“Then you can call me Mak.” It wasn’t a friendly offer. More like a prisoner exchange.
“I don’t want to,” she returned, keeping her tone intentionally tart.
He chuckled. “Why is that?”
She crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “It humanizes you. I would prefer to stay angry with you for as long as possible.”
His lips curved into a smile, one that didn’t quite reach his eyes. He took a step, then another, slowly circling around her, like a predator who had found some very tempting prey. “I am certain I will find many ways to make you angry, Eva. You won’t need to manufacture reasons.”
“On that we can both agree.” She turned to face him as he moved to her side. “Stop circling me, I’m not a gazelle.”
He paused. “Excuse me?”
“You look like … like you’re stalking me or something. But I am no one’s prey.”
“I believe it.”
“Tell me then, Mak,” she said his name with as much disdain as she could muster. “What is on the agenda? Has my father lined out every single activity I’m approved for over the six months? Galas and tea parties?”
“Something like that.”
“Lovely,” she said dryly.
“Not for either of us and I see no reason to pretend otherwise. I am not a babysitter, so unless you want me to be incredibly irritable during our time together, I suggest you stop acting like a child.”
She stiffened, anger coursing through her veins, her temper, quick at the best of times, ready to snap. “I am not acting like a child. I’m being treated like one.”
“What do you think, Eva, that you’ll find the answers to life in a casino? In a bar? That somehow that sort of freedom means more than doing your duty to your country? If so, you really are a child.”
He turned his back to her and for some, strange reason, she felt compelled to ask him to stay. To make him stay. “Wait.”
He turned back to her. “Yes?”
“Where are you staying? Do you … do you have a home on Kyonos?”
“I shall be staying here.” He smiled slowly. “All the better to protect you.”
“Are you supposed to remind me of the big bad wolf?”
He arched one dark eyebrow. “Do I?”
Come to think of it, he did. “What big teeth you have,” she said, forcing her voice to stay in a monotone.
His dark eyebrow arched. “I won’t say the rest. It would hardly be appropriate.”
A little thrill zinged through her. It certainly would not. And what was happening? Had he … flirted with her? Had she just flirted with her bodyguard?
He was gorgeous. In a very understated sort of way. He certainly wasn’t pretty, he was far too rugged for that. But he was … masculine. And somehow, just being near him, made her feel very, very aware of her own femininity. Dark stubble shadowed his jaw and she imagined it would feel rough beneath her palm.
She found herself brushing her fingertips lightly over her own cheek in response to the thought, feeling the smooth skin there. Craving its opposite.
She dropped her hand to her side, flexing her fingers, trying to get rid of the phantom impression of his scruff, and took a deep breath, attempting to clear her head.
“Hardly,” she said, trying to swallow. Her throat felt tight. Too tight.
“This doesn’t have to be hard, Eva,” he said, his accent shaping her name differently than she’d ever heard it before. It was … intriguing.
“It can’t be anything but. You and I have opposing goals, Mak.”
“What is your goal, Princess?” he asked, his eyes hard on her. Far too perceptive. He made her want to wrap her arms around herself, to try and cover as much as she could. Because she felt as though he could see beneath her filmy dress. More disturbing, she felt that he could see inside of her. See her fears, her desires. Things she’d never shared with anyone. “And be honest. None of this talk about you not telling me. Do you intend to take yourself out of the running for a dynastic marriage by ruining your image?”
“It had crossed my mind. Or perhaps, I simply wanted to start as I intend to go on.”