American Prince (new Camelot Trilogy, #2)

American Prince, the second book in the New Camelot series, is narrated by Embry Moore, vice president of the United States, and alternates between two timelines. "Before" chapters trace the 14-year history between Embry and President Maxen "Ash" Colchester, while "After" chapters follow the fallout of events from the first book, American Queen, in which Embry, Ash, and First Lady Greer Galloway-Colchester pledged themselves to one another in a secret three-way relationship on the night of the presidential wedding.

The "Before" timeline begins when Embry is a 21-year-old army lieutenant stationed in Ukraine, the privileged son of Lieutenant Governor Vivienne Moore. Lieutenant Maxen Colchester arrives on base and immediately confronts Embry for neglecting his men. Embry is defiant, but Colchester's commanding presence unsettles him. Beneath his bravado, Embry harbors deep self-loathing, often lying awake wishing he had the courage to end his own life. As their platoons drill together, his fixation on Colchester grows. His stepsister Morgan Leffey visits, and Embry deliberately pushes her and Colchester together, hoping their affair will cure his infatuation. In Prague, Morgan and Colchester spend a passionate week together. One evening, left alone with Colchester, Embry teaches him to waltz. Colchester calls him "little prince," after the protagonist of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince, a name that feels to Embry like his true name.

Back on base, the Carpathian conflict escalates. The separatist leader Melwas Kocur attacks the village of Glein, putting children on a burning boat and herding adults into a church to be executed. Colchester asks Embry to split forces between rescuing the children and saving the church, where Morgan is trapped. Embry chooses the children. Morgan survives but is badly injured, and she warns Embry that Colchester would demand total surrender, something she believes Embry is too broken to give.

After recovering from injuries, Embry returns to base where Colchester, now a captain, punishes him for disobedience. The punishment escalates until Embry kisses Colchester's boot, experiencing an unexpected inner peace. Soon after, their company is ambushed at a town called Caledonia. Embry is shot after recklessly charging enemy fire, and Colchester carries him to safety. Stranded overnight in the forest, they consummate their attraction in a violent, transformative sexual encounter. On a subsequent train ride, Merlin, a U.S. government liaison who becomes Ash's longtime political advisor, warns Embry that the relationship must remain secret to protect Colchester's future. Embry lies to Ash, telling him he cannot offer love or commitment beyond sex. Ash is devastated but accepts.

Their clandestine relationship continues for years. When Ash proposes marriage, Embry refuses twice, unwilling to let Ash sacrifice his career. Two years later, Ash proposes to Jenny, a lawyer, and Embry attends the engagement dinner in misery. The next day in Chicago, Embry collides with a young woman named Greer Galloway and spends the night with her. When Ash confides that the woman he has secretly loved for years is also named Greer Galloway, Embry realizes the devastating coincidence but says nothing, surrendering his own chance with Greer.

The "After" timeline opens on the morning following the presidential wedding. Embry wakes beside Ash to find Greer missing. Merlin announces she has been kidnapped. Ash identifies the captor as Melwas Kocur, now president of the self-styled Carpathian nation, who displayed aggressive desire for Greer at a diplomatic dinner in Geneva. Ash refuses to pursue Melwas himself, recognizing that a president's capture would trigger the war Melwas wants. Embry volunteers in his place.

Greer's chapters reveal her ordeal. She wakes bound in a car trunk, frees herself with a pry bar, and briefly escapes before being recaptured. She is drugged and transported to a fortified mountain lodge in the Carpathian mountains, where she is given provocative clothes and told to shower and dress. Melwas dines with her and tells her he will enjoy her resistance. When he drags her toward her room, a knock interrupts: His men report a break-in at his presidential palace, a decoy orchestrated by Embry's CIA team. Melwas leaves after having Greer bound and gagged on the bed.

Embry infiltrates the lodge with CIA agents Percival Wu, an old army friend, and Agent Gareth. He reaches Greer's room, where she thrashes in terror before recognizing him. She begs him to help her reclaim her body by simulating what Melwas would have done, rewriting the experience as something she controls. Embry establishes a safe signal, and they share a rough, consensual encounter. Afterward, Embry is wracked with guilt. They escape and reach the extraction point.

At Camp David, Ash tends to Greer and confronts Embry about fresh bite marks on her body. Embry confesses, kneeling at Ash's feet. Ash forgives him, understanding Embry gave Greer what she needed, and thanks him by performing oral sex on Embry, a rare act of service in which Ash remains fully in control. Merlin insists the triad remain secret and suggests a baby would strengthen Ash's reelection image. Greer reveals she has not taken birth control since the wedding. Ash later leads all three through a cathartic sexual encounter designed to restore Greer's sense of agency.

A new crisis erupts when Melwas releases a night-vision recording of Embry and Greer's encounter, date-stamped to suggest Greer cheated on Ash during their honeymoon. Meanwhile, Greer's cousin Abilene Corbenic reveals she is blackmailing Embry and Morgan with a devastating secret: Morgan and Ash are half-siblings, both children of the late President Penley Luther, and Morgan conceived a son, Lyr, during her week with Ash in Prague. Lyr, now 14, has been raised by Embry's aunt Nimue as her own child. Motivated by lifelong jealousy of Greer, Abilene threatens to expose the truth unless Embry cooperates in her campaign to hurt Greer. Embry complies, telling Ash and Greer he is dating Abilene. Abilene then drugs Embry with GHB and rapes him while he is semiconscious, later revealing she is not on birth control.

Weeks later, Embry tells Greer that Abilene is pregnant, possibly with his child. Despite their anguish, Embry and Greer share one more passionate encounter before she orders him out. Immediately after, Greer learns her grandfather, former Vice President Leo Galloway, has been murdered. At Leo's funeral, a woman lunges at Greer with a knife, hissing the Carpathian motto in Ukrainian.

Convinced Melwas orchestrated Leo's death, Embry confronts Ash, who still refuses military action. The rift between them deepens. In a final visit to the White House, Embry announces he is resigning as vice president to run for president as a Republican, with Morgan as his likely running mate, and that he will marry Abilene to legitimize her pregnancy. In an explosive confession, he reveals that Merlin is the reason he refused both of Ash's proposals and that Ash has a 14-year-old son named Lyr, conceived with his own half-sister. Ash buckles under these revelations. Embry whispers goodbye and leaves, resolving that to protect Greer and stop Melwas, he must become more than a prince: He must become a king. The story continues in American King.