.

they’d had a very specific job in mind.

      She sucked in a breath. “Oh, no! They’ve been planning this for years .”

      “Who’s been planning what?”

      She clasped her hands together in front of her chest. “Jamal, you have to believe me. The king and your grandmother want us to marry. I just realized they’ve been preparing me for the role of your wife.” She thought about the exclusive all-girls boarding school she’d attended before her women’s college. Had they influenced her grandfather to arrange that? “Maybe for longer than I thought.”

      She was so damn earnest, Jamal thought with amusement. Heidi looked up at him with her big eyes and her trembling mouth, acting as if her revelation was going to change the course of history.

      “You’re saying they sent you to the closest equivalent of Princess School?”

      Her nose got scrunchy. “You’re mocking me, but this is serious. I do not want to marry you.”

      “You’ve got to stop flattering me, Heidi. It goes to my head.”