Alix was addicted. There was no other word. She’d been to see Duncan every night since that first one together, and she couldn’t seem to get enough. She’d wanted fun, and this was beyond fun. This was getting her fill for the next few years, and then some. She had been surprised at just how tender, how attentive he had been that first night—going slow, looking for her cues. The attentiveness had continued, and she kept coming back for more.

Alix hadn’t expected him to be so vulnerable, so sweet, underneath the cool, careless exterior. He may not have known how to react in a moment of crisis, but he was smart, and funny, and caring. She caught herself whenever she started having those thoughts, however, knowing that no matter how sweet he was, it didn’t change the fact that she was leaving soon.

The text messages he sent her, on the other hand, were not quite so sweet. He always managed to send them right at the worst moments, setting her heart beating in her chest and her legs buckling in the middle of a luncheon or while speaking with one of the elderly countesses. She’d usually respond with a list of things that she’d do to him later that night, and she always followed through, no matter how tired her long days made her.

The Prynessian royal court was hosting many events happening that summer, and they both had full schedules. Alix found herself enduring endless hours of small talk, applauding politely, and smiling for cameras. She would have found them slightly more tolerable if Duncan’s own responsibilities had allowed him to attend more than one or two with her. Until he had his own charity to attend to, he went wherever his parents needed him most, much like Alix.

When they found each other every night, they would fall into each other’s arms as if they had been separated weeks, not hours. They would talk late into the night, once their bodies had exhausted themselves in pleasure.

As the days passed, Alix was getting anxious. She had to tell him about the program. While neither mentioned anything farther in the future than the next day, she wanted to let him know that this had an expiration date. It only seemed fair. The logical, future physician’s part of her brain knew they couldn’t spend an entire summer like this – seeing each other every day, talking late into the night – without one of them getting hurt. When she saw the way she caught him looking at her sometimes with such bright, happy eyes, she knew it would be him if she didn’t make her exit plan clear. That way, Alix reassured herself, he could have the next countess waiting in the wings, ready to emerge the second that she got on the plane.

When she knocked on his door that night, he opened it immediately, as if he had been waiting behind the door for her. He swept her inside, closed the door and promptly pressed her against it, his lips and hands somehow everywhere at once. She nearly forgot what she’d wanted to tell him.

“Duncan,” she managed to get out between kisses. “I need to tell you something.”

His eyes were suddenly full of panic as they glanced down to her stomach.

“No! It’s not that!” she cried, surprised that his mind had jumped so quickly to a pregnancy. She wondered briefly how many other girls had said those same words to him in an attempt to secure his love. She brushed the thought of them aside.

He exhaled in relief, stepping back.

“You couldn’t have chosen different words?” he said jokingly, hand to his chest as if to steady his racing heart.

Alix inhaled sharply. She knew he didn’t mean it as a slight. With the near constant socializing this summer, she’d gotten more comfortable speaking Prynessian, but had always stuck to French with Duncan. Certain phrases held slightly different meanings, apparently.

“I told you that this was just something fun, for the summer, right?” she said. She wasn’t sure that he’d really paid any attention to what she’d been saying those first few nights.

He nodded, and pulled her down onto the couch in his living room, facing her. He drew little circles on her leg with his fingers, distracting and exciting her simultaneously.

“Well, it’s not because I’ll have school and need to concentrate, like I’d told you before,” she began. “It’s because I’ve been offered a spot in the Refugee Medical Alliance internship program.”

He blinked, surprised. A beat passed and Alix felt her heart tighten. It shouldn’t matter what he thinks, she told herself, as she waited for his response. This was just a formality, like giving two weeks’ notice before leaving a job. A really fun, sexy job...

“Wow, congratulations!” he said, finally, breaking her out of her jumbled thoughts. “They do amazing work.”

He went on to talk about a few of their events that he had attended the previous winter.

She smiled to herself. She shouldn’t have been surprised that he knew all about it. One of their main European recruiting offices was in Prynesse.

She could see a flicker of something in his eyes—disappointment? Relief? It was hard to tell.

“When do you leave?” he asked, in an offhand way, as if he was inquiring about the weather. It must have been relief then.

“I’m still waiting on my final assignment,” she explained. “Once I get it, I’ll need to fly out within a few days to start training.”

“So, any day now?”

“Well, by the end of summer, for sure,” she said, surprised at the reassuring tone in her voice. “But probably not for another few weeks. We still have time for some fun.”

She gave him a suggestive smile, that he returned, but his eyes betrayed a touch of sadness. Her breath caught in her throat. She had been worried about this. He’d revealed so much to her in their conversations, he was definitely becoming attached. But she had confidence that he’d be able to get over it.

“Don’t worry,” she teased, trying to keep the mood light, and brighten his downturned face. “You’ll have your pick of girls to help you forget about me once I’m gone.”

“Why don’t you help remind me of what I’ll be missing then, hmmm?” he said, brushing aside her hair to kiss her on the sensitive spot under her ear. He slowly made his way down her neck, sending shivers up and down her spine.

Without another word, she reached down and unbuttoned his jeans. She didn’t want to make it too easy for another countess to make him forget about her, after all.