King’s Queen by Marie Johnston

Chapter 1

Aiden

Four years and six months ago…

My office door whipped open.Grams appeared in the doorway like an avenging angel in a business suit. Emilia Boyd never looked like she was relaxed and happy, but today her eyes were narrowed, her mouth pinched. The office LED lights gleamed off her silver bob. “Aiden, meet me in your dad’s office.”

My fingers hovered above my keyboard. I was in the middle of compiling a five-year historical financial report for King Oil’s stakeholders. “Now?”

She just gave me a look that told me to quit being stupid, of course she meant now. Patience wasn’t one of Grams’s virtues.

I saved my work. I had the process of compiling various historical reports down to an art, but it was still time-consuming. One of many time-consuming tasks I had on my list to get done before the next board meeting.

Grams had left my door open, and I stared at it for a moment. What was Grams doing here? Why the urgency? My dad, Gentry, was the CEO of King Oil, and I was the CFO. Grams wasn’t here on a work matter, or we’d know about it.

Oh, Grams wasn’t completely out of the game. King Oil had been hers, founded by her and my grandpa DB under a different name decades ago. Now she stayed on as president of the board of directors. Our monthly meeting had been last week. It didn’t mean she stayed out of the day-to-day operations, but she’d retired enough to give Dad and me breathing room at work.

I had no doubt we’d have to pry her cold, dead fingers away from the building before she ever retired completely.

If it was a family emergency, Dad would’ve known before Grams. My brothers and I didn’t get together often, but we’d call Dad before Grams. She had been a steady part of our lives, but unless it was a milestone like high school or college graduation, she only bothered when it came to work. Her motto was “live and let live, unless you’re talking about King Oil.”

I rose from my desk and turned, my gaze roving over the wall of windows at my back. Through the tint of the glass, the blue Montana sky taunted me. It was the middle of spring. This used to be my favorite time of the year.

Calving would be over. I’d work cattle with my three brothers, and there’d be mud pits all over our land that four boys could get into way too much trouble in. Those days were over. Sometimes I returned to King’s Creek to help my youngest brother, Dawson, work the cattle, but it was never often enough. The best I could do was take my daily runs outside instead of on the treadmill, listening and reading some of the many messages that bombarded my various inboxes.

I tore my gaze from the beautiful weather that would be perfect to ride horse in, straightened my tie, snapped my suit coat to discourage any wrinkles from sticking around, and walked out the door.

Dad’s assistant, Phillip, wasn’t at his desk. He was the only help we were allowed in the inner office. Phillip was good, but we could use three more Phillips. I bypassed his desk, planted front and center of the elevator. He didn’t miss who came and went, and more importantly, he could stop them from intruding on me and Dad. The other office in the corner was the one Grams used. I wouldn’t be surprised if she sometimes sat in there because she had nothing else to do. This company was her life.

Grams was pacing the length of Dad’s office by the time I entered and shut the door behind me. Another man in a gray pinstripe suit sat across from Dad.

Our family lawyer, Ellis. What was so critical that he’d driven from King’s Creek to Billings to tell us in person?

“Hi, Aiden.” The creases in his face were deeper than the last time I’d seen him. Age or stress? Both?

“Have a seat,” Dad said. His expression was serious but he gave no other indication that he knew what this meeting was about. I sat in the chair next to Ellis. Grams continued to pace behind us.

Dad reclined in his seat and tented his fingers. “Go ahead and tell Aiden and me what this is all about.”

Ellis licked his lips and the lines around his eyes deepened. “It’s come to my attention…” He huffed out a breath. “I mean, there was no way to give myself a reminder. This was years ago.”

“Tell them, Ellis,” Grams demanded.

“Yes. Right.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Before she died, Sarah put some money in a trust for each of the kids.” His gaze darted between me and Dad.

Ice crystals crowded my veins. Being reminded of Mama’s death was never easy, as if I didn’t think about it every day. I erected a mental block before I could be sucked into the past, to the day Mama had been killed and the dreary months afterward.

Dad’s brow furrowed, but I didn’t miss the beat of sorrow in his eyes. “A trust?”

Dad didn’t know about this?

“The terms, Ellis,” Grams snapped.

