“No,youand the sovereign talked about it.” She scrubbed at her face with her palms. They muffled her voice when she continued, “Look, I’m not even a citizen of the EVP. I’m not your orhisresponsibility. He can’t order me around. If you’re really concerned about me, then call someone in the Collective. Sophie Goode is Ruby’s—”
“Sophie Goode will get her hands on you over my dead body,” he bit out.
Atria held up her hands palms-out and crinkled her brow. “I… I am way too tired to try and figure that out. What in the world do you have against Sophie? More importantly, in this context, what does itmatter?If you won’t let me go to the conference, then send mehome.”
ChapterNineteen
There wasn’ta chance in this world or any other that Atria was going back to the Collective — at least, not without him.
“Reason one,” he began, stooping to unzip her suitcase for her, “is that I don’t trust youorthat ruthless icicle to not just disregard common sense the moment I look away from you. If she got wind that you were on the cusp of a huge announcement she could take credit for, she’d put you on a jet to the New Zone herself.”
He felt her eyes on him as he flipped one side of the suitcase over, revealing neat compartments sealed with zippers. Disregarding her squeak of alarm, he began to pull them open, one by one, to root through their contents. Pulling out a neat little skirt that made him imagine all sorts of things and setting it aside for her, he continued, “Reason two: you became my responsibility the second I decided to protect you. Full stop.”
A cute long-sleeved shirt with funny shoulder cut-outs came next, just as Atria crawled down the bed to throw herself across the suitcase. “Stop going through my things! I don’t need you to pick out my damn clothes!”
“Apparently you do,” he answered mildly, “since you won’t do it yourself.”
“I’m trying to have a conversation with you!”
He shrugged. “Multitask.”
It made something in him flex its claws when she looked up at him like that, cheeks flushed and chest heaving. Itreallymade something in him flex when he noticed how her position left her breasts practically spilling out of the top of her nightie.
Gods, they’re fucking gorgeous.All that beautiful, smooth skin over luscious, full breasts made his damn mouth water. Was that a hint of a dark, pebbled nipple?Fuck.He wanted to hook a finger in the fabric, drag it down, and feast.
Unfortunately, Atria didn’t seem inclined to let him.
Smacking her bound hands against the compartments of her suitcase, she argued, “So that’s it? You think because youdecidedI’m your responsibility the law doesn’t apply? Tell me why.Whydid you follow me onto the plane?”
Kaz’s lust cooled for a moment as a deep, thrumming annoyance took its place. He did hook a finger under the fallen strap of her nightie then, but only to gently ease it back up to its place on her shoulder, lest she continue to move around like that and make a fool of his previously famous willpower. “Why? Why do youthinkI would—”
His phone buzzed in his front pocket. Immediately on high alert, Kaz whipped it out and held it to his ear. “Teddy?”
When Theodore’s voice came across the line, it was grave. “We can’t find Ruby.”
His eyes stayed on Atria’s flushed face, but he had to work hard to school his expression.Shit.
“Do we know anything?”
“Only that she was last seen atThe Luz.She was meeting with a friend for dinner, stepped out onto the sidewalk to head back to her hotel, and then nothing. She completely disappears from the footage.”
There was only one kind of witch that could manage a feat like that: those who bent light to their will, manipulating it to create illusions so completely, even a camera could be fooled. “Luminist?”
“Seems like.”
“Fuck.”
Theodore’s voice took on a distinctly menacing edge when he continued, “Technically she disappeared outside ofThe Luz,but I know what a rat smells like. Ruby was in their city, and Elio has had a bone to pick with us since Camille ran off with Viktor.”
Kaz’s his stomach dropped. Suddenly restless, he gestured toward the suitcase and growled, “Get dressed.”
Atria made an exasperated sound and held up her bound hands. Shaking her little fists at him, she snapped, “How can I do that when you’ve got mecuffed?”
Through the phone’s speaker, he heard Theodore choke. “I… do you have your consortrestrained,Kaz?”
“I have everything under control,” he bit out, pinning the phone between his shoulder and his ear to free up his hands. The cuffs came off, though he didn’t think it was a good idea at all. He sensed that Atria had a great capacity for trouble and that he would have plenty of reasons to break them out again in the future.
Grasping his phone once more, he held it a little way from his cheek when he commanded, “Dress.Now,princess.”
