Princess Angelica de Castella y Aragon hated weddings.
While she was obviously glad her brother, Valantín, the King of Aragon, had finally found their long-lost sister, Siobhan Faulkner, the bride, and while she was happy for her sister, it didn’t warm her for the celebration.
Her gaze followed her brother out to the dance floor where he was handing Siobhan back to her husband, Angus Augustus Braxton-Lenox, the King of Lektenstaten. The couple smiled at each other as they began to dance again, clearly very much in love.
She wished Siobhan all the luck in the world. But Angelica couldn’t help her twinge of cynicism at seeing them pressed so close together out there on the dance floor. No, not cynicism. Realism. If true love was real and couples stayed together forever, that would be great.
But that wasn’t how things actually worked, she knew, and the statistics didn’t lie. However happily Siobhan and Angus looked at each other today, according to the numbers, it was a fifty-fifty chance whether they would still be married just three years from now.
Believing that you’ve found true love is as crazy as being certain the lottery ticket you’ve just bought is definitely going to be the winner. You can be as certain as you want; it doesn’t change anything.
Angelica shook her head slightly, only too aware that she shouldn’t think like that but having been jilted at the altar didn’t make her sympathetic to those kind of celebrations.
Forget Mr. Right. Let’s find Mr. Right Now and have a little fun.
Angelica plucked a white rose out of the arrangement she was hiding behind and sniffed at it. Relationships were like flower arrangements. Right now, they were beautiful. Perfect. Pristine with a shockingly beautiful scent.
But in a day or two, they would be wilting, messily thrown in a waste bin. People who think otherwise are simply deluding themselves, however sweetly.
“Would you like to dance?”
Angelica turned and looked up to see a fit, sturdy man with a lionesque head, completed with a shock of blond hair and startling blue eyes.
“I’m Ludwig,” he said, with a crooked smile that did funny things to her insides.
Why bother with Mr. Right when Mr. Right Now is gorgeous, available, and asking me to dance?
A little short-term distraction was just what she needed.
“It’s a shame to have great live music like this only for the prettiest woman in the room not to be dancing.” Ludwig didn’t wait for Angelica to reply, but instead pulled her to the dance floor and into his strong arms.
Yes, this is exactly the kind of guy to have a fun fling with. Especially since he seemed to be as willing to act on impulse as she was.
“You still haven’t told me your name,” Ludwig pointed out, twirling her around. “Or should I just go on calling you the prettiest girl in the room?”
It has possibilities. “I’m fairly sure you’re supposed to say that the bride is the best looking woman in the room.” Her voice wasn’t usually that breathless and she cleared her throat.
“Right?”
Then again, she didn’t usually see men this good looking in Aragon—well, apart from Abelardo Gutiérrez, the bastard of her ex-almost-husband—and dance with them, while she was at it.
“She does look good, but then, every woman looks beautiful on her wedding day.”
Uh-oh. Angelica twirled and when she was back again facing him, she asked. “You like weddings?”
“Till death do us part?” He raised his eyebrows at her. “Two people making that kind of commitment to one another is the craziest thing in the world, but if I get to meet lovely women such as you, who am I to complain?”
Phew! Mr. Gorgeous is not a romantic. She smiled and danced closer to him, brushing her hip against his hard leg. “I’m Angelica.”
Guys like that always understood how the game was played and, fortunately, didn’t go around asking for more than Angelica was willing to give.
They ended the dance in front of the newlywed couple.
“I see you met Angus’s cousin, Angelica,” Siobhan grinned.
“Ah, so she is your half-sister.” Ludwig smiled at Siobhan. “Well, a loyal one at that. When I told her she was the loveliest woman here, she insisted it was you. In hindsight, she is right.”
“Ludwig is a scoundrel, Angelica. Don’t let him steal your heart.” Angus laughed and was joined by Ludwig and Siobhan.
She felt the intensity of his blue gaze on her and a shiver worked its way up her spine but she threw her head back and joined the laughter. As if there is any danger in that.
* * *
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