Page 9 of Royally Tempted

At first, it’d been confusing, and maybe a little weird. But it’d soon become abundantly clear that when it came to girls, there was no splitting us up. We all wanted the same ones, and the idea of being in a relationship with someone andnothaving the other two be involved was just… weird, I guess.

I know that sounds fucking insane, and maybe it is, but I can’t and won’t apologize for the way we were.

It made things tricky, for sure. I mean, there aren’t a lot of women out there who want todatethree guys. Yeah, there were those out there who wanted tofuckthree brothers — oh and were there ever — but it was fucking and nothing else. These women wanted the ultimate fantasy, and we were willing to give it to them, since it was the closest we could get to what we were after.

But it wasn’t quite there.

A lot of woman saw us as objects. I don’t say that out of arrogance or pride, it’s just the way it was. Yeah, we were good looking guys, and we’d kept in great shape. But we wanted tobewith someone, not just be three hot guys with big dicks for a woman to lose herself in for one night.

But, that’s pretty much all we got. So we’d made peace with it, as best we could.

“Hell of a year,” Joaquin growled, taking another sip of the scotch and raising the bottle high in a toast.

The cliffs, where we were standing and having a toast in dad’s name, had been his favorite place to come and just sit. He’d fold his arms over his chest and glance out at the ocean, just watching the waves and the horizon.

“Being a good ruler is like the waves,” he’d say. “It takes time and patience to wear down these cliffs, but also, it requires the raw strength and the willingness to smash yourselves against the rocks.” He’d smile and ruffle our hair when we’d roll our eyes at him. “Remember that, boys.”

I lifted the bottle high, thinking of him, before taking a sip.

“Heard that,” Malcolm muttered, taking the bottle next. “A year later, and here we are that the same bullshit impasse.”

“I talked to the head of the council again the other night,” I nodded, taking the bottle. “You know, pushing them for the vote to justdecideon one of us.”

“Let me guess, he’ll ‘think about it,’ right?”

I smiled grimly at Joaquin. “You know it.”

“Motherfucker,” he hissed, glaring out at the ocean. “Weneedto make a decision. Fuck, the country needs to make a decision. Bellhaven has to have a king, and the longer we don’t, the weaker we get.”

We fell silent after that. Hell, we’d been having this same conversation for twelve months now.

“Fuck, I need to get out of my own head tonight.”

“Same,” Malcolm sighed. “A distraction from all this.”

Joaquin made a face. “You know, there’s a Club event tonight, over in North Revania.”

Malcolm and I glanced up at him, chewing on that. We hadn’t been to the Triple Crown Club in a while. I guess we’d gotten bored with it, as absurd as that may sound to someone who’s never been. Yes, it sounded like an amazing time, and yes, I’m sure there’d be girls there who were free for the evening. Women who’d been invited to be guests of the whole club — unclaimed, and notwithsomeone for the evening.

But yet, we were bored with it, and hadn’t gone to an event in months.

Still, a distractiondidsound good tonight, after today and the emotions it brought.

“North Revania, huh?”

It was a short helicopter flight away. And even if we didn’t participate, a change of scenery from the council’s conference rooms in Bellhaven sounded like what we needed.

“Fuck it, why not,” Malcolm growled. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Chapter 4

Emma

“It’s just a work thing.”

I smirked at my friend.

“A work thing,yeah,” I said sarcastically, eyeing the outfit she had hanging up on the hook across the room. “A work thing where you wear a super hot little black dress that I’ve never seen before but looks insanely expensive?”

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