Page 195 of Snowbound Surrender

Maxim was in a chair by the fire, a thoughtful expression on his face, but as he turned to look at Anne as she closed the door he smiled lazily.

“You appear to have been expecting me,” Anne said in a whisper. Why was her voice so weak, at the very moment when she needed to speak?

“I was not,” he said quietly.

Anne swallowed. She was not entirely sure what she had expected, but it was not this. “I…I wanted to see you.”

“Of course,” Maxim said, his eyes focused on her. “And I have been thinking of you all evening, too.”

Warmth flooded through Anne’s veins. Here was a gentleman who understood her, far better than anyone else she had ever met.

“We are very well suited,” she said aloud, taking a step into the room. “It is almost as though you can read my thoughts. What a shame you are teasing the court about your Czardom, and it would be reckless of me to marry you.”

Maxim laughed. “Come, sit by the fire.”

This was it, she thought. The last opportunity to disappear. But she did not want to. This was the opportunity she had hoped for; the chance to ask for what she really wanted.

“You know, this marriage of convenience that I and your father have contrived,” Maxim spoke softly as Anne curled up in a chair opposite him. “It is starting to appear far more interesting than I thought.”

Anne could feel her heart thundering in her chest, but said lightly, “It is almost as though we are each other’s Christmas presents.”

He chuckled. “Remember, you can leave me under the tree on Christmas Day if you do not want me.”

She could not help but laugh at that, especially as she could not think of anything less likely to happen. Why, he was far more likely to leave her…

“Now, why do you think I am going to leave you?” Maxim’s dark eyes were shrewd. “You have given me no reason to want to leave you – and every reason to want to stay with you.”

Anne licked her lips unconsciously at the very thought of him, and he groaned.

“Damnit, Annika. You come to my bed chamber at a ridiculous time in the morning, looking as you do…anyone would think you were after something.”

Her heart now beating so heavily she could almost hear it in her ears, Anne swallowed. This was it: the moment when she had to say something, or she would regret it for the rest of her life.

“Actually…” she started, but her words seemed to disappear. How could she explain what she wanted, her desire for him, her desire to be touched by him in every way, without revealing herself to be a scandalous woman?

But once again, Maxim seemed to understand her. “If…if you are suggesting what I think you are suggesting, Annika, you must know that there are serious consequences to…making love…before we are wed.”

Anne’s skin tingled all over just at his words. “We could be careful.”

He examined her closely, and then seemed to decide he could speak. “Well, yes, I have preservatives. But that is not entirely what I meant. You would lose your innocence, Annika, something you cannot take back. I would not want to ruin you for any other gentleman, if you decided not to have me on Christmas Day.”

Her cheeks had darkened at the word innocence, but spoke honestly when she said, “I am unlikely to marry anyone else, Maxim. I only came to St. James Court this Season to appease my father. One last Season, and then he would stop forcing meinto society. I just wanted to spend my life quietly in Romney, with Meredith.”

“And your father?”

“Yes, of course,” she said quickly. “But…but that does not change what we could do tonight. Could experience, together.”

Try as she might, Anne could not hold his searching gaze.

After a few minutes, Maxim sighed and a charming smile fell across his face. “Well, you strike a difficult bargain – or at least, you would, if I did not want you so badly.”

He rose so swiftly and pulled her upright so fast that Anne gasped aloud – but the gasp did not continue. His lips captured hers and utterly possessed her, his arms reaching around and pulling her tightly into his embrace.

Anne lost herself in the feelings. She had never felt anything like this – Maxim’s strength, his passion, his devotion could all be felt in the way his tongue teased pleasure from hers.

“Oh,” she moaned, unable to help herself. The sound seemed to stir something in him, his self-control disappearing.

“Annika, I want you,” he growled, pulling away to stare into her eyes. “Do you trust me?”