Then, last summer, she had caught him behind the sauna with his pants down, screwing the family housemaid.

Not a good look, man!

It had shaken her world to the core, given how unequivocally—and stupidly—she had trusted him. It was the reason she had moved to America and enrolled at Harvard in the first place: to escape his lying, cheating ways and move on with her life.

Yet here he was, less than six months later, trying to lure her right back into it all—with a cheesy letter no less—even when he knew she wanted nothing more than to forget his face.

The thought alone was enough to throw her into a dark, sugar-craving mood.

Katy grabbed the letter and tore it to shreds over the trash can, then strode toward Cassie and started helping her with the frosting.

“What I don’t get is how he even knows you’re here,” Cassie remarked, licking at a smudge of cream cheese on her wrist. “Maybe he hacked your phone’s location somehow.”

Katy shook her head, more irritation bubbling to the surface. “I don’t think so,” she said. “I mean, I blocked his number, so he couldn’t have done it through a phone or text conversation.”

Not even the paparazzi—or any of the girls who shared Cassie and Katy’s house—knew Katy’s true identity as the famed Princess of Lorria. Although the country was the smallest in Europe, it was still influential, and Katy had to be cautious.

Katy groaned, realization suddenly dawning. “I’ll bet you anything my parents had a hand in it.”

Of course they would have. It should have been the first thing she thought of. They hadn’t been pleased to find out he’d cheated on her, of course, but that hadn’t stopped them from asking her to give him a second chance. They had always believed that Alexei, being from a powerful Russian family, would be an ideal match in marriage.

Ugh. The nerve of them, too.

“Hey, don’t squish that cupcake so hard,” Cassie chided. “You’re making it crumble in two!”

Katy loosened her grip begrudgingly and proceeded to frost, while Cassie made her way over to the sink.

After washing her hands, she pulled up a stool and sat down, glancing at Katy tentatively.

“What?” Katy mumbled, catching her cousin’s eye.

Cassie’s gaze wandered across the table toward the envelope the letter had come in—along with a small box, which Katy had almost forgotten about with all the frantic baking.

“You planning to open that thing or what?” Cassie asked.

Katy stared at the box for a moment, narrowing her eyes as she considered the question. Then she blew out a sigh and dropped the cupcake, wiping her hands on her apron. “I guess,” she grumbled, slinking around the table toward it.

As she picked it up and opened it, her frown turned into a grimace. She immediately regretted opening it at all.

Inside lay a bracelet encrusted with sapphires and diamonds, alongside another damned piece of paper with Alexei’s handwriting on it. This one was much shorter, though no less vexatious.

“Diamonds for my diamond.”

Hurt and anger washed over her. She’d told him repeatedly when they were dating that expensive jewelry meant nothing to her, and yet here he went again, trying to win her back with that very thing. He didn’t know her at all. Or, more like, didn’t care to know her.

“We’ll give it to charity,” Katy spat, dropping the bracelet back into its packaging and pushing the box away with such force it skidded across the table.

Cassie lunged forward and grabbed it before it could reach the edge, and Katy paused from her tirade as she noticed the expression on her cousin’s face.

Cassie gazed down at the box longingly. “You should’ve just let Alexei keep buying you expensive gifts,” she murmured. “After all’s said and done, you were lucky to have a guy who cared about you enough to try and woo you.”

Katy immediately sensed the note of bitterness in her cousin’s voice, and her heart ached for Cassie. She realized then how insensitive she was probably being, dragging out this whole ex-boyfriend subject over an entire evening. After all, Cassie had been just as unlucky in the love department. Much more so, in fact. Katy knew her cousin’s scars ran far deeper than her own.

She moved over to the smaller girl and took her by the shoulders, squeezing gently and giving her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, Cass. You’ll capture the attention of a good man someday. There are guys out there much better than the likes of Alexei…or that douchebag, Jason.”

Cassie’s hazel-brown eyes warmed at that, and though a tinge of bitterness still lingered there, the overriding emotion was hope, which was the effect Katy had been hoping to have.

A creak sounded, and the two girls whirled toward the kitchen door to see a curvy brunette stride in. It was Michelle, one of the few upperclassmen who shared their building.

“And what are we chatting about in here?” she asked. Her eyes widened as they passed over the rows of cupcakes. “Good grief, don’t let me near those. I feel like I’ve gained two pounds just looking!” She moved over to the sink for a glass of water.

Cassie sighed. “We’re talking about men.”

Michelle turned back around to lean against the counter with her glass, arching a manicured eyebrow. “Oh. Men. Well…you’ll both want to start flaunting your natural attributes more if you want to be attracting one of those.” At this, she flashed Katy a wry grin.

The blood rose to Katy’s cheeks. “I would rather not attract a guy for the wrong reasons,” she replied, feeling suddenly flustered. She turned away from the older girl and reclaimed her seat around the table.

Michelle’s grin widened. “Oh, I’m all for that, hon. But the way you dress, it’s like you’re actively trying to repel them.” She took another sip from her water, then giggled, placing a hand in front of her mouth to stop it from spurting out.

“You in particular, Katy. I mean, girl, you know I say this with love, but that turtleneck thing the other night, at Jessica’s party…seriously? You’ll never earn your “Mrs.” degree going around dressed like that. If that was the first time I’d met you, I’d say you were a huge prude!”

Ouch. That hurt Katy more than she would like to admit. Her gaze shot to her lap and she bit down hard on her lower lip to keep it still.

Michelle, an overly talkative girl in general (per Katy’s tastes) and the oldest in the house, had a penchant for generously distributing unwanted advice. But she wasn’t the malicious type and didn’t really deserve a snappy response.

Still, it hurt.

Yes, that particular dress Katy had worn to Jessica’s had been a rather poor choice, in hindsight. But old habits die hard. Katy had spent her entire childhood and adolescence wrapped in traditional Lorellian clothing—as was expected of a member of the royal family—and for females, that boiled down to ankle-length dresses with high necklines.

She and Cassie had gone on numerous shopping sprees to try to shake the conditioning since arriving in America, and while Cassie seemed to be embracing normal-people’s fashion fairly well, Katy still found herself subconsciously gravitating toward the most modest pieces. It was a work in progress.

But as for being a “prude”…she swallowed hard at that.

Truth be told, a little voice at the back of her head had accused her of being just that, on more than one occasion, over the past few years. It went back to another long-held tradition of Lorellian royalty: no lovemaking until marriage.

Which was the whole reason Alexei had cheated on her.

“Anyway,” Michelle went on, breezing past the girls as she headed back toward the door, “I wanted to let you know there’s a party on tonight at the Wolf Club. All the girls in this house are invited.” She turned once she reached the frame and winked at them. “I hear there are some real hotties in that house, so probably not one to miss. And if you want some wardrobe advice, just come to my room and I’ll fix you up.”

With that, she padded out of the kitchen, leaving the girls staring after her.

“Oh my God. We’ve got to go, Katy!” Cassie exclaimed after a split second. “Who knows who we’ll meet at the Wolfs’? I’ve heard so much gossip about their parties. It’ll be the perfect distraction!”

Katy’s stomach churned. Meeting a houseful of horny drunk guys really wasn’t what she had planned for the evening. She’d been thinking more pajamas, Netflix, and an hour-long bubble bath.

She looked between Cassie and the door…then shoved a whole cupcake into her mouth.

Chapter 3: David