Konstantin lurched forward, but he stopped just before me. Inches away. Hunching, he curled over me. Loomed. Heat rippled off him. Scent coming with it. I closed my eyes and breathed him in. Tiger musk and man. Something exotic beneath that. Incense? Perhaps. It was sweet and spicy and dark, a smell that whispered of foreign lands under a star-strewn sky. Of shadows concealing stolen kisses and nights that lasted forever.
And big fucking beasts prowling through the shadows after you.
Eyes still closed, I felt something soft brush my lips. The touch popped my eyes open, and I found Konstantin even closer. His face hovering above mine. His hands a breath away from my belly . . . and the bulge of my cock.
“You didn't answer my summons,” Konstantin said.
I flinched with sudden bafflement. “What?”
The Garin stepped back, stretched his neck, and released a long breath. “I summoned you for an interview, but you didn't come.”
“I received no such summons.”
Konstantin frowned and glanced around as if searching for proof. His gaze snagged on the floor. I followed it to a scrap of paper near the door. Konstantin retrieved the paper and looked it over. With a grimace, he handed it to me.
“Ah. Your summons,” I said. “I must have been in the shower when they knocked so they just slid it beneath the door. If you would give me a few minutes to dry off and get dressed?”
“Yes, of course.” He strode to the armchair set beside the fireplace and sat down, sprawling back and stretching his legs before him as if it were his favorite chair beside his own hearth.
I went past him to my dressing room, my entire body tense and annoyed that he wasn't. I hadn't expected Konstantin to sit there and wait for me. It was as if he didn't trust me to find the way to his quarters on my own. But everyone knew what room the King had set aside for the Garin's use. There had been a steady stream of courtiers heading to it the day before.
I used my bathrobe to finish drying off, wringing out my hair hastily, then got dressed, choosing an outfit that complimented me. I scowled at my reflection in the full-length mirror when I realized what I'd done. Why was I trying to impress him? I couldn't have him and didn't want him even if I could. The last thing I needed was another capricious lover.
“All right, I'm ready,” I said as I stepped out of the dressing room.
“We can do this here.” Konstantin waved at the loveseat beside him.
“I don't think that's appropriate, Lord Konstantin.”
“Fucking swans,” he muttered.
“Excuse me?” I crossed my arms and glared at him.
“I'm sorry I nearly kissed you without permission, okay?” Konstantin huffed. “But for fuck's sake, you answered the door dripping wet, with your cock hanging out. You can't tease a tiger without consequences.”
“As I've already informed you, I didn't answer the door like that on purpose. You were banging on it like a madman, and I got irritated and answered it before I tied my robe fully—”
“I know!” he cut me off. “I get it. But you gotta give me some understanding too, Misha.”
“Don't call me that. We are not friends.”
He stared at me for several long moments, then asked, “Have I done something else to offend you?”
I sighed and uncrossed my arms. It wasn't his fault that I had placed such high expectations on him. “No, you haven't. I misread you is all. That's my fault, not yours. My apologies for my rudeness.”
“Misread me how?”
“Nothing. It doesn't matter.”
“It obviously does matter.”
I cleared my throat and waved vaguely. “From the way you were talking during our dance and then how you refused to take the King's offer of . . .”
“Sampling your wares?”
“Yes,that. I was under the impression that you were interested in me as more than a sexual conquest. Silly of me, really. We barely know each other, and I was paraded before you specifically to inspire your lust. How could you be interested in anything else?”
“And yet I am.”
