The Lost Princes of Ambria 06 - Taming the Lost Prince Read Free Page B

leaving for a whole week, but the fact that the queen had that much faith in her had been wonderful. She’d worked herself to the bone trying to live up to expectations and she was exhausted.
    And while she was gone, the search for the last of the lost princes of Ambria had struck gold. First Mykal Marten, whom she’d met before she left for the continent, had been confirmed as the fourth prince. And then the news had come that the fifth and last prince had been discovered. When she saw the name—Max Arragen—in a newspaper account, she hadn’t thought much of it, but then she saw a picture. It was blurry and taken from a distance, but the jaunty set of the shoulders had made her think of Max—her Max. She’d gasped and begun to wonder.
    It wasn’t until she’d returned home to Ambria a day ago that she’d seen a good picture and realized that Prince Max really was the man she’d known in Trialta as Max Arragen two years before. And that sent her into a virtual tailspin.
    She’d only known him for about six months, but the time they’d spent together had been crazy and intense. He was her husband’s best friend, and they’d both been working as contract pilots, flying reconnaissance missions against the tyrannical regime of the North African nation of Trialta on the Mediterranean. They’d lived like young people involved in war often do, working hard during the day, partying at night like there was no tomorrow. They were fighting for the rebels and thought they were invincible.
    She couldn’t believe he was back in her life again—at least in a peripheral way. He always managed to inject excitement and surprise into everything, like no one else she’d ever known. She remembered times in Trialta where it had seemed she and Eddie were in the lead vehicle in a continuous car chase—and Max was at the wheel.
    And then came the day when Eddie didn’t return from a mission. The wreckage of his plane was found, and all the parties stopped. Kayla had clung to Max at the time and they’d mourned together, hardly believing that the Eddie they both loved so much could be gone forever. No one else could have understood how deep their grief was.
    But that was then. Things had changed, for both of them. Surely he’d had some life-changing experiences since she last knew him. And she’d had a beautiful, wonderful child.
    What would it be like to be friends with Max now? She was a little bit afraid to find out. She wasn’t the wide-eyed innocent she’d been two years before. She had some secrets of her own. And how would she keep them from him, now that he was going to be living right here in the castle?
    She buried her worries in work, staying an hour longer than normal. And then, once she’d put away her papers and shut off her computer, she gave in to temptation and made her way down to the ballroom instead of going straight to her room.
    She took a back entrance and climbed the stairs to a seldom-used interior balcony that overlooked the entire floor area. The orchestra was playing a waltz and the couples swept across the floor, around and around, the women like flowers in their beautiful dresses, the men resplendent in gold-edged uniforms of white or blue or crimson. Despite everything, it took her breath away and made her heart beat faster. A scene like this would make anyone want to be noble, especially if they’d been raised on fairy tales.
    She watched for a few minutes longer, caught up in the magic. How wonderful to be royal and to live as though you were the star of it all. Just being here in the castle made her feel as though she were blessed. But it also made her feel a new and more intense responsibility to her country and her people. She wondered if Max would start to feel a little of that soon.
    She could pick out most of the princes. So handsome, every one of them—so tall and strong. They looked like men who were confident in themselves and ready to take on the world. She could hardly believe