We skipped the fancy restaurant in favor of dinner back at Luke’s palace. Home cooked was always a million times better anyways.

After dinner, and some great wine, we moved into his private quarters. After another glass of wine and some lingering kisses, Julia left us to go take a long hot bath, leaving us alone around the table in Luke’s study.

Victor cleared his throat first, toying with his wine glass.

“Being with us is dangerous for her.”

He looked up, his face grim.

“C’mon, we’re all thinking it. This was just tip of the iceberg shit. Hell, this happened while we’re keeping it a secret. Can you imagine the shit she’d have coming at her if we ever made this arrangement public?”

Luke and I said nothing, just stewing in our thoughts for another minute.

“The video is destroyed, by they way,” Luke finally said. “I got a confirmation from my private computer forensic guy as we were finishing dinner. Dan made one copy of it, which was on his laptop, and the forensic guy assures me nothing was emailed or uploaded.”

“We’re in the clear?”

He nodded at me. “In the clear. It’s gone. They’re incinerating the phone and the laptop now just to make sure.”

“And that fuckwit?” Victor growled, his look souring. “Please tell me you’ve reinstated medieval torture here in the north?”

Luke smiled grimly. “I wish. I’ve talked to my attorney — he’s aware of the full situation, but he’s the most discreet guy I’ve ever known. We’re going to pin this up as a ‘conspiracy against the crown’ charge, which is some serious shit. We’ll dangle that in front of her ex, and when he loses his shit over the eighty years he could be looking at locked up with some of the worst criminals in the three kingdoms, I’m betting he’ll beg on his knees for mercy. He’ll keep his mouth shut about what he saw with the right threat hanging over him.”

I nodded. “Nice work, man.”

“Thanks.”

“Still think we should shove hot irons up his ass,” Vic muttered.

So, the immediate danger was gone. The video was erased from the face of the earth. Dan had apparently gotten into the Club that night alone, having followed Julia and then somehow having slipped through a security hole — a hole you could be damn sure would be fixed. His two goons weren’t exactly the brightest bulbs in the box, and it didn’t take long for our interrogators to realize they didn’t even know what was on the vid.

So that left just Dan himself who’d seen what he saw. And Luke was right — with the right threat, that pussy would be pissing his pants and tripping over his own tongue trying to tell us how quiet he’d be.

But then, this wasn’t the end, and we all knew it. There was more danger for her out there — more if we went public somehow. And that brought up another train of thought entirely — how could we all be with her? Publicly, that is?

“How does this work?” I finally said out loud. “Her, us, the public.” I scowled. “How do we live openly with the women we love without the kingdoms and the senate tearing us apart?”

Victor shrugged. “There’s the Charming brothers, over in Marland. Word has it they’re in the middle of re-writing their laws so that they can be with Princess Ilana of Avlion.”

“King Lucian’s oldest?”

“The very same.”

Luke whistled. “Shit, those two have fucking balls.”

He was right — King Lucian of Avlion was legendarily protective of his three virgin daughters. Well, or maybe no-longer-virgin daughters, if what I’d been hearing was true about the Charming brothers from Marland. Not to mention the rumors of Prince Magnus and Prince Logan with Lucian’s other daughters I’d also heard whispers about recently.

But Caspian and Cade Charming weren’t us, and Marland wasn’t the fractured three kingdoms of Revania. They weren’t under the thumb of crooked senators looking to pad their own pockets at the expenses of the countries they were supposed to be serving.

I said as much to Luke and Victor, who nodded.

“True, it’s a different scenario,” Victor mused, stroking his strong jaw. “But it’s precedent.”

“Which would be fantastic if we still had control of our own fucking countries,” Luke growled.

“Why?”

They looked up at the heat in my voice.

“Why are we still this broken country torn into three by fucked up trade deals and shitty politicians? The fuck are we doing, ruling these little fiefdoms separately instead of a strong, powerful country united under one banner.”

“With the three of us ruling?”

“Fuck yeah,” I growled at Vic. “Yeah, man. Hell, we’ve been working together in pretty much everything since we were five — back-channel politics, business dealings,” I shrugged. “Women.”

“We’d need the backing of the right people,” Luke mused.

Victor laughed. “Are we seriously discussing this?”

“Yeah,” I growled. “Yeah, man we are. I’m fucking tired of being a mascot for the country I’m supposed to be ruling, aren’t you? Aren’t you tired of watching our broken senate systems run Revania into the ground split into three?”

My friends’ faces were grim.

They felt the same as me.

“Fuck it,” Luke stood, pacing the floor and stroking his jaw like he did when he was thinking over some sort of air-tight business contact.

“Let’s do this. It’d be hard fucking work, and there’s going to be major pushback, but I think we could do this with the right backing and the right laws. This country wants us back in power instead of the crooks running the senate, I think that’s obvious to see. We’d have the backing of the public, we just need the right people near the top to see the good in this.”

I grinned, and slowly, I watched a smile break over Victor’s scowling face.

“Let’s do it,” he said quietly, standing as well. We brought our glasses together over the table, a burning, tingling energy creeping and spreading through the whole room.

“Let’s do it,” I said again as we toasted. “Let’s put our country back together.”