It was only meant to be a short trip - up to Chicago for two days and then back to Texas. At least, that was the plan until a massive snowstorm leaves me trapped in Chicago at a local hotel with no definite timeframe of when I can go back home. If that wasn’t a crazy enough turn of events - I wake up to a beautiful princess standing in my hotel room.

She was definitely a sight to behold, but she’s not the least bit thrilled to see me - think Momma Bear finding Goldilocks lying in her bed type of annoyance.

You see, my princess turned out to be a tired and angry traveler who had been double-booked...in my hotel room. With no rooms left anywhere in the city, we are forced to bunk together to ride out the storm. Now all that’s left to determine is will we survive each other.

After a rocky start and some much-needed rest, Analise and I soon forge a friendship that turns into a no-strings-attached fling.

When the fairy tale we got lost in melts away, we have an even bigger storm to weather that we never saw coming. The one where I’m faced with the uncertainty of having to walk away from the one woman who has opened a part of my heart I had thought was as frozen over as the city we found each other in.

Fated Hearts is a stand-alone novel and the last book in the Southern Bride series.