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Awareness slid as smoothly as a lover’s caress across her skin. Clarisse didn’t need to turn around to know Mak moved through the casino. Although formally known as Prince Makis Alexander Gregory Leonard Nicodemus, the youngest of three sons of the reigning ruler of the small island Principality of Renoun, Clarisse referred to him as Mak.

She always enjoyed having him around, especially on nights like tonight when she was winning. Winning made her horny.

She toyed with her chips, debating how much to raise her bet. When he moved to stand behind her, she caught a whiff of his distinctive musky male aroma of lust on the prowl.

The scent mingled with the perfume from the fresh rose bud he always wore in his suit lapel to remind people of the flowers that were his small country’s major export crop and income source. Between it and his subtle cologne, memories spiraled through her, making her shiver with want and dampening her inner thighs.

Last night he’d slipped her evening gown’s straps from her shoulders, not with his hands but with the tightly furled rosebud at the end of its stem. He used his teeth to slide down the zipper, then traced across her skin with the soft petals.

With her gown in a puddle at her feet, wearing only her high heels, she stood in front of him while he skimmed the rosebud over her body. He started at her face, drawing the rose across her eyelids. As it whispered over her lips, she opened her eyes to see his golden brown ones staring deeply into hers.