He shot her a heated look over his shoulder. “I think you and I have thenitty-grittydown, don’t you think?”
Her face heated. “Not what I meant, big guy.”
“I know.” He shrugged. “The other stuff just seems simple to me. You have what I have. You’re my mate. You go somewhere, I go there, too. What else is there?”
Of course he thought it was that simple. They were together. Full stop. Easy.
Damn, charming orc,she thought moving over to the dresser to begin pulling out her clothes.
“Yes, okay, all of that,” she allowed, “but I meant things likewhere are we going to liveandare we at the ‘talking about family names’ point of our mating yet.”She paused to swallow hard. An upswell of nerves threatened to make her voice shake when she asked, “And— and what about bonding?”
Hauling her suitcase onto the nest, Kaz moved to start plucking his shirts out of the mess of blankets with a small frown, like the removal of each one aggrieved him more than the last. “I don’t really care where we live. If you don’t like my apartment or the Solbourne penthouses, then we’ll move. Whatever. As long as we can have a nest, I don’t care.”
Atria turned, fingers loosely clutching a pair of leggings, to stare at him as he casually crossed the room to pull his dufflebag out of the closet.
Voice pitched high, she asked, “And the family name thing?”Bonding?
He walked back over to the bed and dropped the bag beside her suitcase. “Elves are loose with that sort of thing. Generally women take a male partner’s name, but it’s all over the place with unions and rank and all that shit. Orcs are matrilineal, so if we went that route, I’d take your name.”
Atria’s stomach filled with butterflies as she padded over to stand beside him, her arms loaded with her clothing. “Do you have a preference?”
His kohl-dark fingers stilled on the zipper of his dufflebag. Kaz’s brows drew together slowly as he contemplated her question. After several seconds, he turned his head to give her a decisive look. “I’ve never felt comfortable with my name. I didn’t feel like a Rione, and Solbourne had too much baggage. I never really wanted either of them. I think that I’d… It would make me happy if I could be a Le Roy. If that’s what you want, too.”
“Oh.” Atria’s heart thundered against her ribs. As in all things, Kaz was deadly and efficient when he chose to aim for her heart. “Yes. Yes, that would be— I would like that a lot.”
She had no family anymore. Neither her brother nor her mother counted. She wasn’t sure they ever had. To have Kaz as another Le Roy,hermate, felt… Atria couldn’t put it into words. She wanted that. She wanted everything he was. She was sure he wanted that, too.
Mostly.
He seemed content to ignore her prodding about the bond, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t shake the prickle of worry that asserted itself.
“Then I’m Kazimier Le Roy now,” he offered, as if it was that effortless. Pulling at the zipper of his bag, he shot her a rakish smile. “How does that sound?”
She bumped his shoulder with her own, summoning a smile. They had only been together a week, really. Atria couldn’t blame him for hesitating on the bond. He was offering everything else, wasn’t he? Wasn’t that enough?
Atria felt awful for even a tiny amount of creeping doubt. She knew how hard he tried, how much he gave her all of himself. Shefeltit.
He wants to take my damn name,she reminded herself.Would a man who doesn’t want forever do that? No. Don’t be unfair, Atria. He’s never given you any reason to doubt him.
After everything he’d been through that day, she didn’t want to press too hard, so she changed the subject. “Did you know that my name meansthe king?That makes youKazimier the King.”
“Kazimier the King,”he muttered, brows arched, as he pulled the sides of his bag apart. Reaching for his folded t-shirts, he said, “Fitting, since you’re my princess.”
A more natural grin creased her cheeks as she piled her clothing into the zippered compartments of her suitcase. “A perfect match, you and me. I—” She blinked. Staring at the crinkled envelope at the bottom of his bag, she asked, “What’s that?”
“That’s nothing.”
She’d grasped one wrinkled corner, intending to pull it out, but froze at the odd, flat note in his voice. When she looked up, she found the warmth drained from his expression. The sudden change was so startling she took a half-step back.
“What?” Atria smiled, trying to bring back the jovial atmosphere. “Is it state secrets?”
It might very well be that, considering his job, but if so, why would he be carrying it with him at the bottom of his bag?It looked like an ordinary file to her. Surely the Solbournes didn’t put their highly classified material in unsealedenvelopes.
Atria was only passingly curious because it caught her eye. The more she looked at Kaz, however, a different sort of dread settled in her stomach.
Worry. Anxiety. Resignation.The feelings were a cold current all around her, raising the hair on the back of her neck.
Atria’s fingers flexed on the envelope. “What is it, Kaz?”