Ellis jumped, but adjusted his weight to another butt cheek to hide it. “A rather sizable sum of one hundred million dollars was set aside for each of the kids.”

For me and my brothers? That was a lot of money. I made an excellent wage as King Oil’s CFO, but not one hundred million dollars.

“From the partial sale of King Oil. Years ago.” A storm raged in her eyes. Grams had loved Mama—her only child. And she loved money. Mama was gone, but this money wasn’t. “I gifted it to her to put into a trust. But I never thought…” She waved her hand at Ellis. “What was she thinking?”

Ellis licked his lips again. He’d need an entire tube of ChapStick before this meeting was done. “It’s payable on each kid’s thirtieth birthday. However.” A shadow rippled over his features, and the already diminutive man shrank in his chair. “The stipulations require that each boy be married for one year before the trust is paid out. If that boy has already been married for the requisite year, or gets a divorce sometime after, the money will be split in half. It is exempt from any prenuptial agreement.”

I snorted. Married. Did my job count? It was the only girlfriend, fiancée, or mistress that I had.

Grams’s glare bore reality into me. I would turn twenty-nine later this year. Was I expected to get married and get this money?

How the hell would that work? I wasn’t seeing anyone. I didn’t really date. I’d go on a date here and there. I worked my ass off, but sometimes I wanted to get laid too. That was the only reason I dated. My work was all-consuming. I’d been groomed for this job since I was…since Mama had died. My grandparents had founded this company. My dad had worked for it since I was born.

I was the oldest. It was my job to continue in the family’s footsteps.

Mama’s casket had barely been lowered into the ground when Grams and DB had told me that the fate of the ranch rested on my shoulders, and that my brothers were looking up to me. Dad had the company to worry about.

I’d done it. I’d raised my three younger brothers and run the ranch that Mama had managed from when I was thirteen until I’d left home at eighteen. Then I’d poured myself into the company. Because that had been what was expected too.

Now that included getting married?

I wasn’t against the idea, but the few times I’d tried to see someone, I’d been left disappointed. They wanted to date Aiden King, the prince of an oil empire. Aiden King, the face that graced the billboards with his dad—only once, but that had been more than enough. Aiden King, the guy who’d built a big house to go with that massive paycheck.

They’d heard about the private jet. They’d heard about my salary. They’d seen the local magazine feature about the custom home I’d built outside of town along the Yellowstone River. They wanted the lifestyle. Not me. And certainly not my schedule.

“That’s not the worst of it.” Grams’s heel dug into the carpet. If she wasn’t careful, she’d shred a hole in the material.

Ellis’s head did a passable imitation of a bobblehead’s. “Right. Um, if the stipulations aren’t met, the trust will go to Daniel Cartwright, or his daughter, Bristol, if Danny has passed.”

The money would go to the neighbor responsible for Mama’s death?

“Sarah set this up?” Dad’s incredulous tone made it clear I wasn’t the only one losing their mind.

Ellis tipped his head. “She did. Made me draw up a confidentiality contract as soon as she entered my office. Attorney-client privilege wasn’t enough for her. Truth be told, I forgot about it not long after. Your kids all turned out to be decent young men. I had no doubt they’d each find someone and get married.” He cleared his throat and his eyes darted to me, then skated away.

None of us were married, or even close to it. My brother Beck hadn’t been in a relationship that lasted longer than six months. Was he seeing someone now? I didn’t talk to him enough to know.

Xander was somewhere in the world. He could be married, but I doubted it. That’d take commitment and Xander didn’t commit to anything, much less anyone.

Dawson had come the closest with his college girlfriend, but he’d been running the family ranch for almost two years now. And that college girlfriend was long gone. He dated, and that was it. He never mentioned anyone special.

“You need to get married, Aiden.” Grams stared me down like she’d tasked me with saving the world.

“Grams.” I didn’t want our seedy neighbors to get the money any more than she did but this was my life she was talking about—and someone else’s. My future wife’s.

“Emilia.” Patience laced Dad’s voice. He was good with Grams. He’d married Mama right after high school graduation. She’d been pregnant with me and they’d been too scared to go against Grams and DB when they’d laid out how it was going to be. Get married. Mama, stay home and keep the ranch going. Dad, start at the oil company. Because of all that, Grams and Dad had history. He could handle her moods and redirect her ire.

