Max sighed and swallowed his mouthful.
“I need your help, and you did promise to give it. And it’s not as if you have to put yourself out much, is it? You just have to sit there and be pampered. I’m sure there are plenty of other men who would jump at the chance.”
“I’m sure they would,” he agreed. “But you’ve chosen me to be your victim, haven’t you, and I’m doing my best.”
Marietta remembered then, a little guiltily, that Max probably had a great deal on his mind.
“Poor Max,” she said, and leaned over to place a gentle kiss on his brow.
He groaned.
“Have I hurt you?” she gasped. “I’m so sorry. Here—”
But as she reached out again he caught her hand and stopped her. There was something in his eyes, something fiery and dangerous that she hadn’t seen there before. And that was when she realized how much Max wanted her. She was testing his control without even trying. Marietta would have laughed aloud, if the knowledge had not taken her breath away.
“You’re never going to give up, are you?” he growled. “I’m wasting my time trying to talk you out of it.”
“I can’t give up. I am not fit for marriage and I have no wish to be a spinster aunt to my sisters’ children.”
“There are other choices.”
“Are there? I don’t see them. I will not be beaten, Max. I will not fade away just because it would be more comfortable for certain people if I didn’t exist. Yes, I made a mistake, a very silly mistake, but I was young and trusting and a man took advantage of that. I broke the rules, but they were not my rules, and I refuse to live my life in penance.”
“Marietta—”
Looking into his troubled eyes, Marietta’s anger faded and like a clap of thunder she realized what was wrong with this whole scenario. Aphrodite had tried to tell her, and Elena, too, but she hadn’t understood. She did now. Max could only see her as Marietta Greentree, and she was looking at him as Max Valland. They had brought along with them all their troubles and all their complications, and that made it impossible to just let go and feel.
If they were strangers, without any prior knowledge…
She jumped up and stood before him, her pretty face intent, her eyes blazing into his. He watched her warily.
“Max,” she said quietly, “I think we’ve gone about this assignation all wrong. We were supposed to be strangers meeting for an evening of pleasure, and instead we’ve been bickering like an old married couple. I think we should begin afresh. Right now.”
“Marietta, do you know what you’re saying?”
But she wouldn’t let him argue. “No. You don’t know my name. I’m not Marietta. I am a girl you’ve just met, a girl from Aphrodite’s, and you’ve paid for an evening with me, and you are a man I must please.”
He said nothing.
“What can I do to please you?” she asked him quietly. “Sir?”
He looked up, his eyes flaring. He swallowed. “Mar—”
“No!”
“There’ll be no going back.” He sounded serious, final.
“I know. I don’t want to go back. My only way out of the mess I am in is to go forward. Now, sir, what can I do to please you?”
His gaze dropped down. “Take off that infernal robe.”
She didn’t let herself think too much. She let herself feel. Marietta slipped off the robe and allowed it to drop to the floor. And then she stood before him in the trousers and blouse, and tried not to think at all.
His eyes went to her breasts, slowly following the shape of her, returning again and again to the darker circles at their tips. His hand twitched but he closed his fingers, tight.
“Do you desire me?” she whispered.
He gave a breathless laugh.