Then she said, “I do.”
Only then did she turn to me. My heart beat hard enough that I felt it in my horns.
James vanished, and the dais went dark. For one second, the place where he’d been glowed with leftover static. Then, even that faded.
Coward.
He couldn’t even stay to watch her choose someone else.
Nezara looked at the dead projector with open disgust. “The suspension is lifted, and the complaint is dismissed with prejudice. The Agency recognizes the bond between Kazan of Ceres-9 and Maisie of Earth as freely entered, witnessed, and complete.”
She picked up her tablet.
Then she glanced at us over it. “Go home before someone makes me file more paperwork.”
Noise broke out behind us.
Zarcal slapped Korfas on the back hard enough to move him half a step. Remmen stood and smiled. Lorkin looked annoyed, which meant he was pleased.
I didn’t care about any of them. I crossed the floor to Maisie. She barely had time to inhale before I had my hands on her waist and lifted her off her feet.
“Kazan,” she said, but she was laughing.
I brought her level with my face and kissed her. This one wasn’t careful either. There was no auditor to fear now. No question hanging over us. No legal trick between my mouth and hers. She was warm and alive in my hands, and she’d chosen me in front of everyone.
Freely.
My mate.
The word burned through me.
She kissed me like she knew exactly what it did to me. Her hands framed my jaw, and her nails pressed lightly into my skin. Not enough to hurt. Enough to make me think of taking her home. Of her legs around my waist. Of that scarf still on her throat and nothing else between us.
A throat cleared.
Nezara.
Again.
Maisie broke the kiss with a breathless laugh and leaned her forehead against mine. “You won’t be able to maul me in every government building we enter.”
“I can try.”
Her smile went soft. Then her fingers slid over my jaw, and she looked at me in a way that made every male in the room disappear.
I set her down because if she kept touching my mouth; I was going to forget we weren’t home.
Behind us, the panel was already gathering their things. The room had become ordinary again. Benches. Papers. Stone. Morning light.
Only one thing still bothered me.
The empty dais.
James had gotten away untouched. No broken bones or shed blood. No hands around his throat while he learned the exact cost of putting fear in my mate’s eyes.
I stared at the place where his projection had been and felt the loss of it.
Small.
