Once Upon a King - Holly Jacobs

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of Eliason.

      But Parker had traded away her legacy and chased after her dreams…dreams that had led her to Perry Square in Erie, Pennsylvania, and to Jace O’Donnell, the man she was going to marry in just a month.

      Four short weeks.

      Their friend Shey Carlson and her fiancé, Tanner Ericson, were going to be married as well.

      A double ceremony.

      Cara’s romantic heart gave a small twist.

      Truly, Parker and Shey’s romances were more than sigh-worthy.

      Shey hadn’t been looking for love. Especially not with a prince. Prince Eduardo Matthew Tanner Ericson of Amar had come to Erie to claim his bride—Parker. But instead he’d claimed Shey’s heart.

      Shey was rock hard on the outside, but that was just a veneer. On the inside she was caring, concerned and so deserved having a prince.

      Cara sighed again. It was all so wonderful.

      Her two best friends had found their other halves, men whom they loved and were willing to commit their lives to.

      Once upon a time, Cara had thought she’d find a similar path.

      For one brief moment three months ago, she thought she had.

      Mike King.

      He’d appeared in her life, bringing with him a whirlwind of emotion and hope…hope that she’d found what she’d been looking for. But he’d disappeared, leaving behind a longing for what-might-have-been.

      She’d had just one night, one special night when she’d believed all her fantasies could come true. On that night she’d believed in love at first sight and happily-ever-after.

      Then it was morning and Mike was gone. In the light of day, Cara had awoken to the reality with a thud.

      She and Mike had been just a hazy dream, a misty longing she had thought could grow into something solid. But, like a mist, the morning sun had burned her dream of him away. All she had left was a memory of the dark-haired man whose deep blue eyes had seemed to touch her soul, and the knowledge she’d deceived herself into thinking he’d felt a connection, too.

      But he’d left her something tangible. Something solid and oh-so-real.

      The plane touched down and Cara allowed herself one last wistful sigh.

      She was going to see to it that Parker and Shey and their grooms had the most perfect fairy-tale wedding ever.

      They’d have someone to love forever.

      And in the end, so would Cara.

      Not Mike King. He had come and gone. No, she was going to have a real someone.

      She was going to have Mike’s baby.

      One

      “Michael, stop your pacing. You look like a nervous bride on her wedding night rather than a commanding prince of the land.”

      Try as he might, Michael couldn’t help but smile. “A bride, Marstel? You couldn’t at least have said bridegroom?”

      “A figure of speech,” Marstel Marriott said with a smile.

      Michael gave his childhood friend a lot more latitude than most employees had. As Michael’s personal assistant and right-hand man, Marstel was privy to many things, but as a lifelong friend, he knew even more.

      All joking aside, Marstel suddenly looked serious. “Just take a deep breath and settle down.”

      “Settle down?” Michael raked his fingers through his dark hair in utter frustration.

      “Settle down?” he repeated. “I shouldn’t be here playing host to my sister’s friend. I shouldn’t be playing surrogate wedding planner.” His sister, Parker, was getting married soon and was sending her friend ahead to help finalize the plans. “I should be back in Erie, looking for her.”

      Her.

      He didn’t even know her name.

      Cara mia, he’d called her.

      He remembered the way she’d smiled when he’d murmured the endearment in her ear the first time.

      Cara mia.

      That’s how he thought of her.

      A chance meeting, a brief tryst…she’d altered the very fabric of his life.

      “I should be out there looking for her, instead of chauffeuring around this Cara.”

      Just saying the woman’s name grated on him, multiplying his level of frustration.

      A Cara, but not his cara mia.

      “Your soon-to-be brother-in-law has been looking for your mystery woman, but without a name…” Marstel let the rest of the sentence trail off.

      He didn’t need to finish it.

      Michael understood that the odds were stacked against him. That night, she’d simply been cara mia. He’d planned to find out her real name in the light of day, but hadn’t wanted to ruin the spell of that night. But in the morning she was gone. And without a name his chances of finding her were slim.

      Erie, Pennsylvania, wasn’t a huge city, but finding one unnamed woman in a city of one hundred thousand people was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

      More than one hundred thousand people.

      Michael had looked up the number online.

      He was a firm believer in facing the odds, in looking obstacles square in the face…103,717 according to the last census figures.

      And that didn’t even take into account the outlying communities. He’d researched that as well. Mill-creek, North East, Wesleyville, Harborcreek, Girard, Fairview…she could be in any one of those townships that surrounded Erie.

      Somewhere among all those people was his cara mia.

      As soon as the double wedding was over, he was going back to Erie and find her himself, even if he knew it would be like looking for that proverbial needle in the haystack.

      Michael knew in his gut that, despite the odds, their one night together couldn’t be the end of it. That it wasn’t all they would ever have.

      He’d known the minute he’d seen her that she was it for him. At that first combustible meeting, he’d been too consumed by feelings to ask the questions that had needed asking. And once he’d had rational thinking return, she was already gone.

      He’d let her slip from his fingers. And because he was on a diplomatic mission, he’d had only a few hours to search for her. A search that had proved futile.

      As soon as he’d taken care of this last duty, he was going back, and he wouldn’t leave Erie, Pennsylvania, until he’d found her.

      Michael wasn’t some hopeless romantic who fell in love at the drop of a hat. But the moment he bumped into her on the street he’d known in his gut that she was it. She was the one.

      His father had found his mother in such a lightning-strike manner—found her in Erie as well, as a matter of fact. And his sister Parker had done the same when she’d fallen for the man their father had hired to find out why she wouldn’t come home. Jace O’Donnell, a private detective.

      Love at first sight.

      He’d doubted it could happen. He hadn’t been able to believe in that type of love even though he was the product of such a union. Michael was the type of man who needed more than someone else’s say-so for it to be true.

      So he hadn’t believed…until it had happened to him.

      And every day he delayed finding her was one day too many.

      One more month and he’d

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