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Charlotte Carlisle is the only woman I've ever loved and never touched—because lusting after your brother's future queen is frowned upon. It never mattered that their betrothal was a political move made by our parents, that they didn't love each other—she was completely off limits to everything but my constant fantasies. And I've spent the last decade pushing her away, desperate to save my sanity. Now that my brother's abdicated the throne for his true love and left me holding the crown, the one woman I've always wanted is the same person enlisted to help me choose my future Queen.

King Grim Vasteri is the strongest and most feared warrior in the Tornian Empire. He is the King of Luda, blood brother to the Emperor, and his line will die with him. He will have no offspring for no female would join with him for once he was scarred he was considered "unfit". The Tornian Empire has been dying ever since the great infection caused the birth of females to become a rarity. Since then they have been searching the known universes for compatible females.

Darkly handsome Ciaran MacLeod revels in his life as a Highland warrior. He spends his days training with his comrades at Duntulm Castle on the far cliffs of the Isle of Skye, and takes his pick of smitten lasses. However, Ciaran harbors a secret, passed down from his dead mother, that has caused him to become deeply suspicious of love. He’s grateful he doesn’t have to worry about taking a wife, for the castle is efficiently run by Violette, a plain young Frenchwoman who covers her head with a gable hood and reveals nothing of her own past.