She shook her head. “DB and I worked too hard for that money.” Grandpa DB was long gone, which was for the best. He had a worse temper than Grams and this news would’ve put him straight in the hospital. “We trusted Sarah with that money. It was our legacy to pass to our grandkids,” she hissed. “I’d been too busy to deal with it. I should’ve known better.”

Should’ve known that Mama had a tender heart that wasn’t driven by the bottom line? Yeah, Grams should’ve known. But this trust didn’t make sense.

Grams stabbed a finger at me. “You’re the oldest, Aiden. If you do this, you can show your brothers that this money is rightfully theirs and they’d better do what they need to in order to keep it in the family.” A disgusted sound left her. “And keep it away from the damn Cartwrights.”

“Now, let’s talk about this.” Dad had learned to be part politician. But he wasn’t dragging me out of the office, grabbing the first single woman we passed, and hauling us to the altar like I was sure Grams wanted to. Dad eyed Ellis. “Is there nothing we can do?”

“Every contract has loopholes but Sarah paid extra to minimize them, and…you’re running out of time.” No wonder Ellis was so nervous. Grams’s fingers twitched like she wanted to wrap them around his neck and squeeze. “Additionally, if Danny were to hear about this and we didn’t do everything to the letter…”

Dad’s expression darkened.

Grams radiated rage, her hands fisting. Dad’s jaw clenched and his shoulders tightened. I could practically see his blood pressure climbing. This news was hard on them.

Grams was right. I was the oldest. It was up to me to set the example. To pave the way for my siblings, like I’d done with the company.

Dad cleared his throat. “I can’t argue that what you decide to do, Aiden—”

“Which had better be finding a wife,” Grams snapped.

“—will dictate how your brothers handle the trust. But”—Dad shot Grams a quelling look she ignored—“the decision is yours. No matter what.”

No matter what.

The survival of the ranch. It’s up to you, Aiden.

Raising my brothers without our increasingly absent father. It’s up to you, Aiden.

It’s a family company. We need to keep it that way. It’s up to you, Aiden.

It’s up to you, Aiden.

Fuuuuck.

If I didn’t get married, my entire family would be pissed at me. I’d be pissed at me. Danny Cartwright didn’t deserve the mud in his driveway, much less one hundred fucking million dollars. He was the reason we’d lost Mama and had to deal with this trust in the first place.

And if I married? If I married just for the money, would that be what my brothers did? Would they sacrifice their own happiness and find someone who’d say I do for millions of dollars? Worse, what if the public learned of this trust? My brothers would be pursued by all sorts of gold diggers. It was hard enough to find meaningful relationships as a King.

It’s up to you, Aiden.

“I’ll take care of it.” It was what I did. All three heads swiveled toward me. I lifted a shoulder. “That money’s ours. I’ll make sure it stays in the family.” And I’d make sure news of the trust stayed within the family too.

“I can’t imagine this is what Sarah wanted.” Dad’s tone oozed disappointment.

But it was. Ellis had the signed proof of it. And Dad was leaving the decision up to me—because I always made the right one. I came through. It was what I did. I was the oldest; I had to set the example.

My chest tightened. “Mama made the trust for a reason. She had to know that if something happened to her and she couldn’t give us the money, we’d do everything possible to keep Danny from getting it.” Mama had been softer toward our troubled neighbor than any of us, but she hadn’t been blind. “I’m not going to let her down.”

Mama had been taken away from us and it had nearly destroyed our family. I wasn’t going to let this trust destroy my brothers’ chance at happiness.

* * *

Kate

Two months later…

His voice left me breathless,like I’d run three miles instead of walking from the parking lot to the conference room where our King Oil tour group was being greeted.

I didn’t run. I liked a brisk walk, but if anyone saw me running, they’d better sprint because something was on fire or chasing me. Yet my heart hammered worse than any sprinter’s.

Had Aiden King always had that deep of a voice? Had I ever heard the CFO of King Oil talk before? He’d murmured “good match” to my brother during wrestling matches in high school, but he’d never been the center of attention.

