I find a quiet spot in the grass, away from the crowd. My head is throbbing I’m so angry. I think Luke thought I was his meal ticket when he got back home. What other reason would he have for stringing me along for two long years? I pull out my phone and call my best friend.

“Kenna, sweetie. What’s wrong?” I hear the sleep in her voice.

“I’m sorry. I forgot it was the middle of the night where you are. I’ll call you later,” a sob escapes.

“No, it’s okay. Talk to me.”

“I’m such an idiot. Luke has been cheating on me the entire time.” My tears freely fall.

“Oh, Kenna, I’m so sorry. Are you one hundred percent sure?”

“I walked in on him when some slut was sucking on his cock.”

“Yep, that would be one hundred percent. What did you do?”

“I punched him in the face. If I’d have been thinking clearly, I should have punched him in the balls.”

She laughs. “I know it’s not funny, but I’m so proud of you. What are you going to do now?”

“I’m going to max out my credit card and go enjoy Germany.”

“That’s the spirit. Don’t let him ruin a vacation of a lifetime. What about the guy you met?”

“I need to get away from him, too.”

“Why?”

“Because he brings out a side of me that I didn’t know existed, and I’m so overwhelmed with what just happened, I can’t handle the thought of liking someone. Besides, he lives here, I live in the U.S. After I leave, I will never see him again.”

“Then you should have fun with him while you’re there. No strings attached is a pretty powerful aphrodisiac.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. I’m going to find a hotel to put my things in, and then I’m going to find a castle where a princess found her prince charming, and they lived happily ever after.”

“You still believe in fairy tales, don’t you? You know the prince is a toad.” She laughs.

“I want the fairy tale. I don’t care if he is a toad as long as he loves me and I love him.” I sniff.

“Please promise me your toad won’t have warts.”

I laugh and cry with her on the phone. “Thanks for making me laugh. I’ll let you know where I’m staying.” I hang up and call for a cab to pick me up outside the base. I manage to escape without Decklan or Luke seeing me.

I’m able to get a room at a bed and breakfast on the outskirts of a cute little German town. The lady that runs the place gave me a map of the castles within walking distance. My room is adorable. Flowers are in every nook and cranny. Soft, flowered sheets cover the bed. I take a second to text Grace the name of the place and change into clothes that I can hike comfortably in and tennis shoes.

I didn’t check the weather before I headed out, but it looks a little overcast, and the wind is picking up. Two miles later, I feel like I’m in another world. A castle sits in the back drop of green rolling hills. It’s so stunning that I get goose bumps. I can’t wait to explore every inch of it. I want to know about the people that lived there. It must have been so romantic.

I’m captivated the moment I walk through the massive old wooden doors. I fall in with the tour that is going on, and for the next two hours, I learn of the man who built the castle for the woman he loved. My eyes watered several times listening to their love story only to end in tragedy.

The place was beautiful, but the sadness I feel leaving here has a pit in my stomach. Are there really no happy endings? Maybe Grace has the right idea about life. “Take it by the horns and ride it,” is her motto. Except I think her “it” is a different beast than mine.

Mist is covering the hills as I start walking back to the bed and breakfast. I didn’t think about it getting dark before I made my way home. I pull my phone from my purse to call for a cab, but there is no signal. Rain starts to pelt down on me. I run under a tree with a canopy of leaves sitting all by itself. I sit at the trunk of the tree, trying to wait out the storm. In the darkness, I see headlights coming down the road. I watch as they pass, then the brake lights come. Whoever it is must have seen me because now they are backing up. I’m a little frightened.

It’s a black pickup truck with dark tinted windows. The driver’s side door opens, and a man comes running toward me.

“I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” Decklan’s voice rages over the storm.

“Go away, leave me alone.”

He bends down and throws me over his shoulder. “What part of go away did you not understand?” I scream, putting my fist in his back.

My hitting him doesn’t faze him. He opens the passenger side door while his hand is firmly planted on my ass. He flings me inside and slams the door shut.

I’m dripping wet and furious. As I reach for the door to get out, his arm grabs me from the other side of the truck. “You’re not going anywhere.” He drags me back. I slap at his hand, but his grip grows stronger. I can’t fight him. I finally give up and sit in the corner of the seat.

He’s as wet as I am as he whips the truck into drive. “Some lunatic could have found you and killed you, sitting out there in the dark.” Water is dripping from his chin as he looks over at me.

“Some lunatic did find me,” I mutter.

He inhales deeply and is calmer when he talks to me. “What were you doing out there?”

“Trying to find my toad.”

“What? What the hell does that mean?”

“Never mind. I had to get away from the base. You were right about Luke. I walked in on him and a woman having sex.”

