A deep growl left Valenti’s throat before he even realised it was building. He barely noticed the crowd take a collective wary step back, but he did note that the music had died down significantly, probably courtesy of one of his team. Enough to hear himself think.
‘Are you happy now? Everyone is looking at us,’ she hissed, a blush creeping into her cheeks as he dragged his bizarrely compelled gaze from her lips to her eyes.
He plucked the phone from her hand and slotted it into his pocket. Then he led her decisively towards the exit.
‘What are you doing?’
‘What does it look like?’ he growled. ‘We’re leaving.’
‘You may be, but I’m not.’
Valenti stopped abruptly. She stumbled into him, then grabbed his arm to steady herself. ‘I’m not having a conversation with you in this place,’ he said, seething, noting the various phone cameras aimed their way. Teo was going to have a field day with this.
‘Then leave! You weren’t invited here in the first place. I— What the hell!’
Valenti ignored the outraged screech as he tossed his wayward charge over his shoulder. Gritted his teeth when her wriggling dug his shoulder into her soft belly.
The clubbers who’d stopped to gawp he quickly dispatched with furious glares that had them scrambling.
Sixty seconds later, he had her ensconced—and bristling like a wet cat—in his front seat, his command for her to stay put,or else, seemingly working despite the ice-blue fire in her eyes.
ThankDiosfor small mercies.
‘You’re supposed to be ten miles away, at finishing school. Why are you not?’ he enquired coolly, grateful the strange roiling had settled down.
‘Are you serious right now?’ she scoffed, her glare drilling into the side of his face.
‘You’re an intelligent girl or so your college professor told me when we last spoke. What do you think?’
‘I think if you cared about my education at all—even the useless part that for some reason requires me to go to finishing school like some mid-nineteenth-century non-feminist waif in desperate search for a husband—then you would know I graduatedthree weeks ago! Alone.’
A jolt of disquiet shook through him, one he didn’t allow to show as he accelerated through the busy streets. A quick mental calculation provided the reason for the lapse. He was one week from the next monthly report on her activities. He’d only received the alert about tonight because his security had rightly deemed it an abnormal risk.
Still, it was…disconcerting that she would no longer be mandated to be locked away in some academic institution, as safe from harm as he could order her to be with his security team nearby to provide an extra layer of protection.
Even more disconcerted that she hadn’t bothered to reach out and berate him for his absence. Did she…hate him?
And why did that chafe when he shouldn’t care?
He smashed away the wavelet of discomfort. He was here to deal with a more perilous situation.
Pulling up to a red light, he slanted a glance at her and frowned when he saw the chagrin she was trying to hide. Replaying her response, he experienced another jolt.
‘What do you mean alone?’ he rasped.
Her nostrils quivered for a single second before she said, ‘Do you need the definition?’
‘I mean,’ he forced through gritted teeth, ‘when I spoke to your brother three weeks ago, he was still in Reykland. He said he would be home for another two weeks. I assumed he would be around to attend your graduation.’
A faint frown feathered across her brow. ‘Do…do you speak to Gunnar often?’ she muttered.
‘At least once a month,sí.’ It was how he learned snippets of her life that didn’t make it into his professional report. How he knew Lotte hadn’t forgiven him for rejecting her in Cartana. And why, as much as the fractures were unfortunate, he didn’t completely wish them gone. Because they kept a necessary distance between the Lotte who was no longer the carefree girl he once knew—and the woman she’d become—and the rigid guard he’d discovered he needed to keep around her.
Her gaze dropped to her folded hands, then quickly switched to the window, blocking his view of her face. ‘Well, he didn’t attend. He was called away four days before I finished so…’
This time her delicate jaw clenched for several seconds before she visibly relaxed it. And kept looking out of the window. Ignoring him.
His own jaw started to clench, but then she turned, and he exhaled the absurd agitation rising in his chest.
