help cool his temper.
“Should I bow?” he growled with deep sarcasm. “Your Majesty.”
“I believe ‘Your Highness’ is the correct form of address.”
He scowled at her equally sarcastic tone and gave a bitter, self-recriminatory laugh. “You’re a bloody little liar, that’s what you are! All this time, pretending to be something you’re not.”
She gave a dainty shrug. “We’re all pretending to be something we’re not. You, for example, pretend to be a rational, sensible human being. If you’ll just let me—”
“Does Dorothea know?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Of course she does, the old schemer.”
God, he’d been so stupid. He should have realized who she was straight away. All the signs had been there. Her haughty demeanor, her polished manners, her strange worldly innocence. The way Dorothea had been oh-so-keen to throw them together.
He’d been set up.
By a septuagenarian battle-ax.
She frowned. “I don’t see why you’re getting so angry—”
“I slept with you!”
“So?”
“So? You came to me under false pretenses.”
She crossed her arms. “And what difference would it have made if I’d told you?”
“I never would’ve slept with you! I do not seduce well-bred—” He stopped short and glared at her. “Oh, God, you were a virgin, weren’t you?” The guilty look on her face was enough to incriminate her, and he swore again, furious at himself as much as her. “Christ alive! I don’t bed virgins. Ever. I bed wenches. Actresses. Widows. Tarts.”
Her eyes widened at that, but she lifted her chin in that haughty way he should have realized came from a lifetime of privilege.
“Well, now you’ve fucked a woman who outranks you. Congratulations.”
His jaw dropped at her shocking use of profanity, but she wasn’t finished.
“I’m glad I didn’t tell you. I’m not ashamed of what we did. I wanted you. You wanted me. I fail to see the problem.”
“Fail to see the problem?” he echoed in disbelief. “I’ve ruined you! You’re the lost princess. You’re—”
“I’m not lost,” she countered, equally incensed. “I’m not a parcel! I know exactly where I am. I chose to come here to England. I chose to give myself to you.” Her expression took on a cynical slant. “What? Will you fight Vasili in a duel over my ‘lost honor’?”
Seb glared right back at her. “Hardly. I never fight duels.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’d kill my opponent.” He shrugged at her raised eyebrows. “That’s not false modesty. I spent three years in the Rifles. I’m a bloody good shot. It would be unfair advantage. I’ve seen too many men die for important principles to indulge in a petty squabble at Chalk’s Farm over a woman. Besides, duels are outlawed, technically.”
“I hardly think it would be the first law you’ve broken,” she sniped.
“I’ve never broken a law. Merely bent them on occasion.”
Seb squeezed his temples with his hand, trying to banish the tension that was pounding in his skull. His knuckles stung from the fistfight, and his cheekbone throbbed with every pulse of his heart.
He strode to the sideboard, poured himself a large measure of brandy, and downed it. His hand wasn’t entirely steady. He did not offer any to her, despite the fact that she looked like she could do with it. He wasn’t feeling that charitable. God, what a mess.
“What the hell was a princess doing in a brothel?” he growled.
“I’m Charlotte’s neighbor. I’m teaching some of her girls to read and write.”
He let out a snort of self-directed humor. “Her neighbor. In Covent Garden. Oh, bloody brilliant.” He took another steadying draught of liquor. “You do realize we’ll have to marry now, don’t you?”
Her mouth dropped open in shock. “Don’t be ridiculous! There’s no need for that. You haven’t ruined Princess Anastasia. You’ve ruined secretary Anna Brown, whom nobody cares about in the least. Princess Anastasia doesn’t exist. She’s dead.”
He pinned her with a level stare. “I’m honor bound to do the right thing.”
She looked a little panicked, and Seb felt a stab of malicious pleasure. Good, the little pretender ought to be afraid. Her subterfuge had landed them both in a situation that would ruin the rest of their lives.
“I’m not marrying you,” she said crossly. “I’m not marrying anyone. As soon as Vasili returns to Russia, I’ll go back to working for the dowager duchess.”
“Dorothea will expect us to marry, even if nobody else in the ton knows who you are. Do you honestly think she’d let me seduce you and then abandon you without the protection of my name?”
“You didn’t seduce me! We seduced each other. And you didn’t”—her face turned