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“Elizabeth, come along. Senator Langston is an important—”
An engine choked in her earpiece.
Her part in the heist had officially ended. Five days and nights spent searching and planning, and Tristan had thrown it all away.
“Langston is a self-important blowhard, just like the rest of them,” Lila muttered, staring at the young senator with long blond hair and a perfectly knotted cravat.
“Elizabeth!”
Lila drained the rest of her champagne and placed it on a waiter’s tray. When her mother turned her back to do the same, she discreetly slipped out her earpieces and dropped them into her clutch.
She wordlessly took the fresh glass her mother handed her, then followed the chairwoman deeper into the room.
It took all her discipline to attend to Senator Langston’s conversation, and even then, she failed to pay attention. Her mother nudged her elbow and made appropriate remarks, continuing the conversation when Lila did not. It wasn’t that he annoyed her. He merely lacked a certain pair of brown eyes—brown eyes she’d grown far too attached to over the last week, brown eyes she kept thinking about even when she left their presence, brown eyes attached to a rangy body she currently wanted to throttle.
And not in the fun way.
Not that she really had the option. Tristan had not touched her since the hospital the week before, despite how closely they’d worked on their plan to free Oskar, despite how many nights she’d spent with him in his bed.
Both clothed.
Once again, her thoughts slipped from annoyance to hunger.
“So would you like to go with me, Chief Randolph?” Senator Langston asked, offering a slight, hopeful smile.
Lila blinked, her mind slowly shifting from a naked Tristan to the clothed Bullstow senator before her. “Excuse me?”
“Would you like to come with me to Senator Dubois’s party next month? It’ll be at the Masson’s winery, a jewel, as you well know.”
Oh great, a pun on her sister’s name. That never got old.
Lila tried not to vomit.
She’d almost forgotten about the stupid party. Senator Dubois tried every year to tie her to one of his kin. It should have been enough that he had a claim to her younger
sister, but senators could be just as ambitious as their matrons.
“No,” Lila answered.
The chairwoman eyed her daughter in annoyance. “What my daughter means is that Senator Dubois would rather she remain unescorted to this particular event.”
The senator’s expression changed from confusion to acceptance immediately. “Of course. I should have guessed.” He bowed and excused himself, no doubt searching for a more receptive heir for his flirtations.
“Really, Elizabeth? At least try to be civil.”
“Since when does civility preclude bluntness?”
“Since always, you heathen,” the chairwoman snapped as the auctioneer climbed down from the stage, conferring with Olivia. The slave auction would no doubt begin soon. “I have half a mind to drop you in St. Kitts for the next two weeks. Chef is right. You’re starved, and it’s making you act like a bratty teenager.”
Lila frowned. The three highborn resorts on St. Kitts catered to a certain clientele, the sort who could appreciate their special touches: sheets made of the finest Egyptian cotton, tubes of lube on the bed pillows, and sheets of condoms in the bedside drawer. One needed an appetite, a flush bank account, and a fresh STD screening and vaccination for admission, the latter two provided on site.
Apparently the food wasn’t bad either—not that anyone booked a room for that reason.
“I’m not starved,” she lied, trying to shake Tristan from her mind once more.
A naked Tristan.
“See to your attitude, then, or you’ll choose between St. Kitts or taking a lover for the season, for all our sakes.” Her mother dragged her to the back of the ballroom, toward a man who wore the most beautifully tailored coat and breeches in the room: pure snow white, unspoiled by any family’s colors, unmarked by any coat of arms. He had the shoulders to carry it well, with the cut unable to hide the body of the athlete inside. His salt-and-pepper hair matched all the experience he had gained during his time in the New Bristol, Saxony, and Unity senates.
