Arne strode through the arena with a spring in his step. It was the day before the concert, and everything was going smoothly, for a change. The workers had redoubled their efforts to convert the arena into concert mode, the acts that would open for Fuchsia had all made it in and had a chance to rehearse with full tech, and Fuchsia herself had been surprisingly accommodating when it came to letting the glitches roll off her back and rehearsing in the middle of the night.

But it was Emma that had him smiling to himself and looking like a fool as he headed from the arena’s parking lot to the backstage area. They’d spent as much time together as possible during the last couple of days. She’s made a big splash with his family, pun intended, that afternoon on the yacht. His mother seemed to love her, and why not? Emma was gracious and beautiful. She had held up her end of the conversation with just about every member of his family, including his mom. The only person who hadn’t been singing her praises by the end of the night was Aunt Marina, but Arne never expected Marina to like anyone unless they came with five noble titles and a net worth of over eight digits.

He smirked, thinking that his aunt could use a lesson in the joys of the real world, as he turned a corner into the vast backstage area. The place was packed with people in costumes that ranged from the glittery and ridiculous to the adorable. The Aegirian Children’s Choir sat waiting right inside the doorway, all dressed in the colorful national costume of the kingdom—bright skirts with a stylized pattern of flowers and waves along the hem for the girls and vests with the same pattern for the boys. Arne stopped and smiled at them.

“You all look magnificent.”

Three dozen beaming faces smiled back at him, complete with giggles and pink cheeks. He hadn’t thought his mood could get any better, but children always brightened his day. Instead of continuing on to find Sven, he hung back with the kids for a moment.

“Are you all having fun?” he asked them.

The giggles increased. A few answered, “Yes, Prince Arne,” which started a ripple effect of yeses and nods.

“What songs are you singing tomorrow?” he asked, taking a seat on a free chair in the middle of the group. He nodded to the cluster of adults who were keeping an eye on the kids.

“Aegiria Mit Hjem!” one boy called out the title of Aegiria’s national anthem.

“Gladjens Blomster!” a girl near him announced.

“Och Jungfrun Hon Gaar I Dansen,” another called from the back.

“America the Beautiful,” yet another said.

“Very good,” Arne praised them, laughing. “I’m sure you’ll all do a grand job.”

“Mr. Glumsted told us to sing out loud so that the queen can hear us,” the girl nearest him said.

“That’s right.” Arne reached out and touched her blonde head. “I’ll be up in the royal balcony listening too. Will you sing out loud for me?”

“Yes. We will,” the children answered.

“Thank you so much.” Arne’s heart swelled. He’d worked with children extensively since bringing his music education initiative into Aegiria’s schools, but something about being around them warmed his heart right down to the cockles. They were the future of his nation, the future of everything he held dear. But for the first time, he caught himself wondering not only what his own children might look like, but what his children with Emma could be like. Not even four days, and he was already daydreaming about a future and a family with the beautiful American.

“Fuchsia!” one of the kids near the end of the group called out, and in an instant, all eyes turned away from Arne to where Fuchsia leaned against the doorway, watching them.

She wore a cobalt blue, glittery dress with a flared skirt today, and another pair of the six-inch platform shoes Arne had always seen her in. Her hair was piled up in a cloud of bright blue curls, and the fake eyelashes she wore must have been at least two inches long, and possibly made out of peacock feathers.

“Fuchsia, Fuchsia!” It was as if an electric current or an IV of sugar had gone straight through the kids. They jumped up and crowded around the rock star, dragging Arne with them.

“You guys look great,” Fuchsia told them, bending to be closer to their level. “Are you all set to sing?”

“Yes. Mmm hmm. Absolutely,” the kids answered in a cascade.

“I can’t wait to hear you,” she said.

There was something cheery and…familiar about her smile. Arne couldn’t quite put his finger on it. His initial misgivings about hiring a gimmicky, American rock star for such an important concert were proving unfounded, though he couldn’t figure out why. He had an okay feeling about Fuchsia now, even though he’d hardly been around her for more than two seconds. More than okay, he liked her.