Oh, he’d been the center of my attention. If staring were a crime, I’d have been on top of Montana’s Most Wanted list.

Aiden King.

Another speaker started talking. Aiden’s dad, Gentry. The CEO’s voice was deep too, but with a mature timbre, as he told us about when King Oil headquarters had moved out of his hometown of King’s Creek, Montana, to the sophisticated new office building in Billings.

I should be taking notes. It would be a good research topic for work. I could present on it. But I already knew all the details. When it came to Aiden King, I had paid attention. I hadn’t outgrown that lovesick teen from my brother’s high school wrestling matches.

I was in the back of the group. As soon as I’d heard King Oil had extended an invite to the public library staff for a private tour, I’d been a puddle of anticipation. For six weeks, I’d heard about other civic bodies around Billings being personally invited for a tour. First, the city council. Then the city maintenance department. City zoning and planning. All departments that worked directly with King Oil. The company gave generously to the library each year, but I didn’t think we’d get an invite. Until King Oil HR had contacted the library director.

I’d given myself a pep talk. This was a King Oil tour, but that didn’t mean that Aiden would participate. He probably had better things to do with his Friday night. But he was helping to lead the tour with Gentry and the head of HR.

I was twenty-eight and old enough not to act like a fourteen-year-old with a crush. Instead, I had gotten up this morning and blown out my hair. I’d had to learn how to blow out my damn hair first. And I’d had to rewash it and try again. Twice. Then I’d stood in front of my hole-in-the-wall closet and stared at my clothing choices. How obvious would it be if I showed up for the tour all oh, this old thing? in a brand-new outfit that made my bank account choke?

No, I would work with what I had, though at least my new non-frizzy hair wouldn’t stand out. What did I own that wasn’t stereotypical staid librarian? My coworkers dressed in various interpretations of business casual, and I wasn’t any different. I usually wore slacks or leggings and an oversized sweater. In the summer, I wore a blouse—in a pattern if I wanted to be wild.

Reaching for a frilly shirt that would look cute with plain black leggings, I frowned and paused. My hand hovered over the fabric. The top had a faint floral print. As a lifelong wallflower, I did not need to wear flowers on my top as I hovered in the back of the crowd.

But Mom’s smoky voice had drifted through my head. “Fuck them.”

And here I was, fucking them in my floral shirt as I stood next to the dang wall. Standing at the back of the group, I could barely see Aiden through the crowd of coworkers I normally adored but was a tiny bit ragey at right now. Not cranky enough to crowd my way up front and look at Aiden’s perfect face up close, though. I could stare back here without being creepy. I hoped.

Aiden shifted and I edged to the right. There. A gap.

He was speaking again and my belly quivered. That voice. That face. Dark hair gelled mercilessly into place. Eyes with a slight perma-squint that made whomever he looked at feel like one thousand percent of his attention was on them. I’d never survive that look. His shoulders were wide. Did he still have his wrestling physique?

Duh. It was better. A stacked but sinuous upper body with powerful thighs that could flip an opponent in a split second. That description was probably stitched into his suit. For the stacked but sinuous man in the business world.

His gaze roamed the crowd, lingering only long enough to make each person feel seen. He was over six feet tall, but he couldn’t see me tucked in the back of the group.

I could see him, and that was what mattered. It was just wrong how well that suit fit him. Black suit, black slacks. Light gray shirt. Simple, packing a powerful statement, one that said I can crush you physically or financially, and only I will decide. That thing must be custom tailored. With that wide chest tapering to his narrow waist and long legs, he couldn’t buy off the rack.

I snorted quietly. He could buy the whole rack. The whole store. The Kings were loaded.

Others might see money when it came to him, but I’d always seen dogged determination. Aiden King knew what he had to do and he worked at it until he accomplished the task. He’d been like that when he’d faced my brother on the wrestling mat. It didn’t matter the opponent. The grim determination in Aiden’s eyes had said he wasn’t thinking about the girls swooning over him in the stands. He wasn’t thinking about the party he’d be going to that weekend. He was planning his win. He was envisioning it. And he’d execute it.

He had that look now.

