Shit.
Her face softened. “Well all right, then. Let’s go help our girl.”
***
I flew back that night, a drink in my hand as I thought about what I had told Jo. I wasn’t lying. I did have some tender feelings for Anna, the lost princess.
Shit, a fuckup like me having feelings for someone else. It was laughable.
Only it wasn’t. I didn’t know what I was going to do, what I was going to say to Anna.
Or how I was going to even act around her now. But the truth was, I wanted to do everything for her.
***
I waited until late afternoon to contact Anna, after a few hours of sleep and a good shower. She met me at the mansion, and I admitted her, my heart thudding in my ears.
Damn, I felt like some kid on his first date. “Hey,” she said, dropping her bag in the foyer. “How did it go?”
“Well,” I answered as she followed me into the living room. “Jo says hi and that she will be back as soon as she can.”
“I miss her,” Anna answered as she curled up on the couch, looking right at home.
“Don’t worry, she will be back,” I replied, dropping onto the couch with her. “And she’s in.”
Anna smiled. “I knew she would be. Johanna can’t back down from a challenge.”
“Or her fake death,” I chuckled. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
Anna eyed me. “She has to drown, right?”
I swallowed. “It has to be a convincing drowning, but I’ve spent my entire fucking life in the water. I will save her, don’t worry.”
Anna bit her lip. “Can I trust you, Max?”
Damn, that was a loaded question. She knew I had had ulterior motives in the past and she had every right not to trust me at all.
But I had no qualms about helping her either. I wanted Anna to trust me, like she did the other kings. I wanted to show her that I was more than the disgraced name that I carried.
I wanted her goodness in my life. “You can trust me, Anna,” I finally said. “I want what you do.”
“Okay,” she finally said, giving me a small smile. “Then let’s walk through the plan.”
I loosened a breath. “First I will go and sabotage the boat.” It wouldn’t be hard for me to do so. Though the boat Jo would be using was not one of the rowboats, but those that were left for student enjoyment on the lake, I still was a familiar figure in the boathouse. No one would dare question why I was there.
“And mark it somehow.”
“And mark it somehow,” I repeated, thinking of the colored flags we used on our rowing boats sometimes. “I would hate for Jo to get in a perfectly good boat.”
Anna smiled. “Would completely defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it?”
I returned her smile with one of my own. “Completely.”
“What next?”
I shifted on the couch. “Then she will row out to the middle of the lake under the pretense that she wants to sunbathe alone. The boat will start to sink, and she will go under.”
“Where will you be?” Anna asked softly.
“In another boat,” I answered, thinking about the plan I had run through in my own mind on the plane ride back. “My rowing boat, maybe. I have a meet coming up so no one will think anything about me being there.”
“Good,” Anna replied, tugging on the hair thing to release her ponytail. Her hair fell about her face and I swallowed. Damn, I wanted to run my fingers through her strands and pull her close.
What would Anna feel like under me?
“Max?”
Shaking out of my sudden thoughts, I found her staring at me. “What?”
“The plan,” she said slowly. “You were talking about the plan.”
Oh yeah. What step were we on again? “I’ll see Johanna go under and then I will row to fish her out,” I completed. “We need to make it look bad so I will pretend she’s not breathing and perform mouth-to-mouth on her.”
“Mouth to mouth?”
Anna’s voice had a jealous note to it, surprising me. “Yeah,” I said. “How else is it going to look bad?”
She looked down at her hand, sliding the hairband over her wrist. “I guess you are right and all.”
“Are you jealous?” She couldn’t be jealous. There was nothing between us and we had only kissed once.
“What? Of course not. I just wonder if that’s necessary,” she sniffed, sliding a hand over her arm lightly.
She was jealous. A sudden spurt of pure primal need threaded through me as I looked at the beautiful girl before me. Hell. No wonder the other kings were sniffing around her so much. Now I knew how they felt. Anna was someone who you wanted to protect, someone you wanted to control, but you also knew you could never control her.
And that was fucking perfect. “Anna.”
She looked up. “I’m not jealous,” she said tightly, unfolding her long legs and standing. “Maybe I should go now that we have hashed out the plan.” It was clear that she was angry about something and I didn’t want to let her go from here that angry.
So, I stood abruptly, grabbing her hand as she tried to walk past me and yanking her toward me until we were inches apart. “Tell me that you are jealous, Anna.”
“I don’t have anything to be jealous about,” she said lightly, a slight tremor in her voice. “Especially when I don’t know how a kiss like that feels.”
“Would you like to?” The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them, my body tight with anticipation.
And need.
Damn, I wanted her.
Anna’s eyes met mine and I could see the indecision there, so I solved it for her by placing my mouth on hers, swallowing her gasp.
I was going to show her what that kind of kiss felt like.
Chapter 9
Anna
One minute I was fighting some pretty ugly rounds of jealousy, the next moment Max’s mouth was on mine and I was lost. I admit, I hated the thought of him giving Johanna mouth-to-mouth, his lips touching hers.
So, sue me.
I threaded my fingers through Max’s thick hair as he pulled me against his hard body, his arm trapping me there. His tongue played a dangerous tango with mine, sending all sorts of warm, fuzzy feelings throughout my body.
It was both exciting and extremely dangerous territory.