She glanced his way and caught him staring. “Well, I need to get going,” she said, quickly straightening, and perhaps looking a little nervous. “Even rock stars have to practice. I can’t wait to hear you guys later.”

“Goodbye, Fuchsia. Goodbye.” The kids all waved and grinned as Fuchsia walked off. She blew them all a kiss, which had the lot of them, girls and boys, smiling and giggling.

“She was very nice,” Arne said, heading back to the chairs with the kids as their chaperones looked on.

“She’s cool,” the girl who had been sitting near him earlier said.

“Oh yeah? Why is she cool?” he asked the group.

“She’s fun,” one of the kids answered.

“She’s a good singer,” another said.

“She wears funny costumes.”

“She’s so sparkly.”

“Her music makes me happy.”

Arne paid attention to the answers, nodding and taking them all in.

“She expresses good values,” one of the adults told him from the back of the group. “A lot of other rock stars get a little too—” She mouthed the word ‘sexy’. “But Fuchsia has always been about chasing your dreams and being yourself.”

“No matter how glittery you are,” the girl who had taken a special fancy to Arne said.

“Is that so?” he asked her.

“Mmm hmm,” she nodded.

“Interesting.” Arne nodded to the woman who’d given her explanation. He searched through the backstage area to see if he could find where Fuchsia had gone. “I guess her costumes aren’t too revealing, when you think about it. They’re more—”

He stopped midsentence. The woman Emma had introduced as Tracy when he’d picked her up for their first date strode into view with a headset on and a clipboard in hand. Arne squinted to make sure it was really her. He would have bet the Aegirian crown jewels that Tracy was one and the same with Fuchsia. It had seemed so obvious to him—from the way she’d been the center of attention at Heathrow to the cagey way Emma had introduced her—that he’d made the assumption and had stuck with it for the past few days. But if Tracy was running around looking, well, normal three minutes after he and the kids had talked to Fuchsia, then Fuchsia had to be someone else.

“Who’s that?” the girl by Arne’s side asked.

“Hmm?” He turned to her, embarrassed at being caught staring at someone by a girl who couldn’t have been older than seven. “She’s a woman who works for Fuchsia.”

“Fuchsia has a lot of people who work for her,” one of the slightly older boys said. “I’ve been watching them all day.”

“Oh yeah?” Arne’s insides gave a little lurch. “Have you seen a woman named Emma?”

The boy shrugged. “I don’t know any of their names, I’ve just been watching how they run around organizing everything.”

“She’s about this tall,” Arne held up his hand, “and has brown hair that she likes to wear in a ponytail.”

The boy tilted his head to the side. “Maybe? I think so?”

“Do you like Emma?” the girl asked.

Arne smiled before he could stop himself. “She’s very nice.”

Several of the kids giggled. A few of the adults raised their eyebrows and exchanged knowing glances. Arne couldn’t bring himself to mind their potential gossip.

“Hey, do you guys want to do me a favor?”

“Yes! Can we, can we?” the children erupted.

“Would you be willing to sing one of your songs for Miss Emma, when I can find her?”

“Yes, yes!” The kids all seemed genuinely excited.

“Thank you so much. I don’t know where she is right now,” Arne went on. “I’m sure she’s really busy working on the concert. But when I do find her, I’ll bring her over to you to sing for her.”

“Your Highness, we’re supposed to be out of here by five o’clock,” one of the chaperones told him in an apologetic tone.

“That gives us plenty of time,” he replied with a nod. “And if I can’t find her by then, we’ll do it some other time.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

Since it was already past three, Arne set off in search of Emma. He started by striding across the backstage area to speak to Tracy. At least then he could satisfy his curiosity about who he’d thought she was and kill two birds with one stone.

Tracy saw him coming and turned away from the arena assistant she’d been speaking to with a smile. “Prince Arne,” she greeted him, an awkward look pulling at her mouth. “Am I supposed to curtsy to you?”

