She chuckled, as he had meant for her to do. “Oh, so it has nothing to do with me. Thanks for that!”
Now it was his turn to chuckle. “Touché! You caught me. I do want to feel you pressed up against me. Is that okay with you?”
Chapter 8: Farewells
Max’s question took Tina by surprise. She knew she had been blowing hot and cold with him all day, and she knew he deserved better than that. It wasn’t his fault that she was fighting her attraction to him. He had been nothing but open with her, and she kept shutting him out because she was afraid it was too soon to let anyone in. But he hadn’t done anything to force himself on her, and had only been thoughtful and kind.
“I’m sorry, Max,” she whispered instead of answering his question, causing him to look down at her.
“For?”
“Being so…indecisive with you. I am not normally a tease.”
She felt his lips brush her forehead, just at her hairline, and the touch made her shudder at its tenderness.
“I enjoy being teased, sometimes,” he whispered back, before tilting her head up so he could drop another tender kiss on her lips. “And if you tease me, it is because you like me, no?”
She was afraid if she opened her mouth to answer, he would take advantage and sweep in to kiss her properly, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to withstand him if he did that. In fact, she knew she was already on the verge of dragging his face down for that kiss anyway, especially after the kiss by the cabin earlier in the day. She pulled back slightly, and he let her.
“No, sometimes we tease others because we want to hurt them. I don’t wish to hurt you.”
She felt his chest rise and fall with the deep breath he took before he said, “Thank you. But I think any teasing between us will not be the kind to cause hurt, but only pleasure.”
She was glad of the darkness in the car, so he wouldn’t see the fierce blush that stained her cheeks. She had been doing far too much of that around him, coloring up like a schoolgirl, and it had to stop. She was forty years old, not a teenager, and it was annoying as hell. But his words stirred the attraction she kept trying to bury, and raised it to a new level. What would it be like if he were to tease her for pleasure’s sake? Would he use his hands, his mouth? Both? Would he lay her beneath him so that he could tease her everywhere? Where would such teasing lead?
“Whatever you are thinking, little one, it is making you very tense. Perhaps if you share it with me, I can help you with it, hmmm?”
Why did he sound like he knew exactly what she had been thinking? The idea of sharing the erotic thoughts she had just been losing herself in was even more of a turn on. What would he say if she told him, if she were honest with him for the first time since they had left for dinner?
“I’m not sure it’s worth sharing,” she temporized. It wasn’t a lie, but it was certainly also not the whole story.
“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that? Sometimes we are our own worst critics.”
Maybe he didn’t know what she had been thinking, after all. But in that case, telling him might open the floodgates, and she wasn’t ready for anything like the things she had been thinking about.
“You’re doing it again…thinking too much. Just spit it out, as you Americans say. Just tell me.”
Huffing out a hard breath, Tina called upon her writer’s instincts to tell him in not as many words as she had thoughts.
“I was just thinking about the ways in which teasing can be pleasurable.”
There…that hadn’t been so bad. She hadn’t admitted to thinking about his hands and his mouth on her body, about his tongue dipping into places guaranteed to set her off like a firecracker, about…
“You’re too tight again. Tell me what sorts of answers you came up with, since they are making you so agitated.”
This time, she heard the note of teasing in his voice, and knew that he knew. Part of her wanted to push him away, to growl and snap at him for knowing her too well after such a short acquaintance. The other part wanted to sink into him, to tell him every vagrant thought, and let him try them out on her. First date, remember? No hanky panky allowed. She chided herself sternly before replying.
“I think it would be better if I kept them to myself.” She was grown; she could say no.
Max’s chest shifted beneath her shoulder, and she listened as he laughed quietly, filling the space around them with warmth and affection. How strange that was, to feel affection coming off him in waves, right alongside a desire that he was keeping strictly controlled, although she could never tell it by the way his body reacted to her. He was as relaxed as he had been when the drive started. Pity she couldn’t mask her lust quite so well.
“You will tell me before you leave, or I will exact a punishment for teasing me.”
Now she laughed as well at the absurdity of his comment. “Punishment? Where are we? In school? Are you the headmaster planning to cane me for my lascivious thoughts?”
“Ah, so they were lascivious, eh?” When she stiffened, wishing she had shut the writer down, he added, “I like lascivious thoughts. They allow for a lot of very pleasurable teasing.”
“You’re incorrigible,” she said, refusing to engage with him.
“I have been called that before,” he told her, “and I freely admit it. But I think you like me that way.”
She had to admit he was right. She hated being with people who couldn’t laugh at themselves, and who weren’t comfortable in their own skins. Probably because she had spent too many years being just that, she didn’t want it reflected back at her. People like Max forced her out of her comfort zone, which is what she needed if she was to get past the angers and hurts that strangled her and stunted her.
