Read an excerpt from A Christmas Vow of Seduction by Maisey Yates

About the Book

A Christmas present for the man who has everything… 

With one band of gold Prince Andres of Petras can erase his past—albeit pleasurable—sins. But his prospective bride is untamable Princess Zara, so the playboy prince must seduce her into compliance and crown her by Christmas! 

The wayward princess of Tirimia has spent years hiding her untouched heart, and her convenient husband-to-be seems determined to keep it that way. Yet his caresses promise a sensual awakening that's impossible to resist. But once Zara's given him her hand and her body, it won't be long before he has her heart… 

Excerpt

Returning to the palace in Petras was never Andres's favorite thing. He preferred his various penthouses scattered throughout the world. London, Paris, New York. And a beautiful woman to go in each one. He was a cliché, but he was comfortable with it. If only because it was so much fun.

Petras, where his brother ruled with an iron fist, was never half as much fun. Kairos's iron fist was not reserved for the people of Petras, but for Andres himself. As though he were still a boy needing to be taken into hand, and not a man in his thirties.

Invariably, his stays in the palace followed a staid and steady routine. Visits to hospitals, and other approved public appearances where his every word was carefully scripted, stilted dinners with his older brother and his wife, that were as boring as they were uncomfortable, and long nights spent in his vast royal bedchamber all alone, because Kairos didn't approve of Andres bringing lovers to stay in the hallowed halls of the Demetriou family. Though, Andres thought that had less to do with propriety and more to do with the fact that Kairos was out to punish him for his past misdeeds in a million small ways, every day, until he died.

Which made his discovery upon entering his bedroom all the more remarkable.

He walked in tearing at his tie, too tight and constricting, like everything here, as he slammed the door behind him. Then he froze. There, in the center of his bed, knees curled up against her chest, long dark hair cascading loose over her shoulders like spilled ink, was a woman. They both stopped, completely still for a moment, regarding each other. Then she scrambled to her feet, stumbling backward on the mattress until her back was pressed against the large ornate headboard that had never been any use to him, as he never had a woman in this bed.

Until now.

Though, she had not been invited, neither did she look very excited to be there. Both of those things were a bit of an anomaly.

"Who are you?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"

She tilted her head upward, her expression defiant. "I am Princess Zara Stoica of Tirimia.

Andres knew very well that Tirimia was no longer a monarchy. In fact, the royal family had been driven from the throne during a bloody revolution back when Andres had been a teenager. He hadn't been aware there were any survivors, much less a princess who looked slightly more like a bedraggled urchin creature than a woman.

Her bronzed skin was painted with gold, framing her dark eyes and brows. Her lips were a deep shade of red designed to entice, but he had a feeling allowing himself to be enticed to be a mistake. She looked much more likely to bite him than kiss him. Her hair hung down well past her backside, disheveled as though she'd been in a fight, or thoroughly pleased by a lover.

Because of the bad bed it was temptinged to imagine the latter. But judging by the expression on her face it was it was most certainly the former.

"You seem to have the wrong palace, Princess."

"I do not," she said, her tone stiff. "I am a prisoner in my own country, and I was brought here as a gift to King Kairos.”

Andres's eyebrows shot upward. His older brother wouldn't know what to do with a woman as a gift even if he weren't bound by marriage vows. "In which case you're in the wrong room."

Her expression turned stormy. “He did not wish to keep me. He, in turn, gave me to his brother.”

Andres could not process the the absurdity of the statement. This woman, was a gift for him? “Are you telling me that you've been regifted?"