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I smiled to myself, snuggling deeper into the warm body pressed behind me in the four-poster oak bed.

Adrian, my own personal furnace, would be sharing this bed with me every day, from this day forward. Never to be separated. Bound by the vows we’d made to each other in the dead of night, in a quiet patch of woods with Adrian’s father, Vincent, as our only witness. He’d also been the one to perform the marriage ceremony, vowing to keep our secret until it was the right time to tell the people of Esmerelda.

And Leo.

It had been a few hard months for the king after losing his parents, and he’d taken to staying out of sight, withdrawn in his room most days.

He was hurting, and I didn’t know how to help him.

Although I knew he would be happy for Adrian and me, it didn’t feel like the right time to tell him about us. So, for now, I’d asked Adrian to be discreet.

Leo was my oldest friend. Ever since the night of our game of hide-and-seek, it had felt we were fated to be in each other’s lives, forever. When I was a girl, I’d thought that meant a marriage to Leo, but as we grew, it always remained playful between us. Friends, connected by shared powers and royal responsibilities that only the other could understand.

When Leo had started taking lovers as an adult, I didn’t feel any jealousy in my heart. Only a slight sense of relief that he too did not wish to marry me out of duty.

Even if Leo had asked me for my hand in marriage, out of love or duty, I would have said no.

I did love him, but like a brother.

My heart belonged to someone else, and had, from the first night I’d arrived at Malesa Castle. Adrian had been only skin and bone then, lurking around the kitchen under the cover of darkness, trying to find where his father had hidden the sweets. He had been alarmed to find me in the staff’s dining room, stuffing my face with chocolates that I would come to learn only Vincent could make taste so good.

“So, you’re the princess who’s come to stay with us?” he’d asked in his child’s voice all those years ago, his tone teasing.

I’d thought he’d snatch away the chocolates from me, but instead, he had bowed his head, the thick waves of his messy brown hair, which was in dire need of a trim, bouncing forward then back as he lifted his eyes to mine. Their chocolate coloring reminded me of my favorite treat that sat thick on my tongue, making it hard to swallow.

Somewhere on a subconscious level, I knew Adrian would grow to mean something significant to me one day.

“Wait here, Princess,” he had whispered, skipping from the room.

I thought he might be alerting the king and queen that I was out of bed when I was supposed to be sleeping. But I obeyed his gentle command and waited for his return.

When he did, he reached for my hand, the one not covered in chocolate, and placed a bit of lavender in it. “I had planned to give this to you tomorrow, when we were formally introduced. The queen said lavender is your favorite . . . it’s the queen’s favorite, too.”

He looked at me to see if what the queen had told him was true, his cheeks growing rosy, the only sign he was nervous about my reaction to his gift.

I brought the flower to my nose and took a deep breath.

It smelled like home.

I smiled at him in answer. “It is my favorite, thank you—” I stopped, realizing I hadn’t yet learned his name. “You haven’t told me your name.”

He smiled back at me. “It’s Adrian. But you can call me whatever you’d like.”

It was my turn to blush.

This boy was charismatic.

Even at a young age, I knew that meant trouble.

But that night had only been the beginning of Adrian’s courting me.

What started as small gifts as children grew to stolen kisses in hidden alcoves around the castle as teenagers, and then to late-night rendezvous wherever we could find a spot to be alone as adults.

I was consumed by Adrian, and saying yes to him when he had dropped down on one knee and asked me to be his forever had been the easiest decision of my life.

I was no longer Leo’s betrothed, only an emissary for my world on One.

Which brought me back to Adrian’s bedroom, and the rise and fall of his bare chest against my back.