“I’m sorry.” His hand cautiously reaches over and takes mine.

“I couldn’t change my flight home, so I decided to try to enjoy my time here by chasing castles. I lost track of the time and got caught in the rain.”

“I’ll take you back to the base, and we can figure things out.”

“I’m not going back there. I have a room at a bed and breakfast not far from here.”

“Okay, then I’ll take you there.”

“No. I’m not ready to go back. I want something to drink.” I point out the front window at a bar. “I want to go there.”

He slams on the brakes and spins the truck around. “We seem to be the only ones here,” he says, putting it in park right outside the front door.

We are both still soaking wet as we walk into the cozy bar. It’s decorated all in green with candles lit everywhere. We take a seat at a corner booth on opposite sides. A barmaid dressed in all green wastes no time waiting on us.

“We’ll take two towels, if you have them, and a bottle of vodka. Two glasses.” He holds up his fingers. We sit staring at each other until she comes back. I dry off as best as I can and mop up the puddle around me. He pours our drinks over ice.

I’m not much of a drinker, but this was my idea, so I tip up my glass and gulp it down. “Jesus that burns!”

He chuckles. “You’re supposed to sip it.”

“Why were you out looking for me?” I put my glass on the table, and he pours me another one.

“When Luke came back to the tournament, he had two black eyes. I looked all over for you. Somehow, I knew you had something to do with it. I couldn’t leave until the games were over.” He takes a sip of his drink.

“My dad cheated on my mom when I was ten years old. It tore our family apart.” I fold my hands on the table.

“Is that why you shied away from having sex?”

I squint my eyes at him. “You’re blunt, aren’t you?”

“I’m trying to figure you out. You’re smart and beautiful. You picked a guy a million miles away from you so you wouldn’t have to deal with risking your heart to someone who might cheat on you. The problem is, that’s exactly who you chose.”

“I really don’t need you to psychoanalyze me,” I snap.

“I’m just saying, you picked the wrong guy.” He leans back in his seat.

“Oh, and now you’re thinking you’re the right guy? I’ve been told you like your woman with more experience.” I laugh.

“Who told you that? Luke?”

I nod and take a drink.

“My men don’t know me. They see who they want to see in me. I have to put off this persona that I’m a badass in order to lead them. They don’t know me at all.”

“So tell me,” I challenge him.

“When I first joined the army, I was a seventeen-year-old snot-nosed innocent kid. My dad had just died. It nearly killed my mother. He was the only man she had ever loved, and she was faced with being alone raising seven kids.” He pours another glass. “I worked hard to gain the respect of the other soldiers and move up in rank. I started working out and gaining muscle, and the women started to notice. There was this one woman in my platoon that hit on me all the time. She was my first.” He tips his drink up until all the liquid is gone and then swirls the ice in his glass.

“She fell in love with me hard and fast and said she could never live without me.”

I instantly get what he’s telling me. “It reminded you of your mother and father.”

He taps his finger to his nose. “The kiss of death. I made sure to not hang around long enough for them to fall in love with me.”

I sit back and let out a deep sigh. “I guess our reasoning’s for our choices aren’t so different after all.”

“No, maybe not.” He chuckles. “You are the exception,” he adds, quietly.

I sit up straight. “What do you mean?”

“There was something about you, and I knew it the minute I laid eyes on you at the airport.”

“You’re just trying to get in my pants, again.” I lean back and cross my arms over my chest.

“I swapped seats with an old guy. It cost me a bundle of cash, too.”

“You’re kidding me, right?” I laugh.

“Dead serious. After the whole glow in the dark condom debacle, I had to get to know you.”

“We are back around to you just wanted in my pants. What guy wouldn’t when they see a woman carrying around six condoms?”

“It was eight.” His eyes sparkle. “But you’re wrong. It was the way you moved.” He inhales deeply. “The way you smelled. I was hard as hell when I sat down beside you.”

“Aha—you admit it was about sex.” I point at him.

“No, I don’t get hard because I see a beautiful woman. I was hard because I wanted you.” He leans over the booth and places his hand over my heart. “The woman inside here.”

I gulp down another drink. I’m starting to feel a little light-headed. “Now, I know you’re lying to me. You didn’t know anything about me.”

He gets up and slides in beside me. “You were attracted to me the moment you saw me. I saw it written all over your body. You can deny it all you want, but you had the same attraction to me. Otherwise, why would a woman who has not given herself to any other man, give it up to me?”

He has a point, but I’m feeling a little too light-headed to reason my way out of it. He has two sets of lips when I lean over to kiss him. He chuckles and grabs my hand. He pulls me out of the booth and throws cash on the table.