Her jaw locked so tightly it trembled before she finally forced the words out.
“I’m not interested,” she snapped, her voice cutting through the air like glass. “You can go and eat.”
She turned sharply, her hair whipping over her shoulder as she started toward the stairs.
Magnus frowned, completely thrown by the sudden change. He reached out quickly, his fingers wrapping around her arm, stopping her.
She jerked to a stop.
“What are you doing?” he demanded. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
But she didn’t even look at him.
Instead, she wrenched her arm out of his grip, shoving his hand away as if his touch disgusted her. Without looking back, she rushed up the stairs, her footsteps pounded hard against the stairs, fast and uneven, breath trembling in her throat. She rushed into her bedroom and then—
SLAM.
The door crashed shut, the sharp sound exploding through the house. The walls seemed to tremble from the force, and the echo lingered in the air for a long second.
Inside the room, her chest rose and fell wildly. Anger rushed through her veins, hot and uncontrollable. Earlier, at the hotel, it had only been suspicion. Something she tried to deny, something she told herself she might be imagining.
But the lipstick mark on his skin burned in her mind.
There was no doubt anymore about what had happened in that room.
Her hands shook as she dug her phone out of her jeans pocket. Her breathing came fast and rough, almost painful, as she searched for Elias’s contact.
Her thumb hovered only a second before she typed.
‘I’m ready to go to London. You can arrange the job. I’ll take it.’
She hit send.
Downstairs, Magnus stood frozen near the staircase, staring at the bedroom door she had just slammed shut.
His jaw tightened.
His fingers curled against the wall beside the staircase, the muscles in his arm going rigid.
Frustration ignited in his chest. “What the hell did I do now?”
Anger began to spread through him, dark and rising. His jaw tightened as he replayed her expression, that fury in her eyes, the way she had torn herself away from him.
He glanced toward the dining table.
It was already prepared. Plates set. The smell of chicken and garlic filled the air.
But the hunger inside him was gone.
He couldn’t eat without her.
Frustration clawed up his chest. With a sharp breath, he pulled out his phone and turned toward the door, his steps heavy and fast as he stormed out of the house.
The cold night air hit his face as he walked toward his car and dialed Gregory’s number.
The call connected.
Gregory barely had time to breathe before Magnus’s voice lashed through the line.
