The King’s Maiden (Camelot Court #1)

Chapter Twenty

QUINN

I made it through the rest of the week without being propositioned. And honestly, that confused me more than it relieved me, which meant I seriously needed to have my head examined.

No matter how many times I told myself I should not be attracted to Landon, or I needed to stop fantasizing about Landon, or I could not give in to Landon…

It wouldn’t take.

He’d made it clear that, while he would no doubt be a very skilled lover, he wanted rules and to draw more lines between us than a toddler doing arts and crafts.

To him, this was a job—training me for The Quest.

And I was here to win it. Get the money and get out. That was the plan, and I had to stick to it. While I needed Landon to do that, I did not need to catch feelings or get attached. Especially since I’d already kissed Kingston.

But still, I found myself drawn to him.

So, I thought he was hot. That didn’t mean I liked him. It only meant I wasn’t blind. Because with his eyes like warm honey and cloves, a body that seemed to be pure, glorious muscle, and the completely unfair size of his dick, the guy was hot.

I wished—I wholeheartedly fucking wished—his personality negated all of it like I had thought it might the first night.

But unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

The more time I spent around him, even doing normal things like cooking in the main house’s kitchen, reading in his room, or walking the expansive grounds of campus, the more obvious it became.

He was nothing like my ex or guys I’d wanted in the past. Broody and dark—he was way too serious for someone our age. His self-control bordered on slightly obsessive, and he adhered to his routines like he had an internal schedule hardwired into his brain. But even that didn’t diminish how attractive he was.

To me, it only made him hotter.

And while I fought back against his abrupt and slightly domineering behavior, it was mostly on principle. Definitely not because I hated it. Every conversation we had felt like this weird, supercharged kind of foreplay as he battled for order, and I fought to create chaos. My body responded to him as if being pulled by gravity, the way the tide changed under the force of the moon.

I’d never experienced anything like it, and it was throwing me for a loop. Especially knowing the rules of The Quest allowed him to boss me around at the threat of punishment, he could’ve tried to use my desire to win—and his final say over whether that happened or not—against me. But he didn’t.

Like I said, confusing as fuck.

I pushed up from my seat in the kitchen. “I need to get some air.”

He turned from the stove, his eyes following as I stood and walked to the door. I could practically hear the wheels turning as he processed this abrupt change.

“You don’t know where you’re going.”

He was right, of course. But I wasn’t going to confirm that. The last thing I needed when I already felt on edge was another round of verbal foreplay.

“I’ll figure it out.” I waved a hand at him as I walked out of the kitchen.

The door swung shut behind me, leaving me alone in an empty corridor. I leaned against the wall and took a breath. Getting lost in the house seemed like a nice alternative to staring at Landon’s ass while he cooked me food, only because the latter made me want to provoke him by ripping off my clothes in the middle of the communal kitchen.

“…eliminated…can’t…rid of her…”

Muffled voices came from farther down the hallway. And like one of those girls in a scary movie who walked toward the dark room where the killer obviously lurked—instead of running in the opposite fucking direction—I crept closer.

“—make it through to the next round. If she doesn’t, the more risk we have this won’t play out in our favor.”

My eyebrows shot up, and I ducked behind a giant suit of armor when it was Max who responded.

“I’m well aware of the stakes, Father.”

The other voice, so similar to his son’s, I now recognized as Merle. “Overconfidence is foolish, Max.”

“You didn’t see what I saw.”

“So you keep saying. But he’s not convinced it’s enough. The plan is?—”

“The plans changed the second she stepped through the door. I can promise you that.”

“You’d better be right.”

“I am.”

A beat of silence passed between them, and it occurred to me that they could be preparing to leave the room through the doorway where I stood—very clearly eavesdropping on their private conversation.

I panicked, jolting back to turn and run away before they caught me, but in my haste, my foot caught on the giant suit of armor.

It crashed to the ground, taking me with it.

I shrieked and let out a stream of curses as I fell.

The heavy pieces of the gilded Knight buried me as it toppled from its perch, and I took each blow with a grunt of pain before clawing my way out of the wreckage. Shoving the chest plate off my body, I stared up at the ceiling and wondered how the hell I got here.

A second later, footsteps rushed over.

