Page 208 of Snowbound Surrender

He waved away her protestations, feeling nothing but bitterness. “I was nothing but honest with you, and this is how you repay me?”

“How was I to know that I would fall in love with you, actually desire this marriage?”

Annika put her hands over her mouth, obviously shocked at the words which had come from her mouth.

Maxim stood up slowly. His heart was pounding, his lungs jerking, trying to take in enough air, but there was not enough in the room.

She was in love with him.She loved him.

“How was I to know that I would fall in love with you?”

The words rose up in his throat that he returned her affections: that he loved her, had loved her from the moment that she had crept into his bed chamber and asked for his touch.

But he forced them down. He could not even countenance the idea of marrying a woman who had been…well, despoiled would have been the word he would have used for anyone else. Just thinking it about Annika felt wrong, but he could not help it.

She had loved another man, conceived and borne his child.

He had to be strong. His noble house could not be aligned with one such as her.

“This has to end.” The words came out almost as a croak, and even as he spoke he had to force his hands to stay by his side and not reach out for her. Just the touch of her hand would be enough to overwhelm his resolve, and he owed it to himself, and to his house, to stay strong. “This must end now.”

“End?” Annika was looking in confusion. “I do not understand. We know each other better now, all secrets are out in the open. Tomorrow, Christmas Day, we…we could…”

Her voice trailed away at just the look of his face.

“I cannot go through with the wedding.”

Her eyes widened. “You…you cannot?”

Maxim could not help but laugh now, and its bitterness was bile in his throat. “You really believed, after hurling accusations at me and revealing your own…history – you thought we could just ignore today and get married tomorrow?”

“If we both care for each other,” she said in an insistent tone, “then every obstacle can be surmounted!”

Maxim ignored the words. He would not admit the love in his heart, not now that she had broken it. “I was foolish to even consider a wife who wasn't royal, let alone innocent.”

It happened in a moment. Annika stepped forward and gave him such a slap across the face that he staggered back, falling into his chair.

“You are hardly innocent,” she said, fury dripping from her voice as she stood over him. “Two standards for royalty and commoners, for gentlemen and ladies…I should never have trusted you. Good day, Alexei Dmitry Immanuil Maximilian Konstantinvich.”

She stormed out of the room without saying another word. Maxim raised his hand to touch his cheek, which was burning. The heat was nothing to the pain in his heart.

CHAPTER 11

Someone was pulling painfullyat Anne’s arm. No matter how much she attempted to retreat into her own bed, eyes still firmly shut, they did not seem to go away.

“Anne?”

Anne frowned, eyes unopened. The last thing she wanted to do was wake up. Her headache, brought on by too many tears the evening before, still lingered across her temples. Why would she want to face the world? Why was someone trying to force her into consciousness when all she wanted to do was stay here?

“Anne!”

It was her father. His voice sounded concerned, but Anne brushed him away, pulling her arm under her bed linens. She did not want to speak with him. She did not want to speak with anyone.

“I have to leave. See if you can wake her.”

Heavy footsteps sounded, followed by the opening and shutting of a door. Anne sighed. Perhaps now she would be left in peace.

“Anne?”