The Swedish Prince (#Royal Romance 1)

YORK

ie's

Sam says to me with an exaggerated sigh as she leans bac

nt. It doesn't matter how many times she says she's quitting, the next day she's back in the proverbial saddle, swiping left and right and complaining

e just met up for drinks down in the village, which is fine. Super casual, you

his profile or his unso

ng though I could already tell we didn't have that easy chemistry I hoped we would. Halfway throu

brows. "Sex

music was really good." She s

re in

r to take a loud slurp of it. "Worst part is, he put it on shuffle and I hadn't seen

ng. "You were Rick

to leave and quickly got out of there. Highlight of the night was getting a keba

e city, which counts for a lot since I've been living in New York f

program and we've bonded over hating most o

ven though Sam has created a profile for me absolutely everywhere. I might be just twenty-two years old but I'm pretty old fashioned w

mes better than my hometown of Tehachapi, California. The only guys in that town are ex-convicts from t

oo hard on the eyes, I look like some tiny, cute, big-eyed pixie. Looks wise, I'd like to say I'm about an eight out of ten in T

one else is and my fingers will brush his and I'll look up and find the man of my dreams. I know that's a terribly optimistic way to look at lov

We might reach for the same book in a bookstore but I'd be just as happy if he slammed me up against those bookshelves and f

d he'll have a better sex playlist than

my arm and forcing me to stay seated. "You know y

ram, thanks to studying my ass off for years, but I could onl

ough my parents both work, my father as a prison guard, my mother as a

with my mom at the local La Quinta. Even now I'm working most nights and weekends as a bari

to my purse I picked up from the thrift shop, a terrible fake of a Gucci that's made from plastic rather than leather, and take o

get out of the way, but she's laughing. Soon

e time," I tell her, putting the shadow back

is your s

, you know." Actually, at this moment, all of my siblings are out with my seventeen-year-old brother Pike, the oldest after me. T

et homesick often. I mean, I'd been dreaming about leaving that town for most of my life. But eve

out things like money and school and my lack of love life but this is something different, something I can't put m

staring at me inquisitively.

er. "Just vibed out

the compan

er. "No, no

ou could use a drink.

es me feel small sometimes that she often has to pay for me to do the things she wants to do,

ring the eyes of every guy in the room. You wouldn't even think she'd need Tin

ase of resting bitch face otherwise), but then, once I open my mouth, I usually say something a

ong guys. And by wrong guys, I mean the ones you have no interest in, ones who take a mere meeting of the eyes to mean

s in my purse an

weirder than weird. Maybe she co

nd twists and I know this isn't a matter of her checking in with me

is wrong, Pike or my pare

as I press th

other ear and turning away

nd of crying that isn't born of a teenager getting du

t's wrong?" I ask, tryin

Oh my god, oh my god.

old in on itsel

is spreading, slow sticky fing

ad?" I cry

g

h

h

, then erupts into even louder

my

oes on in hysterics. "Maggie, he shot them

at to feel. Surely this isn't actua

eaming? I look around me and I just see blurs and colors. I