“Well, what do we have here?”

At first glance, Merle Dread was as tall and formidable as his son, and it had nothing to do with the way he stood over me. Max had inherited his build from his father, that much was obvious. But the older of the two Dreads had graying hair and crow’s feet around his light brown eyes, as well as a smile on his face. I had to blink a few times to make sure I was seeing him clearly.

Meanwhile, the younger Dread stared down at me with no emotion on his face—barely even a hint of recognition. Max’s eyes must’ve come from his mother, but I wondered if they held the same indifference as his onyx gaze.

With his arms crossed over a chest I refused to think about, he stood like a soldier at his father’s side.

“This is Quinn Everly,” he announced, his voice devoid of its usual heat and ego.

“Ah! Quinn Everly!” Merle’s face lit up, and he eagerly helped me to my feet. “Kingston has told me so much about you. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, my dear girl.”

He smiled at me expectantly, squeezing my hand like an old friend. Kingston had cleared him of being involved in my cold welcome to Camelot Court. But even though he looked harmless, I couldn’t shake the nagging doubt in my mind.

Eschewing the rules of polite society, I withdrew my hand and stepped back. Unfortunately, that sent me stumbling over a piece of armor and brought me closer to Max, whose hand shot out to grip my arm. His fingers tightened as he held me upright, a clear warning in his eyes.

“Sorry.” I got my feet beneath me and tugged my arm free, scrambling for an explanation they hadn’t asked for yet. “I, uh…I got lost.”

Max’s eyes narrowed on my face.

I avoided his gaze and turned to his father. “Can you point me toward the kitchens? My Knight—um, Landon. He’s waiting for me.”

Merle laughed. “I’m surprised he let you out of his sight. Or his bedroom.”

I forced a half-hearted chuckle, as if that hadn’t been a totally creepy thing for him to say, but when his good-natured expression morphed into something darker, my urge to flee heightened exponentially.

“He’s not still giving you trouble, is he?”

My foot halted mid-step. “What?”

“I heard about what happened the first night.” Merle clucked like a strange mother hen, stepping toward me, and it clicked that his weird comment had been referring to Landon locking me in the room. “It’s my job to make sure the Knights behave themselves. These young men…” He flicked his gaze toward Max. “Sometimes, they can get carried away with The Quest. And their Maidens. If you ever have concerns, I want you to come find me straight away.”

My eyes shot to Max.

That wasn’t even close to what he’d told me that night. He implied I was going to be kicked out for not pleasing my Knight. And I’d been so outraged I almost left on my own.

Now, as he stood there and didn’t contradict his father’s claim, I couldn’t help but feel like I’d been played.

“Thank you,” I said to Merle, keeping my eyes on Max. “But I’m not sure my Knight is the one I have to worry about.”

Max’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t say a word or even look at me. I scoffed and carefully made my way over the rest of the suit of armor. With its pieces between us, I could finally get the hell out of there.

I nodded politely at Merle this time. “If you’ll excuse me, I really do have to go.”

Taking off down the hallway, I headed to the right at the first turn and flinched when Max’s voice called out behind me.

“Wrong way, Princess.”

Huffing out my frustration, I veered left and walked straight down the hall. But I glanced back over my shoulder once I had put some distance between us. Merle hadn’t moved, but he watched me with concern as I ran away. Max, on the other hand, had decided to follow me.

“Do you even know where you’re going?”

I increased my pace, my hands tightening into fists at my side. “I’ll fucking figure it out!”

“You’ll get lost, Princess.”

Whirling around, I jabbed my finger into his stupid, rock-hard chest and threw his words from our first meeting in his face. “Why do you care, Max Dread?”

He scowled at the point where I touched him. Or maybe it was because I’d rolled his name off my tongue as he’d done with mine that first night. Either way, he showed more emotion in those two seconds than he had the entire time I’d been with him and his father.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Quinn Everly.”

“You cared enough to lie to me that night.”

He arched his brow. “Did I?”

I frowned, unsure if he referred to whether he’d cared or whether he’d lied. But deciding it didn’t matter, I squared my shoulders and lifted my chin. “I’m sorry if me being here is hard for you, Max. But you’re going to have to do more than that to get rid of me.”

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. “If you 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.