He stayed where he was.
“So.” I dragged a deep breath in that hurt. “Now you’ve done your duty. You’ve checked my weight, my fear of revenge porn. Anything else on your list, Mr. Crow?”
“You’re leaving Villain. I saw the request to leave the chambers.” He watched me for a long moment. “Where?”
“St Cross.” My voice shook on the name and I hated that, so I cleared my throat and tried again. “I’ve accepted a permanent post there. Port and infrastructure portfolio. I relocate in four weeks.”
His eyes darkened. “Permanent.”
“I’m sure you’ve seen the word in contracts.”
He didn’t rise to the sarcasm.
“How long have you known?” he asked.
“A couple of weeks,” I said. “We finalized it yesterday. My father announced it at lunch like he was talking about a stock split.”
“And you weren’t going to tell me.”
My laugh came out dry. “You blocked my number, Vince.”
He absorbed that like another blow, shoulders tightening.
“Right,” he said. “You’re going alone?”
“Yes.”
“No escort?”
“I’m not your asset to assign security to. It’s a Thorne move. They’ll handle it.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
Something about that sentence seemed to hurt him more than anything else I’d said.
“I’m going to be fine,” I added, because if I kept saying it maybe it would become true. “I’ll move. I’ll work. I’ll watch my shows in a different time zone and annoy a different setof men in boardrooms. I’ll have an ordinary dynasty life with an extraordinary anxiety disorder. You can go back to your syndicate and your empire and your next submissive who doesn’t come with a mother-shaped trauma trail.”
“Don’t talk about yourself like that.” He shook his head once. “You’re not meant to disappear into some other court.”
“Watch me.”
That landed. He went still, eyes searching my face as if there was a loophole written there.
“Where are you staying in St Cross?” he asked. “Thorne estate?”
The question was too casual.
“No,”
His gaze sharpened. “No?”
“I’ve… got my own place.”
“You’re not allowed to move out,” he said immediately, as if reciting law. “Your father said?—”
I just looked at him.
He stopped.
