It's exactly a game of control he's playing.
The queen and women in general don't understand when a man says "not tonight dear".
One of the most telling things a man can do (but only if he's willing to lose the affection of a girl) is tell her no sex tonight: she'll absolutely blow her lid, accuse him of being gay, verbally and physically abuse him, etc etc.
One of the most notable differences between the genders is that women have no concept of not being able to get sex basically whenever they want, if they put even a minimum effort in (unless they are very ugly).
The female mating strategy is based around REJECTING sex, to only get SPECIFIC males, rather than pursuing whatever males are around.
Men, OtOH, will temporarily (w/a lease-to-possibly-eventually-own mentality) go for whichever female is within reach, so long as she's mildly attractive, and men almost never turn down sex when asked by a partner, as a result, but women turn down sex habitually to try to gain power: to control which men get access to thier pussies, to give them children.
So if you suddenly reject a woman's advances, she finds out that a man is not willing to just automatically give her sex on demand, she doesn't know how to handle it, as a general thing, at least not for MOST women.
Rejection seems to REALLY slap them in the face, as it suggests they're not desirable, and that we're not there to provide them relief when they're horny (which of course is exactly what they're always accusing us of: admittedly correctly, but we're more used to getting turned down).
Now if you have a girl asking you for sex you can try this experiment with the caveat that you'll probably lose the opportunity to have sex with her ever again, but it may be quite educational, unless she has a lot of discipline, and keeos her cool (rare).
It's akin to the same double standard BS, that many woman who DEMAND an open relationship w/you, so they can get about, will automatically flip their chit the instant YOU actually take her up on that and fuck another woman. Like fuckin' clockwork.
So with the main character is doing is exercising sufficient control to keep her on the hook because both as a woman (and as the queen) she ain't used to being told no. Luckily, she knows she's not going to get any offer nearly as good as him, and so she probably will eventually just buckle under the pressure when he finally comes back around at her.
Of course, he has to be VERY careful with this game, to not lose either of his heads to an oft fickle Queen
