"I was fairly certain that you would have done everything possible to keep me from lifting your skirt again."
Lifting? Oh, God, she hadn't even considered that he might "heat her backside" without letting her skirt serve as padding. Suddenly a spanking from him became something to be concerned about and to be avoided at all costs.
"I'll wash now," she offered in a breathless whisper, hating to make that concession but seeing no alternative.
"Now there is no time."
He wasn't going to give her an out? "I'm not a child, to be — to be—!" She couldn't say it, and a shuffling foot behind her made her realize, horribly, that this conversation had an audience, that they'd heard...
As much as she was coming to despise the man who'd made her blush more today than she ever had in her life, right then all she could think to do was bury her face in his chest and be grateful it was wide enough to do so.
"What you are, Princess," she heard above her in what she hoped was a sigh, rather than a gust of exasperation, "is exceedingly stubborn."
"You expect me to go along with my own abduction?" she mumbled resentfully against his shirt.
"We expect you to honor the betrothal that was arranged and decreed by your own father, and to stop fighting what you cannot change."
She flung back her head furiously. "Stop fighting, when you can't even be truthful? You can't even make up a decent lie to get me to go along with you! You create one that's so implausible—"
"That it can be nothing but the truth."
"The only truth here," she said angrily, "is that I don't want to go with you."
His expression was skeptical. "So you would have us believe you prefer a life of drudgery and servitude, is that it? A life which includes salacious performances both on the stage and in the bedroom?"
Tanya sucked in a sharp breath, then drew back her foot to give his shin her reaction to this latest defaming innuendo. His arms tightened slightly around her, but in reflex rather than retaliation. In no other way did he acknowledge the pain she'd inflicted, so she answered his question in a calm voice that belied the fury behind that kick.
"What I prefer is no one telling me what to do. It took all my life to get to this point, where I have no one to answer to but myself. Now you show up here with your ridiculous tale, your threats, your insults, and your arrogant assumption that you can take over every aspect of my life. Well, you can't. You don't have that right. No one does anymore, and no one ever will again."
"It's too bad there is no time to discuss this unusual existence you desire for yourself, which so few of us ever achieve. As for our right to take you in hand, you are Cardinian by birth, and every Cardinian is subject to the supreme power of his ruling sovereign."
"Like hell. That's what I don't accept, Stefan, so that excuse is not valid as far as I'm concerned. In this country you can't justify what you're attempting to do. It's unlawful no matter how you look at it."
He looked up toward the ceiling to say, "Why am I arguing with her?" which made Tanya bristle until he added in sharp command, "Lazar, Serge, wait for us below." Then she stiffened, filled with apprehension.
His gaze came back to her as the others squeezed past them, and the very fact that his eyes were only sherryhued eased her tension somewhat. But he also brought one hand up to caress the back of her head in what was clearly an attempt to soothe her, and she simply wasn't sure how to interpret that.
"I have concluded, Tatiana, that I was, perhaps, a bit hasty in demanding the removal of your clever disguise. Of course, just now," he added with the softening of his expression which presaged a smile, "it merely gives you the appearance of a grubby urchin. But if that is how you wish to look, so be it.
She didn't trust this mellowness after the storm, not one little bit. "What exactly are you saying?"
"That we will forget the consequence I promised for your defiance, and go on from here with a bargain."
She distrusted that even more, but said, "Go on, I'm listening."
"If you will agree not to cause a disturbance of any sort, then you may board The Lorilie without restraint."
Her eyes narrowed to green sparks. "Otherwise I get crated aboard?"
"Bound, gagged, and crated," he clarified.
"What about this one instead?" she said tightly. "I agree not to tell anyone what you tried to do here, if you simply take yourself off and never darken my door again?"
The arm still around her lower back squeezed just enough to remind her who was ultimately in control right now. "Make no mistake, Tatiana, you are coming with us. Your choice is merely how."
"But I don't want to!" she cried. "Doesn't that matter in the least?"
Slowly he shook his head. She hissed through her teeth in frustration. She was going to be abducted no matter what she said or did, but there was no choice to make in what was being offered, not if she intended to escape at the very first opportunity.
"All right," she said with ill grace. "I'll walk if that's my only option."
"Without causing a disturbance?"
"I won't speak to anyone, if that's what you mean."
"Excellent. Just remember, Tatiana, that this is a bargain, and like any bargain, there will be a consequence to bear if it's broken. I believe you already know what that is."
Don't you dare blush again, missy! He's just trying to put the fear of — him — into you,
but his threats won't be worth sour beans once you escape.
To him she said, "If you're in such an allfired hurry to leave, don't you think it's time you let go of me?"
"What I think is that this bargain needs to be sealed with a kiss first."
"N—!" was all she got out before his lips covered hers.
Tanya would have struggled right away, except it occurred to her that this was a golden opportunity to lure Stefan down a path of confusion, at least where her feelings were concerned. If he was arrogant enough to think she liked his kisses and because of them might be resigned to her fate all the sooner, then he could let down his guard, making her escape that much easier. The trouble was, she did like his kisses. There wasn't the least bit of unpleasantness in the way his mouth moved sensually over hers. So there was no pretense in her yielding to that kiss.
But there was definite danger in her strategy, as she discovered when he finally set her away from him, and it took her a long dreamy moment to be drawn back to the present. Losing herself to the kiss hadn't been part of the plan. Nor had she counted on feeling a very strong desire to draw him back to her mouth for more of the same.
Tanya quickly tamped down that crazy urge, as well as the mushy feeling in her innards. The damned devil had powers she'd better not tempt again. But looking at him, she didn't think he seemed any more pleased with the results of that little experiment than she was.
His next words proved it. "And to think I had actually begun to wonder if a mistake might have been made, that you might — miraculously — be chaste after all. Foolish of me, wasn't it?"
Tanya fought this newest wave of heat surging up her neck to her cheeks, hating for him to know he'd scored another hit so easily if he should notice. But it wasn't just embarrassment that she felt, it was anger too, that he could say something like that just because she had kissed him back. And the anger prompted her reply.
"Well, you won't ever know for sure, will you?" she taunted him.
Stefan merely smiled, a smile that smugly stated as plain as any words, That's what you think. And he had made a promise to her in that regard, hadn't he? Something about her sharing his bed before their journey ended. Why were they all so convinced she was a whore? She almost asked him, but she didn't think she could stand any more insults right now. And there wasn't any time, if his sudden look of impatience could be interpreted correctly.