Royal Romance

 Cheeky Royal by Nana Malone

I hate secret keeping as a plot device, but it worked for this. Sebastian is the crown prince and he finds out his father has two illegitimate children. He doesn't want to be king, he wants to be a photographer, so he sets out to find his brother. He has his two doubles out in the world causing havoc and making headlines while he is out trying to find his brother. Enter Penny. She is a Royal Guard, but not exactly good at her job. The King tasks her personally with bringing Sebastian home. She and her bestie, Ariel, go to New York where they discover Sebastian is hiding. She moves in next door with the intention of befriending him so she can do surveillance without being obvious about it. Except, they are both into each other. So, she says she has a boyfriend to keep it just friends. But, she broke up with her boyfriend when she caught him kissing her brother! Robert, the ex, calls her and from the background noise deduces she's in New York. Her brother shows up to tell her to go home and he will stay and act as his guard. She tells him the King personally sent her and he needs to leave. He is a terrible brother. She saves Sebastian from gunshots but tells him she thought she saw her ex and was just trying to hide. Her father calls and tries to get her to come home and she accuses him of treating her differently than her brother; tells him she can do this, and hangs up on him. She and Sebastian give up on being friends. They both agree that they need to talk, but decided to tell each other that they are falling for them and have an enthusiastic night together before talking. Then, there is a knock on his door and Robert is there. The King is dead. Long live the King. And he takes a knee. Sebastian looks over and Penny is on her knee as well. He spent the entire time thinking she didn't know who he was and now he realizes that she has always known. And that's where the book ends. We don't get the confrontation and the spilling of secrets! This was a bit of a cliffhanger, but not in the traditional sense that everyone is in mortal peril; it's emotional peril instead. I can't wait to read the next book!