My body didn’t care. My knees shook like the time he’d walked past me after pinning my brother Jason. His gaze had skipped over me, but my teen mind insisted he’d lingered.

Aiden King lingered on nothing, definitely not me.

I jumped when Aiden clapped his hands together, the corners of his eyes pinched like he was smiling but his lips hadn’t quite gotten the message. God, that was sexy. His intensity was thrilling. What was it like for the women he dated?

Jealousy shredded me until I was a brick of cheese ready for Mom’s tater tot hotdish. I bit my lip to keep from snarling.

This man was not mine. He’d never remember me; I’d never given him a reason to. He might recall Jason, but he wouldn’t know who I was.

I shuffled through the tour with the rest of the group. Being librarians, we were a quiet and respectful group. It was a job that had called to me after the chaos that was my childhood. It was a job where I fit in, where I could contribute to the world in my own low-key, nerdy way. I wasn’t in charge of a multibillion-dollar company, but that was fine with me.

I considered Aiden’s tall, straight back as he led us through the wide hall to a room with dioramas and landscapes scattered with oil wells.

Was he happy being the CFO? He had to be making sick money. He had to go home with a sense of accomplishment. He was the reason this company stayed afloat, him and his dad. Surprisingly, I’d been able to pay attention while his dad had described their organization. I’d expected a long list of vice presidents, but beyond him and Aiden, there hadn’t been any.

The headquarters was a work of art. From the outside, the glass encased nearly the entire structure, gleaming a deep brown, like oil. Inside, it was open, spacious. An environment that stimulated creativity and boosted morale as long as the leaders didn’t quash it. By the time we wound back around to the conference room, the space had been filled with various water choices—spring, sparkling, and flavored—and finger snacks like wafer cookies, meat and cheese, and oh god, were those miniature muffins?

I had a serious weakness for muffins that I was not going to expose in front of Aiden One Ounce of Body Fat King.

I crept through the line, trying not to ogle the treats like I was Cookie Monster’s second cousin Muffin Maniac. Don’t get the muffins. Don’t get the muffins. They weren’t jumbo muffins. One little bite wouldn’t be worth it.

Okay. One muffin, but don’t stuff the whole thing in your mouth.

I grabbed a bottle of water and two mini muffins, one blueberry and one chocolate.

Few of my coworkers had taken any. I couldn’t let the Kings think they’d made a poor choice. Muffins were never a bad choice.

When I turned, I didn’t see where Aiden or his dad had gone. Some of my coworkers were single, and since they’d chattered for days about this tour and how hot the King men were, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d glommed on to Aiden as if he were the lead singer of a boy band.

The jealousy roared back, along with searing anxiety. I had a few single coworkers. What if Aiden hit on them and I had to go to work and hear about his suave pickup lines? Seriously, all Aiden had to do was crook a finger. Even worse, what if I had to listen to someone gush about a date with him? Or…more? I had no idea if Aiden was a player or not. There were rumblings about Gentry, but I hadn’t cared. I’d hung on every detail of Aiden in the news, but it was a good thing news clips weren’t sustenance or I would’ve starved.

I knew that he hadn’t married, but that was about it.

Yeah. I so wasn’t going to stand around and awkwardly wipe muffin crumbs off my boobs while Aiden got hit on.

I was edging out when a wall of heat hit me from behind. “Are you Jason’s sister?”

I froze, one muffin getting crushed in my hand. It was him. Was he talking to me? I had a brother named Jason. Oh, god. Was Aiden talking to me? I turned around and had to look up. He was that close. All heat and just enough cologne to encourage me to lean closer and sniff. Almonds and anise. What guy wore that combo?

Aiden did. And it was intoxicating.

My heart clambered into my throat. He was hotter up close. The cowlick I remembered from wrestling, the one that had pushed against his protective headgear after a match, was flattened into the comb lines of his hair. For a fleeting moment, I wished I could see it again.

His eyes were a dark brown with sooty lashes, but I caught a few glints of yellow. Subdued, like the cowlick. The way he focused on me and only me… My knees quivered.

“Um, Jason? Yeah.” I could kick myself.

I steadied my breath. Calm down, Kate. He’s asking to be polite. King Oil wants the support of the community. It’s his job to talk to everyone.