“Here, we call that being cocky,” she said, letting herself play the game with him.
He squeezed her shoulder, drawing her further into his body. “What Americans call ‘cocky’ I call ‘confident’.”
“Why am I not surprised?” she quipped. He had already told her the same thing once already. He was nothing if not consistent.
He laughed again, and then turned her face up to his. She could see the gleam of his eyes even in the darkness of the car’s interior. The moment was intimate, tender even, and suddenly, she was unwilling to break the spell.
“I like you like this,” he informed her. “I like us this way. No fear, no walls, just you and me, finding our way forward.”
She had to agree with him again. It was comforting to relax her guard, to let him lead, to play without the pressure of expectations. Max wasn’t pushing her into doing anything she was uncomfortable with. He wasn’t asking her to conform to his notions of what was fun between two adults. He was letting her choose how much she was willing to let go to be with him. She felt him tilt her head again, but this time he waited, and she knew instinctively that he wanted her to make the first move. She reached a hand up to cup his cheek, bringing his head down to hers, and kissed his lips. He didn’t take it anywhere she didn’t lead, for which she was grateful.
“Thank you,” she whispered against his mouth.
“You tempt me as well as teasing me, prinsesa.” She felt his warm breath on her lips, his smile against her cheek. “I like it.”
Feeling unexpectedly smug, she settled back against the seat, his arm still around her. The car had apparently turned and they were back among the twinkling lights of the village. Before long, they were pulling into the garage, and Peter was helping her out of the car. She followed Max into the warm kitchen. She turned to him with a smile.
“Thanks for inviting me out to dinner, Max. I had a good time.”
“As did I, Tina. You are excellent company.”
“I’d better go up. I have to pack…” Her voice trailed off. Why was she feeling so desolate?
“Don’t forget to check your calendar,” he reminded her. “I need to know if you will be my date.”
She felt a moment of insecurity. “Are you sure your friend won
’t mind you inviting a total stranger to his coronation?”
When he didn’t respond immediately, she looked up and found an odd expression on his face. He almost looked like a child who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He looked away when his cell phone rang, and when he looked back at her, a finger up to ask her pardon for his taking the call, the look was gone. He stepped away from her, and she made her way up to her room.
The first thing she did was check her calendar, and the second half of December and the first half of January were free. If she wanted to, she could take a month-long holiday, do a European tour after she left…she didn’t even know where she was going. She’d have to ask him. In the meantime, as she put the date on her calendar, she let the excitement that she had felt when Max first invited her to slip back to the surface. She was going to meet a bona fide prince, and at his coronation, no less. As she undressed and then packed, leaving out the jeans and top she planned to wear home, she wondered what a person of her station was supposed to wear to a coronation. This would be her chance to dress to the nines, and live for one day as though she were a member of high society, even if the man on whose arm she would be walking the red carpet was not the prince himself. An ambassador was nothing to sneeze at, after all.
Eventually she fell asleep, and didn’t wake until someone knocked on her door the next morning. It took her a few seconds to realize what the staccato sound was, and then she dragged herself up in bed, pulling the covers up to her chin and called,
“Come in!”
She dragged a hand over her face as the door opened, and Max stuck his head in, much as he had done the day before when she was emerging from the bathroom.
“I’m just checking to make sure that you’re okay,” he told her.
“What time is it?” She still felt befuddled with the remnants of sleep.
“Just gone ten,” he told her.
“What?” Her high-pitched shriek seemed to amuse Max, who chuckled quietly
“I’m sorry…should I have wakened you earlier?”
“I didn’t mean to oversleep. I wanted to be on the road by now.”
“No problem. Go ahead and get ready. Breakfast is waiting for you, and Peter will warm up your SUV. Take your time. There’s no rush.”
He closed the door and left her to her own devices. Instead of scrambling out of bed and getting on with it, Tina lay back, snuggling beneath the covers. Her weekend away had been good despite its rather horrific start. She had met someone who made her laugh, who could hold a conversation, who had varied interests, who made her try new things, someone whose interests went beyond the roundness of her breasts and bottom. And she had to leave him. Life just wasn’t fair. Even if she had decided to call a moratorium on new relationships, it didn’t mean she wasn’t in the market for a new friend. But how could she build a lasting friendship with someone she had only met four days ago who lived in another country?
Sighing heavily, she finally dragged herself out of bed and went to shower. Dressing slowly, she pulled her hair back in a severe ponytail, applied lip gloss, and gathered her things. Time to get a move on. No sense in putting off the inevitable. She opened the door to find Peter standing there, hand ready to knock.
