Page 48 of Royally Tempted

“You gonna try and behave yourself tonight?” Cas muttered.

Mags grinned, snagging two champagnes off the tray of a passing waiter and knocking one back in two gulps.

“That answer your question?” I said evenly to my brother, who grinned.

“Look, Mags, we’re all here to have fun, and I know you haven’t been yourself recently, but try and rein it—”

I frowned. Magnus wasn’t even looking at us at all, and I followed his stare to a gorgeous redhead in green and gold standing across the ballroom.

“Mags.” I frowned. “Magnus.”

It was like he’d tuned us out as he knocked back the rest of his second champagne, pushed the glass into my hands, and strode purposefully towards the girl.

“Oh tonight’s going to be fun, isn’t it,” Caspian muttered dryly.

I laughed, clapping my brother on the back. “Did you even see where Logan went off to?”

“Nope.”

“Fantastic.”

“I vote for a refill.”

I chuckled as I followed Caspian over to another bar, grinning as I watched him toss another insane amount of money on the bar for our free drinks before turning and handing me mine.

“To finding our true love,” he muttered sarcastically.

After all, thatwasthe reason for coming to a suitors’ ball. Just the same, it felt like bitter irony at that point.

“To finding our soulmate—”

The words froze in my mouth as I raised my glass to his. Actually, the whole fucking world froze. Because just then, standing in the doorway to the ballroom, the sounds of the string quartet and the crowds washing over us, my eyes locked ontoher.

And everything else just sort of faded away.

She wasn’t real. She couldn’t be. Blonde, willowy, her blue sequined gown trailing behind her as she swirled and smiling at a few other girls in regal looking gowns. She was talking to the redhead, actually, andMagnus,before she turned along with another fair-skinned girl with black hair and a silvery white dress and moved away, leaving the poor redhead to Magnus’s clutches. I followed the blonde though, gritting my teeth as the light caught her big blue eyes, sparkling under the chandeliers, and her smile sent butterflies crashing through me.

Holy. Shit.

“Cade.”

I heard my brother but couldn’t respond, my eyes justlockedonto her.

“Dude.”

I blinked as he shook me, shaking my head and turning to him.

He frowned. “The fuck was that?”

“Cas.”

He heard the tone in my voice and shut his mouth.

I didn’t say a thing, I just turned back to her, and this time, his eyes followed mine.

“Oh, fuck,” he whispered.

I nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

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