Steam rose through the air in lazy spirals. When his toes hit the hot water, they came alive with tiny pin pricks. Klaus settled into the tub, his bones creaking in tired protest. A well practiced nod cleared the room of his servants. He wanted to be left blissfully alone. He needed to forget the woman he left in the cool shadows of the hedge maze. Desired to forget the war, his title, his wife, his brother, his entire blasted life.

He stared out the window. Was she still wandering out there? He rubbed the throb between his eyes. What gentleman abandons a woman in shrubbery? Damn. He should not have stormed away from her. What if she did not have the ability to navigate the maze?

He shook the thought from his mind and worked the kinks out of his neck by rolling it side to side. He almost met with success when the slam of the bath door sent tension shooting up his spine. Klaus whipped around. Water sloshed over the side of the tub. His eyes narrowed in on a furious Adelrune.

"If you so wish for scandal then perchance you can label this as such."

Klaus nearly jumped clear of the sanctuary of the tub. He whirled his head toward the window and hedge maze then the door. How the hell did she manage to barge in here?

"This is my bath you insolent, little shrew. Leave!"

Adelrune jutted a hip. Most unladylike. Klaus glared.

"Make me do so."

Her words dropped his jaw. The grand duke had half a mind to leap from the tub and do just that, but he was thankfully cloaked by its deep basin. If he were to move at the moment, all of Austria and half of Hungary would know precisely how quickly she could arouse him. Sharp throbs tightened his groin. The sunlight streamed through the window and shone against her dress in such a way her every curve was highlighted.

"This is my bath," he growled. "Why… what… this is my bath! " He could not tear his eyes away from the fingers of sun that reached over her shoulder and disappeared beneath her bodice. He squeezed his eyes. It should be his fingers… on those breasts.

Adelrune was not deterred. She paced before his tub. Klaus volleyed his head. Her movements only accentuated the swish of fabric against her legs.

"I wish to know-in plain and simple language I can understand--" she tapped at her temple, "why you felt a need to remind me I am not an able woman when it comes to the pursuit of a man's company."

"What?" He leaned forward, causing Adelrune to stumble backward. Her eyes drew open wider than a startled elk staring down the cold steel of a rifle. Posing for a moment in mid-rise, Klaus admired the shade of pink spreading from her neckline up to her cheeks. He glanced down at himself, following where it appeared she stared. Adelrune's eyes followed the angry fresh scar on his shoulder, down a flexed bicep to rest on his religious medallions, centered perfectly in the deep indent between the muscles of his chest. A smile crept across his lips. He casually reclined and gestured with a wet arm.

"Problem, Fräulein?"

"You… have hair upon your chest."

Her blush deepened. He hardened.

"This surprises you?" He heard her swallow. A trickle of water inched down his chest. He slowly wiped it away watching Adelrune blink in embarrassed horror. Grasping either side of the tub, knowing the action of heaving himself out would make certain muscles bulge, Klaus was determined to see just how flushed she could get. "I assure you Fräulein I have hair elsewhere as well."

Adelrune shrieked and spun her back to him. Settling into the tub, Klaus laughed as she resumed pacing.

"Go ahead and jest with me. I know I am an easy target." Adelrune jabbed a finger in his direction. "And it is not due to how I act. So do not think I am plagued with madness."

"Madness?" Klaus slung an arm over the side of his tub. "You, Fräulein, are a raving lunatic." He ached to be the man to tame her. Innocent, mad, he didn't care so long as his hands were around that waist.

"If it so important to you to take the company of lady and insist upon such intimate physical contact with her--"

"Intimate physical contact? Since is it a crime for a gentleman to ask for simple kiss? I assure you, if you wish intimate physical contact, I will be more than happy to oblige."

"If you wish that and wish to find a mistress then go to one of those… places…where women do…"

"A salon?" The tension in his shoulders knotted and began to bump down his spine.

"Yes!" You have visited them haven't you?"

Klaus raked his hands through is hair. If he kept moving he might just make the girl invent a new shade of red. Her gaze continued over every inch of him instead of meeting his eyes directly. She would look away then chance a peek back at him. Even though the water cooled, warmth spread through him, igniting his loins to a hotter temperature. "Do you have any idea of the inappropriateness of this conversation? Of this entire bloo--blasted situation?"

"Women do certain things with men there, do they not?"

"That depends on what your knowledge is of things women and men do."

As soon as he said the words, he groaned. Klaus watched them snap Adelrune ramrod straight. Though he thought numerous times on showing her exactly what it is a man and women do together, he held back. For now, he educated her in his imagination. And he had a healthy imagination. What he could do with her now, naked, in this very tub….

"I… they…" Adelrune tilted her head in the manner that drove him mad. Those blasted curls bounced. "... embrace?"

Dear Lord. Klaus prayed the tub was deep enough to conceal all of him. A certain embraceable something was inching higher on his belly. Any more of her torture and he feared it would not be hidden.

Adelrune stomped her foot. "It matters not what I know. Answer my question."

Klaus threw his hands over his head, sinking deeper into the water. He heard death by drowning was peaceful. "Yes, yes, I have and I assure you the women there know never to interrupt a gentleman's bath."

"Then take their company if you do not wish that of your wife. Or the company of someone equal to you and leave me be."

Her bottom lip slipped forward. Her tiny pink tongue moistened her pout making Klaus clamp down on his teeth. He had never been aroused to the point of pain. Adelrune's tantrum was not helping.

"I do not understand your intent toward me, or--"

"Adelrune!" Klaus roared.

His hands slapped the water, his pitch hitting a level that finally sent his valet and a flurry of footmen stumbling every which way into the room. The servants scattered in different directions upon the sight of their master in his bath and the woman he unleased upon. Before anyone could mutter a word he issued one stern command.

"Take her. Now. Downstairs."

He cursed under his breath. There was something totally perplexing about a woman who was fire one moment, timid the next and wrapped in a body that made him wish his tub was filled with ice.

Sinking beneath the water, he bemoaned his fate. No denying it now. He was completely under her spell and falling deeper and deeper in love with an unattainable, crazed minx.