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I just had to ensure therewasa later date.
“Are you really hungry?” she grouched.
I shrugged. “Temperance pissed me off. I barely ate on the plane over here.”
She ran a finger down her nose—it wasn’t the middle finger. “Fine.” To the ceiling, she growled, “If you drug my food, we’re back to square one.”
God, did she know how exhausted she sounded?
“I haven’t drugged your food at any point, Star,” Anton said with a sigh. “I’m not going to start now. I’ve gone to a lot of effort to bring Mr. O’Donnelly over here to help you. You needn’t persist in seeing me as the enemy.”
She pursed her lips. “So I can just walk out of this room, huh?”
“Yes.”
“No guards?”
“None. Unless you attempt to take my life again.”
“They’ll probably kill me before they kill you.”
Her eyes widened at my quip. “What?”
“I’m expendable here,” I said easily, watching as that news settled in her bones and rattled her.
Well, that was a relief.
Shedidcare.
“I’d better behave then.” Something flickered in her eyes, something that warned me I needed to get better at interpreting those looks. Her face, after all, was blank. Utterly expressionless. Even when she grated out, “Or protect you before they can get to you.”
“I’m willing to be saved,” I teased.
The tiniest of smiles curved her lips—I’d take that as a win. “Why am I surprised you’re like this?”
“I don’t know. What am I like?”
“A joker.”
I was with the people I trusted. She hadn’t earned that admission yet, even if it was the truth, so I just said, “I’m the middle child. We have to stand apart from the crowd.”
Though she snorted as I intended, I saw her unease start to drift back into her expression. I half-hoped she’d share her concerns with me, but whatever progress I’d made over months and months of text chats had been stalled by our time apart.
The irony was, of course, that if anyone should be pissed here, it was me.
Her chin angled up and she inhaled briskly through her nose as if coming to a decision she didn’t let me in on, one that had nothing to do with purple soup... “If he feeds us borscht, I expect you to eat it.”
“I’m not Katina,” I retorted.
“I’m only breaking bread with the man because you’re hungry, so if he serves beet soup, you’d better start eating.”
I hid a smile of my own. “You eat it; I’ll eat it.”
Though she sniffed, her hand reached out. I stared at it, unsure of what she was doing, then her fingers curled in on themselves before she could make contact with me.
Fuck, I wished shehadtouched me.
“I’m sorry Maverick hurt you.”
