‘I am staying in the palace tonight, in the same wing as you,’ Nathaniel said quietly, his breath blowing against the sensitive lobe of Catalina’s ear.

      ‘How…?’ It was a fight to breathe, let alone talk. ‘How do you know which wing I’m in?’

      ‘Because I made it my business to know.’ He inhaled deeply and she knew it was her scent he breathed in so greedily.

      He kept his hold on her hand as he stepped back and gazed down at her.

      He had a magnetism she had felt from their first introduction all those years ago.

      He was the only man she had ever wondered about…

      ‘At one o’clock I will come to your door.’ He pressed a kiss to her knuckles. ‘I know your companion has the adjoining room, so I will not knock. I will be there, but I will leave our fate in your hands. If you don’t open it I will go back to my room and you can pretend I was never there. But before you make that decision of whether or not to open the door ask yourself this—when was the last time you did something solely for yourself that wasn’t bound up in duty? You’re a princess, Catalina, but tonight I can teach you how to be a woman too.’