Page 26 of Misadventures with a Time Traveler

Because they’re interrupted by rhythmic booms across the foyer.

At first, my frazzled mind interprets the poundings as thunder. Too late, I realize they’re footsteps.

Made by big feet.

Not just any big feet.

My system won’t let me deny their source. The fevered sprint of my pulse. The explosions in my nerve endings. The aching pressure at the core of my sex, thrumming through every inch of my pussy…

As Maximillian, the effing prince of the most incredible sex I’ve ever had, all but marches into the room.

“Unnnh,” Raegan mewls.

“Wahoo,” Drue mumbles. She was probably going for whoa, but I sure as hell can’t blame her for the misfire.

As Max swoops his stare toward the high-end tile floor, his hair flies out from its leather tie. The thick chestnut mane catches the light, ensuring every air molecule evacuates my lungs at once. He doesn’t stay that way for long. My friends’ new groans of appreciation have him snapping back up with spread arms.

“Gypsy witches.” The words spill from him on snarls that are almost queries. His tone supports his baffled scrutiny of Drue’s blue locks and Rae’s sunshine pirate ensemble.

Drue surges to her feet, cocks a hand to her hip, and drawls, “If you say so, gorgeous.”

“So. Hot.” Raegan flushes and then flusters through a wave. “I—I mean hi. So…ummm…hi there!”

I take a few steps forward. “Maximillian?”

He stomps forward again. Straight toward me. He sidesteps all the gilded furniture in the room as if he doesn’t see it. Or as if he’s seen it too many times.

“Ohmigod.” The three words combine into one hot rasp on my lips. It tumbles out as he steps closer. His gaze is the color of golden satin. His steps are focused and sure. Every hewn inch of him is visible beneath his historical finery.

He’s utterly arrogant.

And totally breathtaking.

“Ummm…” It hums out of Raegan, lilting at the end. “Monsieur…Maximillian? Can I…errr…help you?”

“Merci, mademoiselle, but no.”

He arrives at the edge of my personal space. He pushes all the way into it to cup my shoulders and then haul me in until our bodies are nearly touching. I suck in a huge breath. He still smells like midnight mist and secret sex. His gaze tightens, and his every pore oozes pure sensuality. “But she can.”

“Oh?” Drue’s tone drips with a smirk. “Do tell.”

“Shut up,” I tell her through tight teeth.

“Oy, Allie bear. I hope you weren’t this much of a buzz kill last night.”

“Shut up.”

“Killing is not what this woman was created to do.” His words cling to the expectant air like raindrops on a window. Even Drue is speechless as he wraps a hand to the back of my neck, tugging me closer. “She is the exquisite opposite. She is beauty and nectar and passion. She has brought me back to life.”

Raegan groans. “I just swallowed my tongue.”

“Clearly that might not be the only swallowing happening around here.”

I struggle for the strength to jab a middle finger at Drue. But like last night, my body isn’t my own anymore. Not from the second Maximillian touches me. He’s like dawn, spreading through a night in which I didn’t even know I was living. As he pushes nearer, my core softens. Craving him…

Max, clearly reading this, flares his nostrils. “Mon miracle,” he whispers against my lips before taking them in a torrid kiss. “Why did you leave me?”

For a moment, blissful and surreal, I forget the room exists. I forget air exists. Somehow, I’m able to stammer out, “Because…I thought we were all done?”