Wait! He knew I was Jason’s sister. He…knew who I was?

A smile spread across those lips. Lips that had an arrogant tilt when nothing but confidence oozed from him. His smile was a heady combo of pleased and predatory and my heart pounded like I’d been cornered and wanted desperately to be ravaged.

Those lips moved. I’d never fixated on a mouth like this. Maybe during those uncomfortable dates when men went in for a kiss and I thought I’d rather make out with a jellyfish, the kind that stung, rather than kiss a dud again. “What a small world. Kate, right?”

My eyes went wide. He knew my name? “Yes?”

I had to quit sounding like I was asking him a question.

His smile grew wider, his gaze more intense. “It was cool the way you were always there for Jason.” He leaned closer and my breath stalled. I was inches from Aiden King. Inches. His heat curled around me as gentle as a caress. “I admit to being a little worried that you were watching for my weaknesses and would tell him all my secrets.”

Jason’s wrestling was a comfortable topic, one I missed talking about. “You mean like how you preferred double-leg takedowns over single leg? And that if you didn’t think you could pin your opponent, you’d rack up as many points as possible instead?”

He shoved a hand in his pocket, making his suit crinkle just right. If a photographer were around, they’d circle him and snap pictures that magazines would buy for thousands of dollars. “I knew it.”

Breathing around him was exquisite torture. I hadn’t expected talking to him to be so easy. “Busted.”

“How is Jason?”

“Working for you, actually.” I lifted a shoulder. “In a roundabout way. He’s at the refinery.”

“Does he like it there?”

I detected nothing but genuine concern, deeper than small talk. How was this guy so perfect? “Yes. And he has two young boys—who are already wrestling.”

“And you? How’ve you been?”

Well, this moment was the highlight of my decade, so how did I answer? “Oh, you know. Busy with work. You?”

“Same.” I was prepping myself for the inevitable I’d better get back or some other polite brush-off when he tipped his head down. The world consisted of only me and him. “Would you like to go out sometime?”

My lips parted. Had I heard him right? I looked around. My coworkers were talking among themselves in small groups and a few were gathered around Gentry. Aiden hadn’t been asking someone else out. He’d asked me. “Yes?”

The corner of his mouth lifted. Was that a beat of triumph in the depths of his brown eyes? “Good. Can I have your number?”

I rattled it off before I could wake up from the best dream of my life. He didn’t write it down.

Would he remember it? Or was he a player? Was knowing he could have me tripping at his feet enough?

I didn’t care. I would float on this high for weeks.

“I’ll call you, Kate.” The promise in his voice set my knees quivering. This guy was potent.

“Sure.” I sounded pathetically breathless.

Two people were edging around us to leave, and he turned to ask them about their tour. The loss of his heat was like a rug being yanked out from under me. My head was spinning but I managed to stay upright.

I tossed my crushed muffin in the nearest garbage and peeled the wrapper off the second one. I waited until I was in the hallway to stuff it in my mouth. Sweetness bathed my taste buds. Muffins, my old friends. The effect was diminutive compared to the excitement zinging through my bones.

Aiden King was going to call me.

Can I have your number?

He could ask for anything and I’d give it to him. I was that lost to his magnetism. Always had been. If a guy like that wanted to be with me, I would never give him up.

* * *

The last twomonths of my life couldn’t be real. This stuff didn’t happen to me.

This weekend, Aiden had flown me to catch a show on Broadway. Freaking Broadway.

Mom had always wanted to go to a show on Broadway. But Dad had chosen to use his extra money on his mistresses. My stepdad, Randall, would love to take her, but going to the movie theater had been challenge enough while raising three kids and working long hours.

Aiden had made it happen for me. Two months into dating, and we were walking through Times Square, living my mom’s dream. Mine too, aside from a visit to the New York Public Library. Nine divisions and eight of them were special collections. Forget about the materials inside—which I couldn’t—the architecture alone would be stunning. Aiden might get bored while I gushed over the library’s shelves and what was on them, but well, I was a librarian.

