I’ve never been on a private plane before, but it’s immediately obvious why people take them.

It’s way freaking better than flying on a normal plane.

Bran grins at me as I lean back in my seat. “There’s so much room!” I say.

He laughs and shrugs. “Being rich and royal has its perks.”

“Yeah, like this freaking plane.” I look around and laugh. “There’s even a couch.”

“And a television and lots of movies. And I think they added WiFi recently.” He leans toward me. “It’s a long flight. What do you want to do?”

I can hear the suggestion in his tone. “Not what you’re thinking,” I say.

“Sorry, you’re right. The mile-high club is strictly off limits for us, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it absolutely is.”

He grins and puts his headphones on. “Guess I’ll get some work done.” He flips open his laptop and turns away from me.

I sigh and glance out the window. The city is receding behind us as we jet away from it, flying over toward Bellestan. We’re making a stop in Germany to refuel before finishing the flight, though fortunately we don’t even have to get off the plane for that. It’s a long trip, but we’re flying in luxury.

The plane comes with a full crew, which is pretty incredible. There’s a woman that’ll bring me whatever I want, as long as it’s on the plane, just sitting at the back of the cabin. The seat I’m in fully reclines into a bed, and I definitely plan on making use of that feature pretty soon.

For now though, I can’t stop staring at the ring on my finger. I always dreamed about getting engaged, although I never thought I’d have a million-dollar diamond ring. I almost don’t want to wear it, since I’m so afraid of losing it. But Bran insisted, and I know he’s right. If I’m going to pretend to be a Princess and his fiancée, people will expect a beautiful and over-the-top ring.

It just doesn’t feel real. All of this is happening so fast. I don’t know why I accepted this, and his question back in his office keeps ringing in my ears.

Did I accept for the job or for Prince Billionaire? I keep telling myself that it’s strictly business, that it’s all for this job. I want to get ahead in my life and better myself, and I know this is a good way of doing that. It’s probably a good idea to do a favor for Prince Billionaire, especially considering he can make all my dreams come true with ease.

Still, I keep questioning myself. I couldn’t stop thinking about what it would feel like to let him touch me, kiss me, and I guess I’ll find that out soon. We’re going to be pretending to be engaged, so we’ll have to kiss and hold hands and act like any other newly engaged couple. Even if it’s all an act, it’ll still be happening, it’ll still be real. I just can’t stop thinking about that, and about the other stuff.

The stuff that comes after you go home, after the kissing and the holding hands. I keep picturing his strong hands slowly undressing me, his fingers on my skin, his lips against mine. I keep seeing his thick, hard cock between my legs as he fucks me slow and deep, his eyes locked on mine, the pleasure rocking through me, making me moan, making me scream…

I can’t keep thinking about that, though. I take a deep breath and slip a book from my backpack. Bran is busy doing whatever he’s doing on his laptop, and so I’m going to try and get through this flight with the minimum of awkward staring.

I don’t know why I’m doing this, and I guess it doesn’t matter. I set my conditions, so I won’t have to worry about him trying to sleep with me. I know I won’t be able to resist him for long, so these conditions should help that a lot. Sooner or later, I’d give myself to Prince Billionaire, but hopefully now I won’t have to make that choice.

Hopefully he won’t give me exactly what I really want.

I read for a while, and eventually I fall asleep. When I finally wake up, it’s morning, and Bran is drinking some coffee. He greets me and the attendant brings me over some coffee and offers me some breakfast.

The first half of the flight is a breeze. Bran and I talk some more over breakfast and we even watch some cheesy romantic comedy together. He doesn’t put his headphones back in, and we spend the day together flying through the air like nothing weird is happening.

Finally, we land in Germany, the plane refuels, and we’re back in the sky. As soon as we’re leveled off and cruising, Bran turns to me.

“Are you ready?” he asks me.

“I don’t know,” I admit. “When do we land?”

“Three hours,” he says. “Not long at all.”

I bite my lip. “Will there be press waiting for us?”

“Yes,” he says. “We won’t stop to chat or anything, though. We’ll head right for the castle.”

I laugh a little. “Right. The castle, where you live.”

“Exactly.” He grins at me. “You’re going to do fine.”

“Aren’t there, like, things I need to know?”

“Like what?” he asks.

“I don’t know. Royal protocol stuff.”

“Yes,” he says. “But we’ll teach you once we’re there.”

“I don’t want to offend anyone,” I say. “Especially not your parents.”

He laughs and shakes his head. “You won’t offend them, trust me. They think all that stuff is crap, and we only do it for the cameras. No, just be polite and yourself, you’ll do fine.”

“Okay.” I take a deep breath and let it out. “What else should I know?”

He thinks about that for a second. “Well, okay. There’s a man named Blaz Perko, he’s a minister in the government. He’s the leader of the opposition party, the one that wants to overthrow my parents.”

“So he’s the bad guy?” I ask.

He laughs and nods. “Exactly. And Blaz really is a bad guy. He wants to replace the monarchy with an oligarchy built up of business leaders. He’d suck Bellestan dry of all its resources just to make the rich that much richer.”

“Sounds pretty awful,” I say.

“Believe me. For all the faults of a monarchy, Blaz Perko’s vision is much, much worse.”

“Okay then. So he’s the enemy.”

“Right. Your job is to smile, look beautiful, and tell everyone that we’re going to have a baby as soon as we’re married.”

I must turn totally white, because he laughs at my expression.

“Don’t worry,” he says. “We’re not actually going to get married, you know.”

“Still,” I say. “I need to actually… say that?”

“Yes,” he says. “Just think about what you’d have to do to get pregnant, and you’ll do fine.”

I blush a little bit. “I don’t think so,” I say.

“You’re right. Picturing me fucking your little pussy deep and rough and coming inside of you probably would be a bad distraction.”

I bite my lip and look away. “You’re not supposed to do that,” I say.

“I’m so very sorry.” He grins at me and doesn’t sound sorry at all.

I sigh and look back at him. “This is going to work, right? Nobody is going to dig too deep?”

“It’ll work,” he says, nodding confidently. “I’ve already created a paper trail for us. We’ve been dating for a year, went on vacation to Spain together, and got engaged just yesterday, so that’ll be easy to remember.”

“Got it. One year, vacation to Spain.” I sigh and look out the window. “This is crazy.”

“I know,” he says. “It’s politics. It’s always crazy.” He laughs and leans back in his chair as I look over at him.

“How can you be so confident?” I ask.

“I have faith in you, Mila. I chose you for a reason.”

“You don’t know me all that well,” I point out.

“True. But you’ve been a good secretary. How hard can this be?”

I sigh and shake my head. That’s a great question, but the fact that he’s asking it at all scares the shit out of me. I realize that he probably doesn’t know exactly what he’s doing, and I’m going to really need to step it up here.

Still, his confidence is attractive and contagious, and I feel a little bit better. So when three hours pass in the blink of an eye and the plane slowly descends toward Bellestan, I almost feel like I’m ready for what’s about to happen.