Once Upon a King

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 go after her. As soon as he’d honored his obligation to his family, to his sister, Parker, he was going back to Erie and he wouldn’t come home without his cara mia.

“They’re here,” Marstel announced.

The plane drew closer to the runway and touched down lightly.

Most people had to wait at luggage claim to greet the travelers. So much in the world had changed in recent years, even here in Eliason. There were new rules and restrictions designed to make air travel safer. But there were a few perks to being a prince.

Very few.

Michael and Marstel stood in the security doorway and watched as the passengers began to deplane.

Families.

Businessmen and women.

About a dozen people had come out of the doorway when he saw her.

He sucked in his breath, sure he was hallucinating.

“Michael, are you all right?” Marstel asked, concern in his voice.

“Her,” he murmured, studying the woman. “It’s her. Cara mia.”

“Your mystery woman?”

Three months ago, on his trip to Perry Square, Michael was supposed to have convinced his sister to come home. He could have told his father that there was no convincing Parker of anything when her mind was made up.

When he’d gotten to Erie, he’d found it wasn’t just her mind that was made up, but her heart was as well. He’d seen how she’d looked when she spoke of Jace O’Donnell and he’d known that even though she might come home to visit, Parker’s future was no longer in Eliason.

He’d had to leave before he’d met her friends. One friend, Shey Carlson, was marrying Tanner Ericson, the prince of neighboring Amar.

And then there was Parker’s other friend, Cara Phillips.

Cara who was coming to arrange a small, private wedding ceremony for her two friends. A celebration for just family and those closest to both couples. Later there would be a more public celebration for both couples, but in one month, they’d have a secret, double ceremony.

Cara Phillips was here to help plan it.

Parker and Shey wouldn’t arrive until the last minute, hoping to keep the paparazzi off the scent of what would eventually be a very big story.

It all made sense.

He’d met his mystery woman, his cara mia, in the park across from the shops his sister owned with her two friends. Parker’s friend Cara would have been in that area frequently.

And the way his mystery woman had laughed when he’d called her cara mia.