight? Slowpoke.”

  “It’s over seven hundred miles,” Jameson pointed out.

  “Not a big deal to Kale since he doesn’t know how to drive under a hundred. How he’s not arrested daily, I don’t know,” Zain told him as he led the group into the basement.

  “You wish I’d tell you my trick,” Kale called out from the back of the line.

  Jameson looked around as they walked into a locker room. Two bags were sitting out already. “We’re working out?”

  “Sure, let’s call it that,” Gabe said before opening a cabinet and pulling out some black athletic shorts with a small Rahmi flag no bigger than a business card on the bottom of the left leg. The black athletic shirt also had the Rahmi flag on it over the left chest.

  Jameson had been warned about an interrogation, but he didn’t know what to expect as he changed clothes. The door opened and Ahmed came in. “You’re with me first.” Then he turned and walked out, leaving Jameson chasing after him.

  Jameson wanted to ask all sorts of questions but knew he wouldn’t get any answers from Ahmed. Instead, he took a deep breath and got his game face on. They might be on an estate and not on a battlefield, but make no doubt about it—this was war.

  The room they entered had a metal table, two metal chairs opposite each other, and a lie detector sitting on the table. Three of the walls were gray cement block. The fourth wall had a two-way mirror, and Jameson would bet everything he owned Mo was behind it.

  * * *

  “Ariana is going to kill you,” Nabi muttered as he leaned against the wall in the surveillance room.

  “As if you won’t do the same when some boy asks to marry Faith,” Mo told his old friend and head of security.

  “She’s looking at colleges. When did that happen?” Nabi groaned.

  Mo sighed as Ahmed hooked the man who asked for permission to marry his baby girl up to a lie detector. “What does Grace think of Faith’s college choices?”

  “She pretends she’ll be happy anywhere Faith choses. Then Faith got an application from Stanford in California and Grace went and cried in the bedroom for fifteen minutes before coming out and helping Faith fill it out. I, on the other hand, was not so collected. I told her no colleges west of the Mississippi River and she just laughed at me and went, ‘Oh, Dad,’ as if I were joking. I wasn’t joking.”

  Mo patted his friend on the shoulder. “I understand, my friend.”

  “No, you don’t. I borrowed the drone from Ahmed. I did. I borrowed it and spied on Faith’s date last week. I’m turning into all I swore I never would. Here you are hooking up your future son-in-law to a lie detector and you never borrowed the drone!” Mo tried to look innocent, but even in Nabi’s panicked state he saw it. “You did use the drone on Ari!”

  Mo paused but there was no denying it any longer. He’d kept it secret for so long. Well, Nabi wasn’t the only one going through a panic attack right now. He was, too. A man wanted to marry his baby girl. “Of course I did! I used it so many times and she never knew. I even armed it with stink bombs so if things were heating up, I would drop the stink bombs that contained liquid in little glass ampules. They’d break when they hit the ground and that would ruin the mood.” Mo dragged in a deep breath. “I threatened a Greek prince with castration and you don’t want to know what I told that little bastard Gregory, the eighth earl of whatever.”

  Nabi was quiet for a moment and then hugged Mo. “I feel so much better. Thank you for confiding in me. Now, where did you get those stink bombs?”

  Ahmed’s voice cut through as the questioning began. It started off simple. Name, address, job. “What does he mean he quit his job?” Mo asked into a microphone that went to a small earpiece Ahmed was wearing.

  Mo listened as Jameson told them about last night and his drive to Keeneston. He and Nabi shared a look of begrudging respect that he put Ariana before his own career.

  “Did your mother or father have you seek out Ariana?” Ahmed asked.

  “No. I’ll do everything in my power to keep Ari away from them,” Jameson answered and it made Mo a little sad. Mo couldn’t imagine not having that connection, that love, with your child.

  Then Ahmed went hard into personal dating questions, embarrassing questions, and then finally into his feelings for Ariana.

  “He’s been honest,” Nabi said, looking at the results. “He didn’t even lie about how many women he’s slept with and everyone lies about that.”

  “He’s damn near perfect on paper, isn’t he?” Mo asked.

  “With the exception of his parents, yeah, he is.”

  Mo pressed on the microphone. “Wrap him up. Let the boys see if he can protect my little girl.”

  * * *

  Jameson raised his arms as Ahmed unhooked the lie detector. Was he through? Ahmed had been relentless. He’d only thought about lying when the device had been strapped on, but with one look at Ahmed and knowing the glee he’d get by ripping him apart, Jameson had decided the best course of action would be full honesty.

  “Right this way,” Ahmed said as he walked from the room.

  At the end of the hall, Jameson heard loud music and male voices. Ahmed pushed open the door and the smell of a gym hit Jameson first followed by the sight of two men boxing in a ring. Zain, Gabe, and Kale leaned against the ropes watching.

  “Let’s see what you got,” Ahmed said, drawing everyone’s attention.

  Jameson moved to grab a pair of gloves, but Ahmed shook his head. The action in the ring stopped as the two fighters held out their hands to the men on the ropes
. A second later Wyatt and Deacon were climbing from the ring.

  “I think I’ll sit this one out. Good luck,” Wyatt said, slapping Jameson on the shoulder as he made a beeline for the locker room.

  Jameson climbed into the ring expecting to fight one person, but Zain, Gabe, and Kale all stepped into the ring.

  “I thought the Davies family dinners were bad. You sure Ariana is worth it?” Deacon asked as Ahmed growled next to him.

  “She’s worth it,” Jameson said, getting ready for the attack.

  The door opened and he assumed it was Mo coming in, but Jameson couldn’t risk looking. He saw Zain look to Gabe who looked behind Jameson and Jameson ducked. He fell to the ground and rolled to the side before leaping up to his feet. Now he had all three of them in front of him, and that was the last thought he had before he let his training take over.

  Punches were landed. Blood was flowing. Everyone was breathing heavy, but at the end of the fight Jameson was the one left standing. Well, until Ahmed stripped off his shirt and climbed into the ring. “I don’t want your blood on my shirt.”

  Jameson put his hands up, but Ahmed moved fast—faster than men half his age. Jameson kept up for a little while. He even landed a couple of punches. Then somehow he ended up on the ground with Ahmed’s legs squeezing his kidneys to near bursting as a fist flew at his face.

  * * *

  “Did you kill him?” Mo asked.

  “No, he’s fine. Although I see you two have gotten rusty. And Kale, this summer you’re spending it on the farm getting into fighting shape.”

  “Dad, I’m a computer genius. I don’t need to know how you did whatever the hell that was.”

  Jameson groaned and blinked open his eyes. “I want to know how you did it.”

  Ahmed held out his hand and Jameson grabbed it. “He has my approval. He’s not crying, he wants to learn, and he only went down after I pulled out that move.”