feel like it’s the only thing that defines me. There aren’t thin-lipped teachers telling me I’m doing it all wrong, or long-haired boys who make me feel uncomfortable.
There’s just the love of music, and the need to sing.
Now, as I sit in the palace’s library strumming a guitar with my beautiful three-year-old princess dancing in front of me, I realize that I have everything I could have ever wanted.
I used to think leaving Argyle was the only way to be free. That I had to be independent to feel like my own person.
I was wrong. With Theo, I can be myself without having to run. I can grow and learn and live a rich life without needing to leave my home, my family, my Kingdom.
Theo opens the library door and strides over to me, flopping down onto the sofa beside me and slinging his arm around my back. I place my guitar off to the side and nuzzle into his chest, letting out a happy sigh.
Princess Ariella toddles over to the guitar and runs her fingers over the strings, giggling. She glances at the two of us, a mischievous smile plastered over her face.
Theo combs his fingers through my hair, laying a soft kiss on my cheek. “Let’s have another one,” he whispers. I turn to look at him, surprised. We haven’t talked about this before.
“Really?”
“Let’s make a baby, Cara. You look hot when you’re pregnant.”
That makes me laugh. I nudge his chest with my shoulder, shaking my head.
Theo chuckles, then grows serious. “I mean it. Let’s have another baby.”
As I stare at my husband, my King, my everything, happiness erupts inside me. I nod, laying a soft kiss on his lips.
“Okay,” I whisper. “Let’s have another baby.”
Theo groans, wrapping his arms around me. We kiss, only to be interrupted when Ariella taps us both on the knees. Theo picks her up, laying a dozen kisses on her cheeks as she giggles and squirms in his grasp. Our daughter throws her arms around her father’s neck, planting a sloppy kiss on his cheek in return.
Over Ariella’s head, Theo’s eyes meet mine. His gaze is clear, and bright, and full of happiness. In that moment, I know we’ll have more children. We’ll fill this palace with the sounds of laughter and music.
Ariella wriggles away from us, running over to the guitar again to pluck its strings. Theo slides his arm across my shoulders and holds me close. He doesn’t have to say a word for me to know what he’s thinking, because I’m thinking it, too.
It’s simple, really—just I love you, always and forever.
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xox Lilian
Lone Prince
An Accidental Pregnancy Romance
Rowan
My grandmother should be here. She said she’d meet me at the train station, but as I glance around the tiny lobby for the thousandth time, she’s nowhere to be seen.
My phone isn’t any help. No cell reception. No pay phone either, although there are two little cubby holes where pay phones used to be.
Helpful.
Not.
Grandma did warn me this place was isolated, but as wind howls against the shuttered windows, and a gust of cold air rushes under the doorway, I already know this corner of the Kingdom of Nord is wilder than I expected.
I grew up in Farcliff, a small kingdom nestled between the United States and Canada. It’s no tropical paradise, but compared to the subarctic Kingdom of Nord, Farcliff is positively balmy.
Grandma is from Nord. Born and raised. My mother, too, until she had me. Fell in love with a man from Farcliff and followed him south, only to find out he had a whole other family and wanted nothing to do with us. Mom still stayed in Farcliff, though, so that’s where I grew up. Technically, I have Nordish blood running in my veins. I should feel at home here, on some level. Right now, though? I feel very much like an outsider. Like the weather itself is trying to tell me to leave.
And this particular train station? The last stop on the line?
Well, let’s just say I should have brought warmer clothes. The Summer Palace rests on the edge of the Arctic Circle, and even at the end of September, it’s freezing up here. Apparently, they call it the Summer Palace because the land is almost uninhabitable in the winter, but for two or