Twisted Games

Almost immediately after rejecting Bridget’s offer, Rhys realized that he made the wrong decision. He contemplates this misstep upon his return to Eldorra weeks later. He thinks of his conversation with his boss, Christian, who is confused as to why Rhys would want to move to a country that he hates. At the airport, a man named Andreas introduces himself to Rhys, but Rhys does not trust him and keeps his guard up. He seeks out Bridget as soon as he gets to the palace, and he meets her and her old friend and royal advisor, Mikaela. Though Bridget is clearly nervous, Mikaela is warm and friendly and asks Rhys his opinion on Bridget’s upcoming birthday ball, which doubles as a matchmaking event.

Bridget is incredibly embarrassed when Rhys learns that she is looking for a husband. She follows him when he storms out of the room. They argue, and Rhys pins her against a wall. Andreas happens to catch this interaction. After they get away from Andreas, Rhys tells Bridget that they need to act like nothing ever happened between them. Although she is still angry at Rhys for walking away in the first place, Bridget feels better with him by her side.

At Bridget’s birthday ball, she is watched like a hawk by Elin, the palace’s press secretary, as she dances with boring noblemen. After a while, she goes to hide in the bathroom, and Rhys is waiting for her when she comes out. He asks her about the men she has danced with and wishes her a happy birthday. She then returns to dance with Steffan, the Duke of Holstein. Bridget likes Steffan but is not interested in him romantically. Even so, she agrees to go on a date with him. As she is leaving, Bridget runs into Lord Erhall, the detestable speaker of parliament, who implies that she should abdicate. Rhys finds her and scares Erhall away. When he escorts her back to her room, he gives her a birthday present—a picture that he drew of her in Costa Rica. Bridget cherishes the gift.

Rhys is miserable as he watches Bridget and Steffan ice-skating together on a date, but he is happy to learn that Steffan will be out of town visiting his ill mother for a few weeks. When they arrive back at the palace, they run into Andreas, who says he will be working with Lord Erhall. Rhys receives a call from Christian and learns that one of their clients has gone missing. When Rhys returns to his room, he has a gut feeling that something is wrong, but he can’t tell exactly what it is.

The king summons Bridget to ask her about her date with Steffan, as he and Eldorra’s media are convinced that he will be her future husband. Elin already has a strategy to revamp Bridget’s public image by leaking information about the supposed love story between her and Steffan. Although Bridget likes Steffan well enough, she feels no chemistry with him and is disappointed when he kisses her on their second date. When Steffan leaves, Bridget asks Rhys again why he really came back. As he backs her into their car, Rhys angrily admits that he can’t stay away from her, even though he knows that they could never be together. Though Bridget feels equally drawn to him, she too knows that a relationship is impossible.

A few weeks later, Bridget goes on a tour of Eldorra to connect with her people and boost her public image. Rhys, Mikaela, and a few other members of the palace press and staff accompany her, and Elin becomes angry when Bridget suggests sharing her email address with all the people she meets to be sure that their complaints are heard. When Rhys and Bridget are alone, he admits that he almost didn’t come back to her because of how he feels about Eldorra—something that surprises Bridget. He tells her that his father was from Eldorra and had always promised to take his mother there. Additionally, when he was in the Navy a group of Eldorran soldiers caused a mission to go terribly wrong, and many of his friends were killed as a result. Bridget feels conflicted by this. The attraction between them builds as they head back to their hotel, where they share a surreptitious kiss. They agree to meet at a nearby gazebo the following night, and Bridget wonders if the pleasure of being with Rhys will be worth the eventual pain it will cause.

Bridget and Rhys sneak toward the gazebo the following night and have sex. Though Rhys feels he is releasing some of his anger over his inability to be with her during the last two years, he also feels himself falling in love with Bridget.

When they return to the palace, Rhys and Bridget often find time to sneak away together. Bridget establishes a Citizen Letters program that delights the people of Eldorra but displeases politicians like Erhall. One day when she and Rhys are having sex in Bridget’s office, Mikaela nearly catches them. When Rhys leaves, Mikaela mentions how awful it is that his status as a commoner prevents Bridget from dating him.

On one of Bridget’s rare mornings off, she and Rhys spend time together at a hotel on the outskirts of town. Their feelings for each other grow when Bridget admits that she feels guilty about her mother’s death, for her mother died in childbirth. As they are leaving, Bridget suddenly runs into Steffan.

Bridget is surprised to see Steffan, who was supposed to be out of town visiting his mother. She is also surprised to see him with a woman named Malin, whom Steffan claims gave him a ride back to Athenberg. Malin encourages Steffan to ask Bridget to be his date to Nikolai’s wedding, and although Bridget feels obligated to agree, she is convinced that something more is going on between Steffan and Malin. The drive back to the palace is tense between Rhys and Bridget, and she knows that the only way they can be together would be to do something drastic like repealing the Royal Marriages Law that prevents royals from marrying commoners.