Kat Cantrell - Matched to a Prince

His expression darkened. “Be sure to inform me when you decide. If you’ll excuse me, I have business with Ms. Arundel which is not of your concern.”

Finn was in rare His-Royal-Highness mode. She hated it when he got that way.

“Actually,” Elise corrected with a nervous laugh and held a palm out, “Juliet is your match.”

Two Contents Cover Introduction This whole thing was ridiculous. Finn had been matched with a woman who’d caused his family immeasurable misery and created a scandal that had spawned countless after-effects. The smartest move would have been to turn around and leave without a backward glance. This was the surest method to end up insane by the end of the night. He’d only asked Juliet to dance because manners had been bred into him since birth. This was a party. It was only polite. But now he wasn’t so sure that was the only reason. Seeing Juliet again had kicked up a push-pull of emotions he’d have sworn were buried. Not the least of which was the intense desire to have her head on a platter. After he had her body in his bed. * * * Matched to a Prince is part of the Happily Ever After, Inc. trilogy. Their business is makeovers and matchmaking, but love doesn’t always go according to plan! Title Page Matched to a Prince Kat Cantrell www.millsandboon.co.uk About the Author KAT CANTRELL read her first Mills & Boon® novel in third grade and has been scribbling in notebooks since she learned to spell. What else would she write but romance? She majored in literature, officially with the intent to teach, but somehow ended up buried in middle management in corporate America, until she became a stay-at-home mom and full-time writer. Kat, her husband and their two boys live in north Texas. When she’s not writing about characters on the journey to happily-ever-after, she can be found at a soccer game, watching the TV show Friends or listening to ‘80s music. Kat was the 2011 Harlequin So You Think You Can Write winner and a 2012 RWA Golden Heart finalist for best unpublished series contemporary manuscript. Dedication To Cynthia, because this book was so hard to write and you were there for me every step of the way. And because TPFKAD had to be in it somewhere. Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Epilogue Extract Copyright

“What?” Finn zeroed in on Juliet, piercing her with steely blue eyes she remembered all too well. “Is this your idea of a joke? Did you beg Elise to contact me?”

Is that what he thought? Her brother was dead and afterward, Finn had abandoned her when she’d needed him most. Juliet would never forgive him. Why would she extend one small finger to see him again?

“I had nothing to do with this!” Hands on her hips, she waded straight into the rising tension, eyes and ears around them forgotten as the emotions Finn elicited zigzagged through her torso. “I thought you were getting married. What happened to your princess? What are you doing signing on with a matchmaker?”

A muscle ticked in Finn’s forehead. “My father does want me to get married, as soon as I find a bride. That’s what I’m doing here. I was promised the perfect match. Amusing how that worked out.”

Finn wasn’t engaged? There wasn’t even a potential princess on the horizon? She’d left Delamer based on something that wasn’t even true.

“Yeah, hilarious. I was promised the same.”

In tandem, they turned to Elise. She smiled and escorted them both to an unpopulated corner, likely so the coming bloodbath wouldn’t spatter her guests. Finn’s muscled companions followed and melted into the background.

“Do you remember the profile question about love?” Elise tucked her hair behind one ear with a let’s-get-down-to-business swipe. “I asked you both what you’d be willing to give up in order to have it. Juliet, what did you say?”

Arms crossed, Juliet glared at Elise and repeated the answer. “You shouldn’t have to give up anything for love. It should be effortless or else it’s not real love.”

No compromise. Why should she have to completely rearrange her entire belief system to appease one very stubborn man? The right man for her should recognize that she’d tried to upset the status quo only because she’d been forced to.

The right man for her would know he’d been everything to her.

“Finn?” Elise prompted and he sighed.

His gaze softened and he spoke directly to Juliet. “You shouldn’t have to give up anything. Love should be easy and natural, like breathing. No one asks you to give up breathing so your heart can beat.”

He had. He wanted her to forget Bernard had died serving the king’s ego, wearing the same uniform Finn put on every day. She slammed her lids closed and shoved that thought away. It was too much.

“Right. Easy and natural. That part of us wasn’t hard.”

And with the words, the good and amazing and breath-stealing aspects of her relationship with Finn lit up the darkness inside her.

Everything had been effortless between them. If Bernard hadn’t had that accident, she and Finn would probably be married by now and living happily ever after.

“No. Not hard at all.” Finn shook his head, his eyes still on her, searching for something that looked a lot like what she constantly wished for—a way to go back in time.

Which was impossible and the reason she’d fled to the States.

But she’d left Delamer because she thought Finn was marrying someone else. If that wasn’t true, what else might she need to reexamine?

Elise put her hands out, placing them gently on their arms, connecting them. “Do you remember what you each said you were looking for in a relationship?”

“The calm in the storm,” Juliet said, and her ire drained away to be replaced by the tiniest bit of hope.

“A place where I could just be, without all the other pressures of life,” Finn said, his voice a little raspy. “That’s how I answered the question.”

He didn’t move, but he felt closer. As if she could reach out and touch him, which she desperately wanted to do. Curled fingers dug into her thigh. Her heart tripped. This was not a good idea.

“So? We answered a couple of questions the same way. That’s no surprise.”

Finn agreed with a nod. “I would have been surprised if we didn’t respond in a similar vein.”

They’d always been of one mind, two hearts beating as one. When they sailed together, they never even had to talk, working in perfect tandem to reef the main or hull trim. They’d met while sailing with mutual friends, then fallen in love as the two of them skimmed the water again and again in Finn’s boat.

“So,” Elise said brightly, “maybe the better question is whether you can forget about the past and see how you both might have changed. You’re in America. The divide you had in Delamer doesn’t matter here. It’s safe. Take some time on neutral ground to explore whether that effortless love still exists.”

That was totally unnecessary. She’d never fallen out of love with Finn and being here in his presence after a long, cold year apart solidified the fact that she probably never would.

But that didn’t mean they belonged together.

“Are you a relationship counselor or a matchmaker?” Juliet asked Elise without a trace of guile.

“Both. Whatever it takes to help people find happiness.”

Happiness. That hadn’t been on her list when she came to Elise, broken and desperate for a solution to end her pain. But instead of an American husband, she’d been handed an opportunity for a second chance with Finn.

He was the only man on earth who could rightly be called her match. The only man she’d ever wanted to let into her heart. That had always been true and Elise had somehow figured that out.