It was worrying.
It was more than worrying.
She was on her way to marry another man and all she could think about was the one standing before her.





A dynastic marriage of convenience, is almost upended when the heroine meets a sexy, handsome bodyguard and succumbs to insta-love, a few weeks before her unwanted wedding.


Princess Zabrina of Albastase has been betrothed to Roman, the King of neighbouring Petrogoria, for a few years. She's never met him in person and has only seen him in photos, magazines, newspapers and TV.


He's the richest and most eligible royal bachelor available, but Zabrina's got a huge problem: he sports a thick beard and beards gross her out.


Could she really endure the bearded KingÂ’s unwanted caresses for the rest of her life?


But she's rallies on with her royal duty, because her father's financially troubled kingdom desperately needs the alliance.


This is the heroine, Zabrina:



Small of stature and very slim, she looked much younger than he’d imagined, although he knew for a fact that she was twenty-three—a decade less than himself.


Much the late Lady Diana Spencer, the heroine has lived a sheltered life and hasn't had sexual relationships with men. All she knows about sex, is what she's seen in movies and read in detailed sex books, that her mother has given to her.


At the start of the novel, she's resigned herself to an icky, loveless marriage with the surly bearded king, when she falls hard for his hunky security chief, Constantin.


Constantin has been sent to escort her from Albastase to Petrogoria. She's never before met a man who evokes such feelings within her and although she makes some feeble attempts to fight the attraction, Constantin's sexual magnetism is overpowering.


Constantin is a little unconventional, though, because he doesn't bow and scrape to her; in a weird way, she finds this exciting. Their mutual lust and scorching chemistry eventually lands these two in bed and the heroine wants him so much, she begins to think of ways to break her betrothal contract.


But there's something important that she doesn't know: the handsome bodyguard Constantin and the burly bearded King Roman, are the same man !





This is the H, Roman ( aka Constantin ):



...he was better looking than any Hollywood heart-throb and all she wanted to do was to drink him in with her hungry gaze.


The H had been wearing a thick beard, since he was 19 years old and it's said that even his own servants and courtiers, failed to recognize him when he shaved it off.


The H had been worried about marrying a stranger who was 10 ten years younger and he needed to know that he could trust her. His private investigators had told him a few worrisome tales about his fiancee's secretive behaviour and he wanted to do some of his own undercover research:


—for what better way to observe his future bride than through the invisible cloak of the humble servant?


He hadn't planned on sleeping with her, while pretending to be another man, but their sexual connection was so strong and the opportunity was too good to decline. Besides, it was the perfect trap and her legs just happened to fall open at just the right time...










OK, I shouldn't be so facetious. I have no idea why this happens a lot everytime I'm reviewing a Sharon Kendrick novel. It wasn't entirely about sex for the heroine and she didn't just give it up and cheat on the H with the H, without having a great deal of feelings for him.





Lol.


Sharon Kendrick created the perfect, sexy build up to this consummation scene. She allowed the MC's to bond emotionally. *Constantin* was a knight in shining armor, waiting to save the scared princess from the scary king.


This was the best part of the novel, because the reader's on edge, knowing that this girl is running into a gigantic, hidden trap. This sexy cat and mouse game, that's controlled entirely by the cunning, predatorial H, is HPlandia drama at it's titillating best.


As *Constantin*, he lowered his regal mask and became an ordinary man who said the appropriate things and asked the right questions that made it easier for her to lower her guard and let him into her heart:


He had told her she could confide in him and for some reason she had believed him—because the light shining from his grey eyes had looked genuine and honest. So she had. She’d told him more than she’d ever told anyone. But all those confidences now seemed a double-edged sword. It had been good to get things off her chest...



It's fair to say that she fell in love with him, during that short journey:


All during dinner sheÂ’d been fascinated by him. She had been deeply attracted to him on a physical level, yes, but there had been a huge element of trust, too.


And just when she thought she'd found her perfect mate and was ready to jilt the boorish, bearded king, he dropped the pretence and became the cold, unfeeling, sneering, and accusatory HPlandia alpha asshole that Sharon Kendrick is so fabulous at creating.



Firstly, he accused her of breaking the contract by not being a virgin !


And she's shocked and mad, because she's never even had a boyfriend in her life...





Maybe it's all that horseback riding she's been doing all her life. Or her excessive enthusiasm and lack of shyness. Who knows ?
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