But we weren’t at the library. At the moment, I was his date and in Times Square. I would summon as much sophistication as possible. The sun had set, but people swarmed the sidewalk, and horns and sirens blared around us. A concrete jungle. He had my hand in his as we wandered with the crowd filled with gawkers like me and locals who walked as if life was too busy to slow down and enjoy the TV screens anchored above—monitors taller than my apartment building.

I was in New York. With a guy who could pass for a Disney prince.

I’d had a nice college boyfriend. He’d treated me well. We’d been barely more than good friends and then we’d gone our separate ways. I’d tried dating after I was done with my master’s degree and had settled into my job at the library.

Of the handful of men I’d met, two might’ve had potential. We’d gotten serious enough for me to learn that one lived in his parents’ basement for a reason—he’d dug himself into such a financial hole he couldn’t even afford to live in his car because it’d gotten repo’d. I’d broken things off when I’d envisioned a future that resembled my mom and dad’s before the divorce. The other had started acting like my oldest brother, Matt, after our parents had divorced. Brash tempered with little self-control. A toxic mix. Mattie might’ve matured into a decent guy, but the guy I’d been dating hadn’t seemed interested in changing.

I refused to be the girl who waited for a man to change.

Now there was Aiden. Controlled. Responsible. Dedicated. Hardworking. We’d been dating for two months. He’d taken me to restaurants that I’d never been to despite being born and raised in Billings. When I’d mentioned how interested I was to try real Wagyu beef, he’d flown us in the company jet to Seattle. Last week, he’d flown us to Chicago. We ate at restaurants that I’d been underdressed for in a simple black dress. The women around me had worn diamonds that cost as much as all my college degrees combined, and we’d had wine that was older than my mom.

When I gushed to Mom, she’d warned me in her smoker’s rumble, You’d better find out if he’s a real diamond or a hunk of coal, Katie-bear, before it’s too late.

If too late meant hopping into bed with him, that ship had sailed. It had sailed long and hard.

Our first date, he’d kissed me on the doorstep of my apartment building. A long, passionate kiss. Literally swept me off my feet. He’d even growled when he pulled away, like he might heft me over his shoulder and up the three flights of stairs to my bedroom.

The second date had ended with just a kiss, but it’d been a plastered against the door and holy shit is that his erection? kiss.

He’d made his move on the third date, like I’d hoped he would. He’d been respectful and part of me hadn’t expected to hear from him afterward. Had I been too boring? Unadventurous? Would my curves scare him off? The best sex of my life might’ve been his worst.

He’d sent flowers to work the next day. Two dozen red roses.

I was a lilies girl, but two dozen red roses were beautiful and fragrant and made me feel like a princess as much as this trip had.

Aiden was not a hunk of coal. He was crude oil. Rich and complex. Crude oil could be split into several different products and Aiden’s personality was similar. When it came to work, he was serious. Nothing came before work, definitely nothing in his personal life. When he was with me, he was with me. He was relaxed and had a sly sense of humor that was subtle and unpredictable. His default was solemn, but I didn’t think it was innate. I think he’d made himself that way, and considering the way he’d lost his mom and how he’d dedicated his life to his family’s legacy, I couldn’t blame him.

My heels pinched my feet, but we weren’t going to walk far. I had to work tomorrow at noon and Aiden was cognizant of my schedule. Another admirable trait. The biggest financial responsibility I had at work was spending our budget on reference items for the library. Aiden controlled billions of dollars and hundreds of workers’ livelihoods. Despite the difference between our work roles, he never acted superior.

In the center of Times Square, he led me past a woman in orange boy shorts with pasties on her boobs. She strummed a guitar next to a guy in nothing but an orange Speedo as he held another guitar.

Aiden tugged me close. His long coat was secured around him, but his heat still seeped through me. “Are you enjoying tonight?”

“Are you kidding? It’s Broadway.” My smile was wide, but sheer grit kept me from wincing. These shoes. It was the third time I’d worn them. After our third date at a restaurant where I was the only woman not in stilettos, he’d asked me out again and I’d gone shopping. Dating Aiden meant a new wardrobe that included fewer cardigans and more A-line skirts and heels. Anything to suggest I had an ounce of flair in my body. “It’s amazing.”

He stopped and faced me, searching my gaze like he sensed the blisters I wasn’t mentioning. Were expensive heels more comfortable or were my feet just heel intolerant?

