Tonight, in the debrief message to him. I told him that. This time I didn’t hide how scared I was, that I was in this relationship alone.
My phone rang a third time. I rolled on my side and finally swiped to answer.
“Madeline.”
I stared at the ceiling. “You’re persistent.”
“My girl sends me a debrief that reads like a breakup letter from another man’s bed, and I’m persistent.”
“It’s Atticus’s guest room. Not his bed.”
“You’re still in his penthouse. At two in the morning. In that dress the whole city’s been drooling over for twelve hours. Tell me something, angel—did you ask DePout to help you out of it?”
The question cut sharper than it should have.
“You noticed my dress,” I couldn’t stop myself from asking.
“I noticed every inch,” he snapped. “Thorne blush, sprayed on. Cameras loved it. So did every man in that Hall. Don’t change the subject. Who unzipped you.”
“I couldn’t reach the zip. And Atticus was here. So yes. He helped.”
He swore in Crow dialect, words low and vicious. The tone alone made my skin prickle.
“English,” I muttered.
“So DePout got to look at you in that little nothing of a gown, nipples showing through, every curve on display, then he got to drag the zip down and peel it off you. And I’m supposed to be calm.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“How else is it, baby? He’s a man. You honestly think he didn’t look?”
“He doesn’t see me that way.”
“That’s bullshit.”
I let out a short, tired scoff. “You think you know Atticus better than I do.”
“I think he’s a man lying in a penthouse with the woman he wants down the hall and his hand on his dick,” Vince said, voice going dark. “Don’t tell me he’s not thinking about you in that dress, or out of it.”
“Charming as always.”
“I’m not here to be charming.”
“So what if he looked?” I snapped back. “Every man in that Hall stared. We both know it. If that’s Atticus’s reward for taking me home instead of leaving me in a corridor, fine. He got the zip. Congratulations to him.”
“What did you just say.”
“When I was sobbing in his arms,” my throat tightening, “I realised maybe I need more. Maybe it would be nice to have a boyfriend all the time, not just four days a month.”
He laughed then, but there wasn’t anything amused in it. “You baiting me, angel?”
“I’m telling you what I’m feeling.”
“Because if this is bait, I will make sure the so-called DePout prince forgets how to sleep in that building, I’ll make it very hard for him to stay in Villain and think about you.”
“Don’t threaten Atticus. He hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“He has my girl half naked in his penthouse.”
