Laughing at that idea and his surly demeanor, I arched a brow. “Excuse me?”
“Let’s go.”
My eyebrows shot to the roof as I stared at his offered hand. “No way…You’re serious?”
“Yep. Requested a song that’s not on the approved playlist and bribed the pledge to play it next.” He couldn’t keep the satisfied smirk off his face, but schooled his features when he realized it. “Don’t give me a chance to change my mind.”
I took his hand, glancing around the room once. But no one was paying attention to us.
For a minute, as Max led me onto the dance floor while no one in the room batted an eyelash, I swore I’d entered some kind of twilight zone.
He spun me around under his arm before he grabbed my waist, draping my hand on his shoulder.
I gripped his bicep with the other. With my mouth still hanging open, I waited for an explanation.
He didn’t offer one, so I pinned my stare on him. “You said you couldn’t dance at these parties. I believelimbswere actually threatened.”
“I saidI don’t dance. I never said I couldn’t.”
Staring down at me, heat built in his onyx gaze. Even though he held me away from him like it was our first high school dance.
I smiled up at him. “But…won’t people get suspicious?”
“Nah. I took a page out of Kingston’s book.” He huffed, like admitting that had taken genuine effort. “Figured I owed him one after he let me be the escort today.” Shaking his head, he chuckled at the memory. “Fucking priceless.”
I rolled my eyes. “Following someone’s good exampleisn’tpaying them back. But I still don’t know what you mean.”
His brow furrowed. “He didn’t tell you?”
When I glared at him, Max grimaced. “Right. Sorry. But this is agoodsecret, so I figured he’d shared it.”
“Nope. Still in the dark.” I raised my eyebrows pointedly, waiting for him to clue me in.
He sighed. “Thiscounts as paying him back, then. Kingston brought back the tradition of asking all the Maidens for dances at the first two parties.”
“Yes, a misogynistic tradition I’m well aware of, but?—”
“He danced with all of them so he could dance with you without suspicion, Princess.”
My breathing hitched.
“Sorry. Like I said, I thought you knew.”
I shook my head because even though I’d had the information from Izzy, I hadn’t put it together. It had seemed simple at the time. Another Camelot Court by-law meant to get the Ladies to submit to theirKing.
I hadn’t wanted to see the truth because, with how angry I’d been, making it black and white had been easier.
But the truth was rarely black and white, more often existing in shades of gray.
It came down to what was known at the time.
Perspective.
And it looked different in the light than it had when I was in the dark. Like everything else Kingston had shown me about his heart.
Max tipped my chin up, his mouth twisting into a frown as he tried to figure out how to make it better.
But he’d already done the only thing he could do to help. Reminding me why I wanted answers. Bridging his own divide to give me information that helped me with Kingston. And being here, suffering through all the dances he’d had to dance, so he could share this one with me.
