The door opened and Max stood there, looking as handsome as ever in a black tuxedo with white tie and tails. He offered her his arm and she walked with him into the palace. Immediately upon their arrival, they were ushered down a long hallway that led to the receiving area at the back of the ballroom. A fanfare sounded and Peter opened the doors, announcing them to the assembled guests.
“Ladies and gentlemen, presenting His Serene Highness, Prince Cedric of Lauenstein, and Miss Leontyne Cooper.”
A cheer arose from the crowd gathered there, one which seemed to go on and on as Max walked her around the room to the place where he would receive his guests.
“What am I supposed to do here?” she asked, panic rising as the guests lined up to be greeted.
“Smile and shake hands. I will do all the talking that needs to be done.” He turned to smile reassuringly at her for one moment, and then the procession began.
They must have stood there for what seemed like hours before the last guest was welcomed, and dinner was announced. Max led her into the enormous dining room, seating her to his right. He sat at the head of the table, and his father sat at the other end, looking resplendent in his tux. He must have had a good rest, because his cheeks were pink and his smile wide and welcoming. Dinner was a long-drawn out affair full of speeches and well wishes, and Tina was grateful when it ended and the ballroom was declared open once more for dancing.
Max led off the dancing with a traditional waltz, and for the next hour Tina did not sit down. Then the live orchestra took a break, and people milled about. Max led her to a dais on which a sofa and chairs had been placed for the royal family to rest on between sets. Tina slipped her feet out of her shoes discreetly, wishing that she could curl her legs up under her. Her whole body ached. She had not danced this much in more years than she could count, and that coupled with the hours of greeting at the beginning, meant her feet were sore. They weren’t used to such extended activity in stiletto heels.
“What would you like to drink?” he asked her.
“Water would be nice.”
Max returned a few minutes later with a glass of water. “Would you like the pills now, or will you wait until the party is over?”
Tina looked at him in astonishment. “How do you know I need pills?”
“I told you earlier today. I’m learning about you. You slipped your shoes off as soon as you sat down.”
Tina looked around quickly. “Oh goodness! I hope no one else noticed. I know it’s bad manners…”
“Tina, you’re my guest. Feel free to be comfortable. I’ll need your feet to be a little rested before the second hour of dancing commences.”
She drank the water thirstily, taking the two pills he offered her. He had apparently not been joking about dancing every dance with her.
“But shouldn’t the monarch dance with strategic guests at his party?”
“There is no ‘should’,” he said. “I may choose to dance with certain other women, and of course, if they are brazen enough to ask for a dance, I would not deny them. However, I can choose to dance with whomever I wish, or not, as I please.”
“Then in that case, I hope some brazen woman asks for a dance. My tootsies need a break.”
Max laughed, drawing some eyes to where they sat together on the dais. “For every dance with you that I am denied, I will exact a suitable reward later. Be careful what you wish for.”
He waggled his brows at her, winking playfully, and just like that, they were back to teasing, and Tina knew she was in trouble.
Chapter 14: The Bet
As it turned out, Tina was too tired to do more than smile sleepily at Max by the time he took her back to her suite in the guest house. She had settled against his shoulder in the car, and fallen asleep almost at once. The next ten minutes had been some of the most acutely sweet and painful of his life. She was warm and soft against his body, and when he put his arm around her to support her head, she had snuggled into him, mumbling something unintelligible in her sleep. He kissed the top of her head, and when the footman opened the door to help her out, Max had picked her up and carried her to her room, the footman trailing behind him carrying her shoes.
Now he tucked her in as she snuggled under the thick covers, already almost asleep again. He wanted her. There was no denying that. All through dinner, and after, when they danced until they were exhausted, all he could think about was taking her somewhere quiet and stripping the fancy threads from her body before he devoured her. She smelled good, she looked good, she tasted good. He knew that she had forgiven him for his deception, but he also knew that she was still afraid to trust…not him so much as herself. She had never shared the story of her past with him, but he knew enough about it to know she feared being abandoned. She had been left alone as a child by her parents’ death, and even though she had loved her grandmother, it had not been the same.
He could well understand how it must have felt when her grandmother died so unexpectedly, and so soon after she had had her run-in with the man who had once again disappointed her on that fateful weekend in the Poconos. No one wanted to be alone, but many, including Tina, chose to be as a way to protect themselves from being abandoned. If they were already alone, they could never be left. He needed to show her that she would not be alone if she trusted him to be there for her. She had stolen her way into his heart, and he was never going to let her out of it. She stirred in her sleep and he watched her, remembering those first two nights at the chalet, when she had been so ill. He had not left her side, and he did not wish to do so now, although she was no longer in need of such close care.
