Page 74 of The King's Maiden

He pressed in closer. “Oh, you have no idea how hard you’re making things for me.” His eyes flicked down to my lips before looking away.“Ifyou make it that far, I plan to return the favor.”

I opened my mouth to shoot back at him, but Max took that moment to steal my breath with a kiss so full of pent-up rage, it sent fire raging through me. Searing my lips with his, he deepened the kiss before I could stop him. His tongue swept over mine right as my hands came to his chest—surely to push him away.

He growled, seizing my wrists. Hauling me into his arms, one hand dove into my hair. The other wrapped around my body.

He moved so quickly it knocked the wind out of me.

I wrenched my head back and panted for air, struggling to get out of his hold just as a familiar voice came from beside us.

“Get your fucking hands off my Maiden.”

I gasped, turning toward Landon’s voice. He glared at Max with more venom in his eyes than I’d ever seen a single person hold in one look. Relief washed over me that none of it was directed at me.

That quickly evaporated.

Max took his sweet time releasing me, dragging his hands down my back and coming dangerously close to my ass as he set me on my feet.

“What if she wants them on her?”

His smirking face begged to be smacked.

But my lips burned as if he’d branded me, and my skin felt warm everywhere we’d made contact.

So, I needed to stop touching him immediately.

As soon as he let me go, I jerked away from him.

“Not my fault if she’s dishonoring herself already, Landon.” Max shrugged, running his eyes over me as if I’d been stained in scarlet and bore a letter of shame on my chest. “Can’t imagine how easy it’ll be for one of us to break her in the next challenge.”

The daggers I glared at him didn’t even scratch the surface of his conscience—if he even had one—so I turned to Landon, pleading with him to see the truth and opening my mouth to defend myself.

Landon shook his head, silencing me before I could say anything.

My face fell. Disappointment sank in my gut. But when I moved to wrap my arms around myself, feeling indignation rise in my throat, Landon stopped me again.

“No. Don’t, Quinn.”

Although he gave the command sharply, he softened my name and his gaze in front of Max in a way that felt…intimate.

He held out his hand.

As soon as I took it, he pulled me into his side and turned back to Max. “Touch her again without her consent, and the King will see to it that you and your Maiden are disqualified.”

Hatred burned in Max’s eyes as fiercely as it resonated in Landon’s voice. It ran so deep, it pulsated in the air between them. As if their hearts had been laced with poison and bound in barbed wire.

I didn’t know how either of them could stand it, or what could’ve possibly happened between them that led to it.

But it hurt to even witness it.

I had to look away from both of them.

“You better hope she’s not mine for the next challenge then, Golden Boy.”

“I’m not worried.” Landon’s arm tightened around my shoulders in response. “And I won’t warn you again, Dread.”

As Landon spun us away, I caught a flash of something sinister on Max’s face. But I couldn’t focus on it long enough to figure out what it meant. Too quickly, Landon escorted me back down the hall in the correct direction of the kitchens.

Max disappeared behind us.

---