“Was there something you enjoyed as a boy?” she asked. “Anything that you loved?”
His eyes grew distant for a moment. “When I was ten years old, we had an assortment of ice creams. Our cook made a raspberry ice cream once,” he admitted. Serena tried to imagine Karl as a young boy, gorging on raspberry ice cream. Somehow, the image didn’t fit. He was always so serious, so rigid in his demeanor, she couldn’t envision him as a child.
He returned to the staircase, raising the lamp while she followed with the hazelnuts. She hadn’t found a nutcracker in the storage chamber, and it was raining harder now. There had to be something else they could use.
The interior of the abbey was cold, and several pots rested beneath the leaks in the roof. Serena moved to sit by the fire, and Karl joined her. “These aren’t shelled,” she explained. “We’ll have to find a way to crack them.” Eyeing their surroundings, she wasn’t quite certain what to do. “Do you know what we can use?”
“Wait here.” The Fürst disappeared for a few moments while Serena warmed herself by the fire. She placed a few of the hazelnuts to roast within the coals while she waited. In the dark silence, it felt almost intimate to be sitting here, alone with the prince.
When he returned at last, he held two large stones. She hid her smile. “So, we’re to bash them apart with rocks?”
“Have you a better idea?”
“It wasn’t a criticism,” she said, reaching out for one of the stones. It was larger than her hand and was heavier than she’d expected it to be. She knelt down beside the fire and laid out a handful of nuts. With a resounding whack, she struck the shells repeatedly, until they cracked open.
“I’m not certain I should be near you when you’re attacking them like that,” he ventured. “You look rather dangerous.”
“Not at all,” she corrected. “I find it invigorating.” Gesturing toward him, she suggested, “Why don’t you try it?”
The prince picked up a single hazelnut, and with one crushing blow, he obliterated the nut. Serena stared at him with a raised eyebrow. “Remind me not to make you angry. You’ve pulverized it.”
His mouth twitched. “Perhaps a bit too much force.” He set the stone down. “What if I allow you to crack the shells, and I’ll remove the meat?”
“All right.”
They spent the next half-hour cracking nuts, dividing their spoils between them. Serena nibbled at the hazelnuts and remarked to the prince, “You know, you’re not so bad to be around when you’re not giving orders.”
“Is that a compliment or an insult?” he asked, handing her a nut.
She hadn’t quite meant it that way. “A compliment, I suppose.”
Karl picked up another nut and reached toward her mouth. Serena tried to take it from him, but then realized he intended to feed it to her.
“Aren’t you afraid I might bite?” she murmured, opening her mouth to receive it. When she bit down on the savory nut, his fingers grazed her lips.
He placed another nut in her fingertips, but guided this one to his own mouth. “Are you afraid I’ll bite?”
She shook her head, only to be proven wrong when he took her fingers into the warmth of his mouth, nibbling them gently. She pulled them back, staring at him. Something had shifted, and what had begun as a simple pastime was now becoming more sensual.
“I don’t think you should—”
”—try to seduce you?“ he finished. “Are you still going to pretend that there’s nothing between us?”
Karl pulled her up to stand in front of him. Her shoulders pressed against his chest while his hands spanned her waist. “You asked me to leave you alone, earlier. And yet, here you are.”
He reached to the pins that barely held locks of her hair in place, releasing them. Her hair dropped around her shoulders, and his hands moved the length of it aside. His mouth moved to her ear. “You wanted me to stay, didn’t you?”
She did, heaven help her. “You frighten me.”
“You’re afraid of the way I make you feel,” he murmured, nipping at her jaw. “You know I’ll bring you pleasure when you take me inside of you.“
The words were arousing, making her lean back against him. She didn’t deny that he made her feel things she didn’t understand. And if she didn’t return to her room this very moment, she was going to regret it.
With all of her willpower, she stepped out of his arms and turned to face him. “I don’t doubt that you’ll make another princess happy in your marriage bed. But it won’t be me.”
And as she swept aside, returning to her chamber, she couldn’t forget the shielded look on his face…of a man who didn’t seem to care. Was it a mask? Or was it the truth?
Chapter Nine