“No,” Arne laughed. “But you could do me a favor. I’m looking for Emma, but I haven’t seen her anywhere. Do you know where she is?”

Tracy’s face went pink. “Uh, I think she’s been running errands back and forth between here and the hotel all day?” She added a nervous laugh to the end of her explanation.

Arne frowned. “Okay. Thanks. I’ll see if I can track her down.” He didn’t make a move to leave, though. He studied Tracy, the shape of her nose, her lips. Now that he thought about it, she didn’t have the same features as Fuchsia at all.

“Is there something else I can do for you?” Tracy asked slowly.

Arne shook his head and let out a self-deprecating laugh. “You’ll probably think I’m ridiculous, but this whole time, I assumed you were Fuchsia.”

“Did you?” Tracy’s question came out in an odd squeak.

“I mean, I assume Fuchsia doesn’t go around dressed like that all the time.”

“No.” Tracy let out another nervous laugh, her eyes bright. “Although I do sometimes pretend to be her so that she can take a break, you know.”

“I can guess.”

“I’m not her though.”

“Then who is?”

Tracy’s face went even redder. She pursed her lips as though she had something she really, really wanted to say but couldn’t.

“Okay, look,” she said, leaning toward him and putting a hand on his arm. “Fuchsia has a strict non-disclosure clause in her contract. If anyone finds out her real identity, she breaks her contract and owes the production company five million dollars.”

“Wow.” Arne’s brow shot up. “Is that normal for the music industry?”

Tracy snorted. “It is when you’re Fuchsia.”

Arne could only imagine what that meant. He suddenly felt sorry for the woman, whoever she was. “I guess that explains why she wanted to go back to her hotel and take a nap the other day instead of going on the tour with the rest of you.”

“Yeah, that’s it.” Tracy’s face was still beet red. “Hey, I don’t mean to be rude, but you’ve got to excuse me. I have, uh, something I need to do.”

“Sure, no problem.” Arne smiled. “But if you see Emma, tell her I’m looking for her. I have a surprise for her.”

“Okay, sure thing.”

Arne headed off in the opposite direction as Tracy. He’d spent most of his adult life on the fringes of the music industry, but had kept far, far away from rock music. He was suddenly glad for that. Which made him wonder how happy Emma really was working in that kind of a business. Maybe there was a chance he could convince her to drop that career and find something to do in Aegiria.

“Fuchsia! Fuchsia, I need to talk to you.”

Tracy raced into the wings of the stage where Emma was finishing up discussing the blocking for how she would turn the stage over for the royal wedding announcement with the stage manager. If her brows could have shot up with all the layers of make-up and glitter she wore, they would have.

“What’s the problem, hun? Where’s the fire?” she answered in character.

“I need to speak to you alone,” Tracy said, communicating far more with her look than her words.

Emma smiled at the stage manager. “Excuse me. Rock star stuff.”

The stage manager grinned and nodded at her as Tracy grabbed her arm and dragged her off to a secluded corner.

“Prince Arne is looking for you,” she whispered. “Or rather, he’s looking for Emma.”

“Hmm.” Emma’s heart kicked into high gear. Every bit of the bone-numbing exhaustion she felt after trying to split her time between Fuchsia and the concert and being herself with Arne had been worth it, but it was all beginning to pile up and make her giddy and fuzzy. And after seeing Arne with the children’s choir, the butterflies in her stomach were in overdrive. There was nothing sexier than a man who was good with kids. She’d stood there for a good long while before anyone noticed her. It was obvious Arne adored the kids, and the kids adored him.

“There’s more,” Tracy went on, eyes wide, yanking Emma out of her thoughts. “He was surprised to see me in the same place as you, or rather Fuchsia, because this whole time, he’s thought I was her. Fuchsia, I mean.”

“He thought you were Fuchsia?” That would explain why he hadn’t shown much suspicion about her.

“But now he knows I’m not,” Tracy went on. “Now he’s wondering who Fuchsia really is.”

“Which means he could be suspicious of me,” Emma sighed.

“And he’s looking for you, Emma,” Tracy finished.