“Good morning, Ms. Cooper. I have just come to take your luggage down for you, madam,” he said, reaching for the suitcase. “Breakfast is served in the dining room.”
“I hope I haven’t kept the ambassador from his meal,” she said worriedly.
“Not at all, madam.”
Peter smiled warmly at her, as she followed him down to breakfast. Max was waiting in the dining room, his head down as he typed on his tablet. He looked up as she walked in, a broad smile creasing his cheeks.
“Good morning again,” he said cheerfully. “What would you like for breakfast?”
Tina smiled. There he was doing it again. “I would like to serve myself, thank you. I am no longer an invalid.”
She reached over and helped herself to pancakes, breakfast links and scrambled eggs. Max poured her coffee when she was done and they ate in companionable silence. Once the meal was cleared away, Max turned to her.
“So, will you be able to come with me in December?”
“Yes. I have nothing for a month right around that time. If it weren’t for Grannie, I might even have decided to spend Christmas there.”
“That would have been nice,” Max agreed. “Still, it will be lovely to escort you on that occasion. Thank you for agreeing to come with me.” He paused, and was about to speak again when her cell phone rang.
“I’m sorry, I have to take this,” she said, looking up from the phone, and rising from the table to walk away to the window.
It was the nursing home. They never called her unless there was a crisis.
“This is Tina. Good morning, Sister.”
“Good morning, Ms. Cooper. I’m afraid your grandmother has had a stroke. She’s unconscious, and the doctor doesn’t hold out much hope of her regaining it. I thought you would want to know. She has been taken to New York Presbyterian. I am so sorry.”
Tina was shaking, so much that she had to steady the hand holding the phone with her other hand.
“Thank you, Sister. I’m out of town, but I’ll be there as soon as I’m able.”
“Drive carefully, Ms. Cooper. Goodbye.”
Tina hung up, unaware that the phone had slipped from her fingers until she felt Max pressing it back into her palm.
“Tina, what has happened?”
She drew herself up, straightened her spine, and turned to him, trying to keep the tears from falling.
“It’s Grannie,” she whispered, unable to project any more sound into her voice. “She’s had a stroke. I have to go. They’ve admitted her to the hospital, and the doctor says it doesn’t look good.”
Max wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his chest. She fell apart then, unable to hold back, sobbing into his chest while he rubbed her back slowly, gently soothing her. She could hear him speaking, could feel the vibration of his voice against her cheek, but she was beyond caring what he said. She was just glad he was there to hold her when she lost it. Eventually, there were no more tears, just an awful pain that not even Max’s warm embrace could shift. She pulled away from him, and he handed her some tissues, waiting until she blew her nose and mopped up her face. Then he spoke again.
“I will drive you in your vehicle to where you need to go. Peter will follow. Once we get there, I’ll wait with you until we know what’s what.”
Tina looked up, determined to be independent, not wanting to further encroach on Max’s time or good nature.
“Max, it’s very sweet of you, but I’ll be fine. You don’t need to inconvenience yourself any further…”
He interrupted her carefully planned speech. “It is no inconvenience to be with you, Tina. I will not leave you at a time like this.” He dropped a soft kiss on her forehead. “Just give me a few minutes to make a call, and then I’ll be right with you.”
The next fifteen minutes were a blur to Tina, but then she was being escorted out to her SUV, which Peter had thoughtfully started so it was warm by the time she got into the passenger seat. Max had already asked her which hospital they were going to, and had programmed it into his phone, which she added to the bluetooth so the directions would come over the speakers. She looked back as they set off, seeing the whole of the chalet for the first time as they drove away. It was a large, luxurious structure with lots of glass and wood, and the mounds of snow made it look like a fairytale castle. For three days and four nights, Tina had lived like a princess, but now it was time to face a reality in which her grandmother would no longer be with her. She would be alone.
The depressing thought threatened to push fresh tears past her closed eyelids, but she swallowed and fought against them. Max didn’t speak to her, and she was grateful for that. She wasn’t in any condition to speak to anyone and be coherent at the moment. Her mind was full of questions.
How long before her grandmother died? What were all the things she needed to do to settle her estate, arrange for a funeral or cremation, as was her wish? Who would help her do everything that needed to be done? Did Grannie have any relatives that Tina didn’t know about? How would she answer any claims that others might make against her grandmother’s estate?
“It never does any good to worry before the fact, Tina.” Max’s voice penetrated the cloud of worry enveloping her. “How about some music?”
Without waiting for a response, he coded his music into the radio, and soothing orchestral sounds washed over her. She didn’t know what she was listening to, not being knowledgeable about classical music, but immediately she felt calmer. She turned to look at him for a moment.
“Thank you, Max.”
Seduced by the Prince Page 10