And she stared right back.
So small. So furious. So utterly unwilling to back down. Whatever this woman was caught in, and he had no doubt she was caught in something, had bled into his world. And that made her his. Now, more than ever, he couldn’t let her out of his sight. Not until he understood exactly who she was and what she might drag here with her.
“How would I know that?” Her incredulous look almost made him smile. “I was upstairs. Ready for sleep. Until someone disturbed my peace!”
“I am merely asking, love.”
“Don’tcall me love.” She smoothed some wayward locks back. “It’s disconcerting.”
It felt rather natural for him. “It’s just a question.”Love.
“It’s never just a question with you, is it? Well, I don’t know who that bald man is, and I’mnota spy.” Her gaze broke away, then charged back again. “I heard glass break. What happened?”
Another thorn in his arse. “An unfortunate scuffle.” He didn’t add that the broken glass had come from throwing the man across the room and into the door.
She scrunched her brow. “Then should I find another accommodation.”
“That would be best.” He cursed the words rolling off his tongue but didn’t swallow them back. “You’ll come with me.”
A stunned expression crossed her face. “What do you mean with you?”
Yes, you fool, what did you mean by that?“You’ll stay with me next door. It’s not safe here.”
She stared at him like he’d grown a second head. Perhaps he had.
“You can’t be serious.”
Maxen folded his arms, ignoring the slow throb still pulsingthrough his balls. “I’m always serious.”
The woman didn’t move. Didn’t respond. Simply watched him with that guarded, assessing look he was beginning to become familiar with.
“If you’re trying to intuit whether this is a trap,” he said softly, “it’s not. You’re not nearly a threat enough to warrant one.”
That earned him a snort. “How reassuring.”
Maxen didn’t smile, but it was close. “Pack a bag, Calliope. You’re staying with me.”
Chapter Eight
Calliope still didn’tknow what had happened.
One moment she was blinking up at Maxen Fury, still half-winded by the aftermath of swinging a boot at his—well, his everything—and the next she was following him to his lodgings.
His cold, dark,barrenlodgings.
Prince sniffed here and there before giving her a look that said:This is where you brought us?
Well, she wasn’t thrilled either.
She tightened her cloak around her. Was this place even lived in? The quarters looked like they hadn’t been touched in over a decade. Even the shop below wasn’t a shop. The space was filled with boxes and barrels containing only God knew what.
What had she agreed to?
She wasn’t even sure how the wordsall right, finehad made it past her lips. Had she perhaps fallen unconscious for a second? That would explain her lapse! The lasting trace of shock of the break-in, the cold fear, the other man calling her a mouse, aspy, and Maxen suddenly—absurdly—blocking his view of her. Maxen calling herlove.
She refused to dwell on that endearment.
Refused to!
