With her hands clasped behind her back, Reid decided to examine the books along the eastern wall. When she reached the halfway point, she noticed shelves containing even more books filled the entire middle section of the room. Curious, she continued along the east wall to see what the back section of the library held. When she reached it, she found several couches, presumably for reading. Along the north wall were three evenly spaced arched doorways. Reid peered into one. It was a small room. Each wall had floor-to-ceiling shelves piled with papers. Most likely, they were unbound manuscripts. Going to the next arched doorway, she saw a long table with chairs. Probably a meeting room. She strolled over to the last doorway, then peeked inside. A large desk littered with papers, bookshelves on all the walls, and a sofa with blankets strewn over it, as if someone had slept there, filled it. However, none of that fascinated Reid as much as what was curled up on the floor in front of the desk.

The hound raised its head, inspecting her.

Smiling, Reid dropped to her knees. The dog wagged its tail. “Why, hello there,” she cooed. “What’s your name?”

“His name’s Finn,” someone said from behind her.

Reid jumped, startled. “Sorry,” she murmured, glancing over her shoulder. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”

Prince Colbert stepped into the office, holding two books. “You’re not intruding.” He went over to the desk and sat, placing the books on top of a stack of papers.

Reid stood. “I’ll let you get back to work.”

“I think it’s time for you and me to have a chat. Close the door and take a seat.”

She’d never spoken to Colbert before. When she’d fought Dexter that one time, Colbert had snuck up behind her, striking her down and tying her wrists together. But other than that, she’d had no contact with him.

Finn nudged Reid’s legs, begging for more attention. Her smile returned as she reached down to scratch his head. She used the distraction to consider her options. Colbert didn’t scare her like Dexter did. However, that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous. There was only one way to find out what sort of man he was. After extricating herself from the dog, Reid closed the door and sat on the chair across from the prince.

Colbert’s shoulder-length hair looked longer than she remembered, and darker with more curls. Like the last time, he wore black pants and a black shirt, the top two buttons open to reveal the intricate tattoo along his collarbone. While Colbert was half the size of his brother, he was by no means slight.

“You’re going to marry my brother.” He leaned back in his chair, steepling his hands together as he observed her with keen eyes.