Sighing, he rose and left her to sleep. She had taken a two-week holiday, so she would be with him for Christmas. He wanted her to himself for a few days, and perhaps, after Christmas dinner, he would whisk her away for a weekend at his ski lodge in the mountains. He liked the idea so much that when he returned to the palace, he went to his office to check his calendar, and by morning was ready to discuss his plans with Peter, whom he would entrust with making the arrangements. Then he went back to his guest house and found Tina having breakfast in her suite, her feet tucked up under her on the loveseat. The sight made him smile.
“Good morning,” he said, going to sit next to her. “How do you feel this morning?”
“Like you beat me with a baseball bat,” she replied, chuckling merrily. “My whole body ached so much when I woke up that I had a long, very hot bath to soak away some of the aches and pains.”
“I can arrange for a massage for you if you’d like,” he told her. “I’d like to take you out for a ride around the grounds.”
“In a snowmobile?” she asked, grinning at him.
“If you would prefer that, it can be arranged.” He grinned back at her.
“I’ll defer to you on that,” she told him. “It’s a damned sight colder here than it is in the Poconos, that’s for sure.”
“We are very close to some of the coldest climes on Earth, that is true.” He eyed her closely. “Are you cold now? Have you been cold since you got here?”
“No, not at all. It’s been lovely and toasty here. But outside is a different matter. I don’t think I have anything really warm enough to counteract those bone-chilling temperatures.”
“I can get you any gear you need when the time comes.” He would lend her one of his jackets, so he would have the pleasure of seeing her in his clothing.
“Thank you, Max,” she said, reaching over to hug him. “And thank you for yesterday. It was a most wonderful day.”
“I’m happy that you enjoyed it, milaya,” he said, kissing her hair before letting her go.
“And congratulations on your investiture, Your Highness. I am pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“The pleasure has always been mine, Tina. Always.”
She broke off a piece of toast, but before she put it into her mouth, she asked, “Max, what do those words mean that you say to me sometimes? They sound like Russian words, but as
I don’t know Russian, I could be dead wrong.”
“You are right. They are Russian words of endearment. Both ‘Milaya’ and ‘lyubimaya’ mean ‘sweetheart’ or ‘darling’.”
“So how do you say ‘I love you’ in Russian?”
Max tried not to let his expression register the change in his heart rate, and he resisted the urge to hope that her question meant anything other than curiosity about the language. She was a writer, he told himself. This was just research, nothing more. But a foolish hope hid away in his deepest heart. He spoke the words he knew he would one day say to her quietly.
“Ya lyublyu tyebya.”
She tried it, and got the stresses and some of the vowel sounds wrong. He said it again. Might as well get in his practice as often as he could before the real event. When she said it poorly again, he laughed and told her,
“No one will mind if you get it wrong, as long as you mean it.” He winked at her as though he were teasing, not wanting to spook her.
“Why do you use Russian endearments?” she asked. “Your principality was never a part of Russia, was it?”
He loved it that she had been searching for information about his country. If she was to move to Lauenstein to be with him, she had a lot to learn.
“My mother’s parents were Russian, and she was raised in a Russian household. They spoke Russian at home, so that was essentially her first language. She spoke Russian to me from the time I was born.”
“Handsome, sexy, intelligent, and now multi-lingual. I’m impressed, Your Highness!”
He noted that she didn’t ask him why he was speaking other with endearments. She was avoiding the issue, and he was determined to make her face it. They had gone well beyond friendship. They were lovers, and if he had his way, they would be forever, until death, as it had been for his parents. Thinking about the way she responded to his lovemaking made him wish they were already at the forever stage. He shifted in his seat, easing the growing tightness in his slacks, and went back to their former conversation, asking,
“So, would you like a massage before we go for our drive?”
“I’ve not had good experiences with massages,” she told him, draining her coffee cup. “Either I was in more pain when it was over, or I felt nothing. So I’ll pass on the massage, thanks.”
Before he could censor himself, Max said, “I’ll bet you I can give you a massage that will change your mind about them.”
She turned to look him in the eye. “What are you putting on the table?” Her own eyes gleamed with mischief.
“Hmmm…let me think. If I win and you like massages after all, you have to tell me how you really feel about me. No avoiding it, no equivocating. Just the whole truth.”
There…he had laid out the challenge. He hoped he would win, because he knew he would win twice over when she admitted that what she was afraid to feel for him was real, and wasn’t going away. He returned his attention to her as she began to speak.
“Okay. And if you lose, and I hate massages as much as ever, you have to let me go when I leave.”
Suddenly, the stakes were never higher. Each of them had something to lose in this bet, something that would affect them greatly going forward. Max refused to consider the possibility that he might lose. He would not lose her; he couldn’t let her go. Releasing the negative energy, and focusing on how to make the massage the best he could give her, he said,
“Are you ready to be wowed?” He made his voice upbeat and cocky, and loved it when she laughed in response.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” She chuckled and stood up. “Where do you want me?”