Emma crossed her arms, too blurry to know what to do about the situation right away. “Did he say what he wanted?”

“He said he has a surprise for you.”

She let out a breath. “He’s going to be the one getting a surprise if he figures things out.” Although the part of her that had been stressed out to the max hoping he’d never find out the truth was just about ready to blow the whole thing so she could get some peace.

“What are you going to do?” Tracy asked, chewing her lip impatiently.

Emma glanced past Tracy to the stage. She’d already rehearsed her set for the day. Dress rehearsal was tomorrow morning, and the concert was tomorrow night. Her part in today’s rehearsal was already over. She could feel the tug-o-war between her responsibility to her contract and her desire to be as close to Arne for as long as possible deep within her, but she wasn’t on the ball enough to know what she should do.

In the end, the thing that decided her was remembering that, come Saturday morning, her jet was scheduled to leave Aegiria and head back to New York. If that was going to be the end of things, she wanted to spend as much time as possible with Arne.

“This is what we’re going to do,” she told Tracy, sounding more confident than she felt. “There’s a shower in the dressing room they gave me, right?”

“Yeah.” Tracy glanced to the right, where the row of star dressing rooms stood.

Emma started in that direction, Tracy by her side. “I’m going to de-Fuchsia here and go find Arne.”

“Are you nuts?” Tracy gaped at her. “What if Hoss finds out?”

“That’s where I need you to run interference.”

“Gee, thanks.” Tracy shook her head and let out an ironic laugh. “I love it when you give me the easy tasks.”

“I’m done rehearsing,” Emma said. “Technically, Hoss doesn’t need me for anything until tomorrow morning. Just tell him I’ve gone back to the hotel to sleep.”

“What are you really going to do?”

Emma hadn’t considered it. Tracy held the door to the star dressing room open. As soon as Emma was on the other side and the door was closed and locked, she began tearing off her wig and costume.

“Honestly, all I really want to do is go back to the hotel.”

“Um,” Tracy questioned her, picking up pieces of Fuchsia and putting them where they belonged.

“With Arne,” Emma added. “I just want to spend time with him before I have to leave, but I don’t have the energy to go do something flashy.” She stripped off her clothes and headed to the dressing room’s bathroom. “Maybe we can order room service and just hang out.”

“What about the crew? Your bodyguards?”

“Can you run interference with them too?” Emma asked, sticking her head around the bathroom door.

“Yeah, I’ll try,” Tracy sighed.

“Thanks!”

Emma ducked into the bathroom and shut the door. She ran the shower to warm it up as she plucked fake eyelashes and rhinestones from her face. Once again Beth was going to kill her for being careless with the expensive accessories, but as far as Emma was concerned, there were far more important things at stake. Her heart, for one.

In spite of her hurry, she was careful to wash away every bit of make-up and glitter that she could in the shower. The last thing she needed was another goof-up, like she’d had the other day when she hadn’t washed all the glitter from her hairline. She went through three towels before she was satisfied that every trace of Fuchsia was washed and scrubbed off.

“Do you have any normal clothes for me?” She called through the door to Tracy. She’d changed into Fuchsia at the hotel and hadn’t thought about what she’d wear before stripping.

“I’m sure I’ll find something,” Tracy called back.

Fifteen minutes later, Emma stepped out of the dressing room in a pair of black leggings that she usually wore under one of Fuchsia’s more elaborate costumes and a plain, black t-shirt with the word “starfsfólk”, which was apparently the Aegirian word for “staff”, printed in white across the back. Her hair was still half wet in its pulled-back ponytail, but at least she’d successfully eliminated any trace of glitter.

“He’s over there,” Tracy whispered, pointing to the stage manager’s booth at the other side of the backstage area.

Emma took a deep breath, sent Tracy a grateful smile, then marched off across the backstage space.

“Hey, I heard you were looking for me?” she said with a cheerful smile when she reached the booth and Arne.