People swarmed around us. Fluorescent lights of all different colors scattered over his hair, managing not to get absorbed by his dark glossy strands.

He took both my hands in his. “Kate, I’ve really enjoyed being with you.”

I waited for someone to jump out and tell me it was a lie. That was the feeling I’d had for the last two months. Aiden’s name popping up on my phone. Aiden picking me up from work or my apartment. Aiden taking me to his magnificent house, a place that would be my dream home if it were possible on a librarian’s salary.

He squeezed my hands. Was I supposed to respond? I echoed him. “I’ve enjoyed being with you.” Understatement of the century.

Relief passed through his gaze as if he’d been worried the plain librarian who’d grown up in the trailer park would turn down the hot, rich oil exec who’d grown up ranching, making him impossibly more attractive. “It might be too soon, but I love you, Kate.”

My small gasp was lost in the noise of the city. “Aiden.” He loved me? Me?

Did I love him?

I’d been infatuated with him for half my life. Most of it had been a schoolgirl crush, even as I’d stepped foot into the King Oil headquarters the night of the tour. What would I call it now?

I thought of him all day, every day. I lived for the moment I’d see him again. He was considerate, had good values, and loved his family. I hadn’t met his brothers, and I’d only seen his dad during the tour, but Aiden talked about them. His love and dedication to them were obvious in the warmth of his voice and the way his usually intense stare would relax. He showed me glimpses of humor, love, and respect.

Who was I kidding? I’d been in love with him since he’d asked me out. Since he’d picked me out of the crowd of my coworkers and remembered me a decade after the last time he’d seen me.

“I love you too. You’re everything I ever wanted. I grew up hearing how awful it was for Mom, with my dad and how he’d lied—” Aiden’s expression flickered and a small furrow bisected his brows. Oh, crap. I was rambling and talking about my parents’ failed marriage as soon as I admitted that I loved him. Way to pull the plug on the romance, Katie. “I’m sorry. The only thing that has to do with us is that I know what I want out of a relationship, and it’s you.”

Tension drained out of his body and a smile spread across his face. I was grateful he had ahold of my hands. A full smile on his handsome, chiseled face was devastating. It was brighter than the three-story screen above us.

“I know what I want out of a relationship too, Kate. And it’s you.”

The movies didn’t show princesses swooning. To be fair, Snow White had been lying down. I had a second to collect myself before he reached into the breast pocket inside his suit jacket.

“Believe me when I say I’ve never been in love before, Kate. And I don’t want to wait to start my life with you.” He withdrew a ring with an obnoxiously large diamond. Light sparkled from its many facets as he kneeled in front of me. “Will you marry me, Kate McDonough?”

My hand flew to my mouth. Tears peppered the backs of my eyes.

This was a dream. A fantasy.

I’d been that girl. I’d written Kate King across my notebooks when I was supposed to be studying for a civics test. I’d hugged my pillow at night and wondered what it would be like to feel his strong arms around me. And when I’d lost my virginity in college, I’d inappropriately thought of Aiden. If my first time had been with him, would it have been as lackluster, or purely spectacular?

I was dimly aware that some people had stopped to wait for my answer. A handsome prince in his impeccable black suit down on one knee in front of me in my clearance dress and unforgiving heels.

It was like a scene out of a romance novel. I tried to summon the name of a specific book, but I couldn’t. Any with a handsome man kneeling at the damsel’s feet would do. Those damsel’s heels probably weren’t sporting three new blisters. And I wasn’t Snow White, nor was I in a forest. An NYC pigeon would crap on me before it cleaned my house.

My answer was the same no matter what. “Oh, Aiden. Yes.” My hand shook as I held it out.

He slid the ring on. The fit was perfect. How had he done that?

The weight of the cool stone on my finger was unusual. God, this thing was huge. I didn’t know much about diamonds other than I couldn’t afford them, but this ring was what an oil exec’s wife would wear.

I was going to be that wife. I was going to wear this gigantic ring and live in a big house, but none of that mattered. The man of my dreams had asked me to marry him. And he was everything I’d hoped he’d be and more.

If the last two months were anything to go by, then I couldn’t wait for our life together.