Page 50 of Mercenary Princess

He got up and wrapped a towel around his waist. She enjoyed the view of his muscled ass flexing all the way to the door. He was likely placing her food order with the guards.

While he strode back, he studied her. “The food will be here soon.”

“And my massage?” she asked with a cheeky grin. It was her way of deflecting whatever line of questioning she instinctually knew was coming her way. Questions were a no-no, but she’d been the one to break the rules.

“Massage oil is also coming.” His eyes warmed with apparent amusement, but something told her he was getting ready to destroy her calm.

“What I said about taking tests in the morning…”

Her smile fled. “I can’t see you tomorrow, Viktor.”

His features said he wasn’t pleased by that. “Why?”

“I’m otherwise engaged.” It was becoming difficult to find balance around him. When they had sex, she hid nothing, and she loved that he had the ability to read her every moan. It was the switch to reality that she struggled with, even knowing she’d allowed her displeasure at her evening plans to show.

“Your secrets are safe with me, Sophia,” he said with a look that unsettled her a little.

She shook off his double meaning. It wasn’t as if he wouldn’t see where she’d gone in the media. “I have to attend a charity event tonight.”

He seemed less pleased than she was by that fact. “Because your family wishes you to marry?”

“I see you’ve read the gossip pages.”

“Is it true?”

“Yes, they do wish me to marry.”

“Is that what you want?” He didn’t appear any more pleased than she was by the topic.

It might be a simple question, but she didn’t have a simple answer. “No, I don’t.”

“Then don’t do it.”

She bit the inside of her cheek. “Do you really want to talk about this?”

“No.”

“Then why ask?”

“Because I want to know more about you, and I have rules.” He gritted the words through clenched teeth.

She wondered at his frown. “Mmm-hmm. What rules?”

“I said at the start that I do not share.” He’d said that in her hotel room.

She wasn’t sure what to say to that. “And if I don’t want to share, either?”

He nodded. “You are the only woman I’m interested in.”

That warmed her far more than it should.

“And I have no desire to sleep with anyone else. I only have another week in the city, but I have things I have to do while I’m here,” she admitted. She hoped she was there for another week and didn’t get summoned back to the palace sooner. That wasn’t something she wanted to contemplate.

His expression had soured, and a muscle ticked at his jaw. “You’ll come to me every other day during that time.”

She stared up at him. “I can’t make promises.”

That definitely didn’t make her Russian happy. “Why?”

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