Caitlin Crews: A Royal Without Rules

Sometimes I spend months and months coming up with a story idea. 

I’ll think about characters or emotions, and let it all coalesce in my head as I concentrate on other things.  A snippet of a song might point me toward certain connections, little bits of dialogue might come to me here and there, and slowly, slowly, the story begins to surface until I’m ready to sit down and start writing.

Other times, an entire story appears just like that.  Fully grown and wholly shaped, as if out of thin air.

A ROYAL WITHOUT RULES, my August release, is one of the latter.

My editor thought it would be fun for me to write a book that combined the hero of my first playboy book, THE DISGRACED PLAYBOY, and everyone’s favorite royal rogue: Britain’s Prince Harry.

Except, she said, more debauched.

Well, I thought, I can do that.

I said something about threesomes and she laughed and BAM!  There was my story.  

The opening scene practically wrote itself:

***

His Royal Highness Prince Patricio, the most debauched creature in the kingdom of Kitzinia—if not the entire world—and the bane of Adriana Righetti's existence, lay sprawled across his sumptuous, princely bed in his vast apartments in the Kitzinia Royal Palace, sound asleep despite the fact it was three minutes past noon.

And he was not, Adriana saw as she strode into the room, alone.

According to legend and the European tabloids, Pato, without the pressure of his older brother's responsibilities as heir apparent, and lacking the slightest shred of conscience or propriety, had not slept alone since puberty. Adriana had expected to find him wrapped around the trollop du jour—no doubt the same redhead he'd made such a spectacle of himself with at his brother's engagement celebration the night before.

Jackass.

But as she stared at the great bed before her, the frustration that had propelled her all the way through the palace shifted. She hadn't expected to find the redhead and a brunette, both women naked and draped over what was known as Kitzinia's royal treasure: Prince Pato's lean and golden torso, all smooth muscle and sculpted male beauty, cut off by a sheet riding scandalously low on his narrow hips.

Although "scandalous" in this context was, clearly, relative.

"No need to be so shy." Somehow, Adriana didn't react to the mocking gleam in Prince Pato's gaze when she looked up to find him watching her, his eyes sleepy and a crook to his wicked mouth. "There's always room for one more."

"I'm tempted." Her crisp tone was anything but. "But I'm afraid I must decline."

"This isn't a spectator sport."

Pato shifted the brunette off his chest with a consummate skill that spoke of long practice, and propped himself up on one elbow, not noticing or not caring that the sheet slipped lower as he moved. Adriana held her breath, but the sheet just preserved what little remained of his modesty. The redhead rolled away from him as Pato shoved his thick, too-long tawny hair back from his forehead, amusement gleaming in eyes Adriana knew perfectly well were hazel, yet looked like polished gold.

And then he smiled with challenge and command. "Climb in or get out."

***

A ROYAL WITHOUT RULES is the story of what happens when the kingdom’s most disreputable playboy, a tabloid staple and general lout, sets his sights on the most notorious woman around—who, through no fault of her own, has an entire history of bad behavior to live down.

Having to deal with a prince like Pato won’t help.

But then again, he’s not quite what he seems…

I loved writing this book.  I love Prince Pato and Adriana.  I hope you will too!