Page 9 of Back to Claim His Crown
His expression hardened. ‘I wanted to stop the wedding,’ he said. ‘I wanted to rescue you from—’
‘Did Iaskyou to rescue me?’ she snapped.
His mouth thinned. ‘You are disappointed.’
‘Disappointed?’She should laugh.
He had no idea of what he’d done to her future. Suddenly all her anger was directed athim. ‘You don’t get to come here and leave me in a worse position than where I began.’
‘Is that what I have done?’
‘Of course it is. I’ve just been publicly humiliated by—’
‘The man who was supposed to be in love with you. Not byme,’ he pointed out coolly, but twin flames glowed in his eyes. ‘You really wanted to marry him?’
‘Well, I was standing in the church in a big white gown—’
‘Because you’re in love with him?’
She stilled, lost for words. Mortified, she remembered again how Anders had labelled her so cruelly. The reason for all her underlying, instinctive anxiety was finally clear. She’d known in her gut something wasn’t right. But she’d been too desperate—too delusional about her future—to pay attention.
‘It was a political arrangement,’ she said, trying to salvage her dignity. ‘Mutually beneficial for both our nations.’
‘Yournations?’ he echoed sarcastically. ‘Did you anticipate anypersonalbenefits?’
She was an idiot for pursuing the idea in the first place. She’d thought she’d done something strategically clever. She’d even thought she’d managed to please her parents.
‘I anticipated that I would have more personal freedom than what I’ve been accustomed to.’
She’d wanted respect too. She suspected now that she wouldn’t have got either.
‘Freedom?’ he scoffed. ‘And you were expected to provide an heir? Perhaps a spare as well?’
‘Of course.’
‘So, even though it was primarily a political arrangement, you were prepared to lie back and think of those other benefits?’
‘I hadn’t decided on the degree of intimacy I was willing to allow him.’ She gritted her teeth. ‘After all, there are methods other than the traditional for getting pregnant.’
He blinked and drew in a sharp breath. ‘Indeed there are. Yet I can’t imagine Anders agreeing to something so clinical. He’s far more animal in his approach.’ The words were ground from him. ‘So you hadn’t already slept with him.’
Her jaw dropped but, before she could snap back at him, he stepped closer.
‘Had you kissed him?’ Huskily, he asked more intrusive, more inappropriate questions. ‘Have you kissedanyone, Princess?’
She held her ground, but only just. ‘I don’t see what business that is of yours. Or what relevance it has toanything.’
‘Because now here you are, with your untouched lips and untouched body, trying to get yourself into a barely dressed state for me to discover. Was that the new plan? To make yourself even more irresistible to me?’
Even more irresistible?
She gaped. The man was mad.
But he suddenly froze, his jaw angular. She just knew he would bite those words back if he could. The outrageousness of his accusation was incinerated by the heat she felt at that giveaway. But she wasn’t going to let himapologisefor admitting it. She was too busy trying to ignore her own inappropriate internal combustion.
Her pulse scurried.‘You’re obviously overtired and stressed,’ she said. ‘That’s the only explanation for your insanely rude assumptions. I never for a second imagined you were about to walk into this room and it’s the height of arrogance to think that I would want...would want...’
‘Me to touch you in any way?’ he finished for her, his cool recovered. ‘Yet isn’t that just what you’ve asked me to do? Because apparently you need my help to get out of that dress. So turn around and I’ll cut it off you.’
