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promise he’d made prevented him from doing either. He wascompletely at her mercy. Fortunately, that didn’t worry him in the least.
    With a smile that promised that ecstasy would soon be his, Tanya reached for the cord on his lounging pants. But her fingers stilled when she heard the commotion outside their door, first raised voices, then the sounds of scuffling, then a very clear thud.
    “What the—?” Stefan began, but his unfinished question was answered by the door opening and his cousin storming into the room.
    Tanya gave a strangled shriek and rolled off Stefan and the lounge, to crouch on the floor, concealing herself there while she snatched her robe from the end of the chaise where she had discarded it before the dance. She yanked it on, glaring over Stefan’s belly at the intruder.
    Vasili didn’t notice, as he hadn’t yet located them in the room. The royal bedchamber was so large, he was still crossing it and saying in no particular direction, “Stefan, I’m sorry to disturb you at this hour, but I have a problem that has me so furious, I fear I will murder someone if I can’t find a solution.”
    “You didn’t start with my guard, did you?”
    Vasili turned toward the sound of that dry voice. “What? No, of course not. I merely knocked him out. Damned fool refused to let me pass.”
    “Perhaps because I didn’t wish to be disturbed, and for a reason.”
    Tanya rejoined Stefan on the chaise as hesat up, his arm immediately coming around her to pull her close. Their state of semi-undress made clear what that “reason” was.
    But Vasili acknowledged it with a mere “Sorry, but this simply couldn’t wait, Stefan. It’s worse than a nightmare. It’s so insane you won’t believe it. I still can’t believe it myself.”
    “Is he drunk, do you think?” Tanya whispered in Stefan’s ear.
    “Shh,” he told her. To Vasili, he said, “I assume you’ve seen your mother?”
    “Oh, yes, but had I even the slightest warning about what she was going to reveal to me—with absolute relish, I might add—I would be halfway to the border by now, vanished, never to be seen again. Did she tell you? So help me, Stefan, if you knew and didn’t warn me—”
    “You know better than that.”
    Vasili did, and for the third time he said, “I’m sorry. My reasoning has gone to hell, which is where my life will be going if something drastic doesn’t happen to change what has befallen me.”
    “It would be nice if you would tell me what we’re talking about.”
    Vasili was momentarily startled. “Didn’t I?” Before Stefan could answer, he continued. “I have just learned that my father signed a betrothal contract fifteen years ago with my name on it. A betrothal contract! My mother didn’t even know. Only the girl and her father have known all these years, and only now,when she is apparently ready to get married, do they bother to write and tell us.”
    “Who is she?”
    “Is that all you have to say?” Vasili fairly shouted in his agitation. “Who the hell cares who she is, when I have no wish to marry her!”
    “You knew you would have to get married eventually,” Stefan said reasonably.
    “Not for another ten years at least, and that is hardly the point. Suddenly I have a betrothed I’ve never laid eyes on, and don’t remind me that you faced the same appalling circumstance, because you grew up knowing about your betrothal, whereas I grew up assuming the decision would be mine.”
    “Considering how splendidly my own betrothal has worked out, you can’t expect me to dredge up much sympathy for you, cousin.”
    “The hell I can’t,” Vasili snapped. “Kindly remember how you felt before you met your lovely wife.”
    With a squeeze for said wife to assure her that that had been then and not now, Stefan said, “Point taken.”
    “And heirs to the crown rarely have a choice about who they marry,” Vasili continued heatedly, “but I’m merely a king’s cousin. No one besides me has