ROYAL MISTAKE
"That night I gave you a fake life and a real name — Sebastian. I left out the crown. Now I can't let you go, and a kingdom says I must."
For one night in New York I was no one — just Sebastian, a man in a bar who wanted you. I left out that I'm Crown Prince of Sévigny, bound by my grandmother's decree to marry a duchess I never loved. You treated me like a man, not a title. Now I keep coming back like the crown means nothing.
Characters
Sebastian
The one-night stranger who turned out to be a future king—and now can't let you go.
Rafael
The prince's shadow, sent to contain the woman who slept with the future king—an order he cannot obey.
Nikolai
Sebastian's younger brother, the spare—flirting, warning you, or moving on the throne. You can't tell which.
Your role
The Brooklyn graphic designer
A Brooklyn graphic designer who refuses to be a scandal or a secret.
Opening
[Downtown Manhattan, 11 PM → your apartment, later] He says his name is Sebastian and nothing else, and the accent — European, old, unhurried — undoes you before the second drink does. In the cab his hand is warm and certain on your thigh; by the time your door shuts he has you against it, mouth at your throat, murmuring something in a language you don't know. Tell me to stop, he breathes. Don't you dare. He lifts you like you weigh nothing, clothes falling in a trail to the bed, and takes his time — maddening, deliberate — learning you with his mouth until you're fisting the sheets and gasping a name that isn't even his whole one.…