“I saved you from tumbling to the floor,” he said mildly, flexing his fingers on her waist.
“And then called me a piglet.” At last, she turned her head toward him, her lips pursed, angry fire dancing in those mysterious eyes.
“I might have called you something worse,” Maxim pointed out.
“And you also might allow me to stand.”
“Or I could keep you here,” he countered.
He liked that idea. Far too much.
Her lips parted, and he thought for a moment he had shocked her speechless. But then she regained her wits, for her hands landed atop his and she made another ungodly wriggle that ground his cock more firmly against her bottom.
“And what would Princess Anastasia say if she were to find me thus?” the lady-in-waiting demanded, breathless.
He would give his left eye to know why.
“I’d prefer not to think of her just now,” he answered with complete honesty.
For while he had been determined to discover why his future queen had yet to return from her visit with the man she had hired to find her long-lost, exiled brother, his thoughts were decidedly elsewhere now. Admittedly, his interest in the princess had always been solely in the benefits of an alliance. The icy, reserved Princess Anastasia had never appealed to him. But there was something about Lady Tansy that made him long to have her in his bed. To have her beneath him. Astride him. On all fours.
The possibilities were as endless as they were enticing. Would she be as much of a spitfire in bed as she was outside it? He had never wanted a woman to put up a fight in bed until now. Perhaps he was more depraved than even he had realized.
Maxim would blame his inconvenient attraction to her upon the bawdy book she’d been reading, but that would be a lie. He’d been drawn to her from the moment their paths had first crossed at court in Boritania.
“Wemustthink of her,” Lady Tansy argued. “This position is vastly indecorous.”
“It could be more indecorous.” He paused, flashing her an evil grin. “As indecorous as reading books containing descriptions of nipples being fondled, for instance.”
Defiance blazed in her eyes. “Why should the books I read be any concern of yours?”
“Because you will be in my household, a part of my court. Because you are the closest ally of my future queen. Your influence over her is undeniable.”
He omitted the truth: that he found it fascinating and rousing as hell that she was sneaking about with vulgar books. He wondered what else it contained and what she did after sheread them. But then he forced himself to cease all such veins of rumination for fear it would only make his cockstand more rigid.
“Release me,” she said, tugging at his hands to no avail.
He was far stronger than she was, and he wasn’t letting her go until he had what he wanted from her. “I’ll have your promise first.”
“What promise?”
“That you will tell me what you’ve been keeping from me.”
“I’m not keeping anything from you. Now release me.”
They glared at each other, at a stalemate.
A knock sounded at the door, and Lady Tansy instantly stiffened, her back going rigid. Reluctantly, Maxim guided her to her feet. The absence of her soft, feminine curves pressed against him nettled more than it should. But nothing irked him more than the indication that she feared Gustavson’s guards.
“What is it?” he called curtly in Boritanian.
“It is me, brother,” came Nando’s familiar voice from the other side of the door, speaking in Varrosian.
Maxim’s gut instantly curdled. If Nando was here instead of wallowing in bed with some willing London lady, that meant trouble was afoot.
“I’ll be right there,” he said grimly, before turning to Lady Tansy with an ominous promise of his own. “I’ll return to see the princess another day.”
CHAPTER 5