Max bit his tongue to stop himself from saying “In my bed”. Instead, he told her follow him to the fitness center in the basement of the palace. There was a massage room there, with everything he would need. Making sure to inform his staff that he was using the facility and was not to be disturbed, he had her strip and lie on her stomach, while he took everything off but his boxers and tank top. Then he covered her lower half with a towel and poured the warm, scented oil into his palm and on her back. Then he began, first just smoothing the oil into her skin, and then working the different parts of her upper back, rolling and kneading and squeezing them. He knew when she began to feel the effects of the massage. Her spine relaxed and her muscles loosened.
Moving the towel away from one butt cheek, he repeated the same procedure, ignoring the tent in his underwear, and stifling the moans that kept crowding his throat at the sight and feel of her. Moving to the other side, he did it again, only this time, Tina’s moans raised his blood pressure so much that he felt like he would burst through his underpants. Pulling his hands away from her, for a long moment, he waited until his body calmed and then works her thighs, calves, and feet.
Soon it was time to do her front. Max steeled himself to the task. He covered her lower half as before, and watched as she licked her lips. He began with her arms, avoiding the temptation of her torso for as long as he could. But then he had no choice; he began to massage her chest and breasts and belly. Tina’s moans became whimpers as he slid his oiled hands over her breasts and belly, slicking up her nipples, inching and stroking them, plumping her breasts together and spreading them wide apart. She gasped when he rolled her nipples between his fingers, and when he rubbed and squeezed and kneaded her breasts, her mouth opened in an effort to catch more air.
He struggled to keep his cool. He could come in his pants just from listening to her and watching the way she swallowed and licked her lips as he touched her. Only with great difficulty did he manage to hold off his orgasm when she groaned as he slid his fingers down from her belly to her mound. Moving the towel to one side, as he had done on her back, he worked her leg from hip to heel. Long strokes stretched the muscles, and when he parted her thighs so he could stroke the junction between her leg and her torso, she cried out.
Max shook with the need to take her, but he fought it, moving the towel to the other side so he could stretch and stroke and knead her leg, treating the space where her leg joined her torso to the same sensuous stroking. His fingers brushed over her lower lips, teasing her, and he knew when she opened her legs even wider that she was inviting him to touch her between them. He avoided her clitoris, instead using his fingers to cup her lips and plump them, and stroke on either side of them.
“Max! Please, baby!”
At the sound of the endearment, Max broke, and plunged two fingers into her core. She was so wet, so wet…he wanted to sink into her, but he wouldn’t until she told him what he wanted to hear. He let her ride his fingers until she crashed, crying out his name as she came. He felt hot precum spill from his slit, staining his boxers, and he squeezed the base of his cock to stall his own orgasm. This was not about him. It was about Tina…about proving to her that massages could be wonderfully relaxing, and that she really loved him and should tell him so.
When his body calmed, he withdrew his fingers from her still pulsing core, and leaned in to kiss her gently. His limbs shook so badly that he had to lean against the massage table to stay upright.
“Well, what’s the verdict?”
She was still breathing hard, and he loved to see her belly and breasts heaving with the expression of her passion.
“Did I win, or did I lose?”
He was confident that he had won, but he would not presume to know for certain until she told him so.
“I can’t move,” she said. “My limbs are noodles.” She kept her eyes closed as she made the admission.
“That doesn’t answer my question. Did I won or lose?” He leaned in and kissed her harder, smiling against her lips before withdrawing.
Her eyes snapped open, glaring at him. “You know you won, so stop gloating!”
Max chuckled and smoothed his hand over her belly. “Who’s gloating? I just wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth.”
She sighed. “So, when do I pay up?”
“That depends on you. If you want another happy ending, you
pay now. Otherwise, I’ll escort you back to your suite so you can shower and change, and meet you in the front lobby in an hour.”
She closed her eyes again, and Max could almost see the thoughts winging their way through her head. He wished he could help her with this final step, but it was no longer up to him. The ball was in her court.
“I’ll see you in the front lobby in an hour,” she finally said. “And thanks for my first ever absolutely great massage.”
He swallowed his disappointment and replied, “Any time. Max’s massages are free to you forever.”
An hour later, he was back with a thick fleece jacket which he helped her into before they went out to the Range Rover that waited at the steps. Max drove, his detail following behind him as he took her around the estate, into the lands bordering the village on the east and the city on the west. To the north lay Norway and the sea, and to the south lay Denmark and Germany. They stopped for lunch at another cabin, this one twice the size of the first one they had had their first picnic lunch in. Max watched as Tina relaxed against the soft cushions of the enormous sofa in the living room, and when he went to sit beside her, she adjusted her seat so that she could lean against him. They both looked out the window to the breathtaking views of open country beyond the cabin walls.
Seduced by the Prince Page 18