Her heart just about did cartwheels when Arne glanced up at her and smiled. He immediately left the booth to greet her with a European kiss on both cheeks. The way he lingered made her wonder if he would go for broke and kiss her right there, where everyone could see them.

“No wonder I couldn’t find you earlier,” he said, glancing down at her clothes. “You blend in with everything.”

Emma’s heart gave another lurch. “If only,” she laughed.

He sent her a puzzled look, but she ignored it.

“I hear you have a surprise for me?” she said.

“I do. Come.” He took her hand and led her across the bustling backstage area to where the group of children was still waiting. At least someone had given them snacks. As soon as they spotted Arne, they jumped up from their chairs and smiled at him as though he were the rock star.

“Is this Emma?” one adorable little girl with blonde braids asked.

“Yes, this is Emma.” Arne introduced her to the children. “Emma, this is the Aegirian Children’s Choir, and they have a song for you.”

“For me?” Emma pressed a hand to her chest. She didn’t have to pretend to be surprised or charmed. She was both in an instant.

“You sound like Fuchsia,” the girl with braids said.

Alarm spiked through Emma. She laughed, working to keep her voice far lower than the tone she used when she was in character. “I’ve been told that before,” she said.

Fortunately, if Arne heard the slip, he didn’t acknowledge it. “What do you think we should sing for Miss Emma?” he asked.

The children shouted out half a dozen and more suggestions, most of them in Aegirian. Emma had been so impressed with the way everyone of all ages was bilingual and spoke perfect English, but there was something incredibly endearing about hearing them interact with Arne in their native language. They debated what to sing in Aegirian, until a decision was made. Arne moved to stand with the children, and they began.

“Och jungfrun hon går i dansen med röda gullband. Och jungfrun hon går i dansen med röda gullband. Dem binder hon om sin kärastes arm, dem binder hon om sin kärestes arm.”

Emma smiled so much during the sweet folk song that she was certain the smile would never leave her. The sweetness of the group, Arne’s deep male voice mingling with the kids’, brought tears to her eyes. She didn’t understand the words, but figured it had something to do with a girl and a boy when Arne and the girl with blonde braids started dancing together. Some of the kids ended up giggling too hard to sing, which just made the whole thing all the more beautiful.

When they finished, Emma and the adults who were watching over the kids, as well as a few members of the crew who had paused to watch, erupted into applause.

“That was wonderful,” Emma told them. “Thank you so much. Thank you.” She glanced from the children to Arne, thanking him with more than words. How could she ever even think of leaving Aegiria after a gift that precious?

“It’s actually an old Swedish folk song,” Arne explained, returning to her side. “But we’ve sort of adopted it here in Aegiria.”

“It’s lovely.” Emma beamed at him.

“Can we sing another one?” one of the boys asked.

“Of course. I’d love that,” Emma told them.

She stood with Arne as the two of them were serenaded with not one, but two more songs. Each one was more adorable than the last, and with each line, each smiling face looking back at her, Emma’s heart yearned more and more to stay with Arne and explore as much as she could of Aegiria and its people.

When the kids were finally called to the stage to rehearse there, Emma was sad to see them go. “I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard anything so wonderful,” she said with a sigh, waving at the kids as they left.

“Children are special,” Arne said. He turned to her. “So are you.”

The unexpected compliment had Emma feeling as though her heart had grown wings and might lift her off the ground. “Thank you for saying that.”

His look grew mischievous. “I was thinking we might go for a drive along the coast this evening. I know a spot where—”

She stopped him by pressing her fingers to his lips. “Would you mind if we just went back to the hotel?”

A whole different kind of light sparked in his eyes. “I wouldn’t mind at all,” he said, swaying closer to her.

Part of Emma thought she should set him straight and correct whatever assumptions he’d jumped to. A much bigger part of her didn’t want to correct anything. One night. That was all she might have with this amazing man, this prince. They wouldn’t be able to do anything after the concert, and the day after that, she’d be gone. This was it. This was their last chance.

“Let’s get out of here,” she whispered, glancing at him with a look as heated as his. If the night had to end, she knew exactly how she wanted it to.