Stella scooted on top of me and cupped my cheek. “You were too young.” The unshed tears in her eyes glistened, and I wanted to take them away.
“That’s why Teddy can never know.” I smoothed my palms down her back. “That’s the past. We have plenty to think about without it.”
Resting her chin on my chest, she said, “One more week. I just wish we knew what the trial will be.”
“So do I.” I’d tried to get information from Sophia, but she was almost as cold as her father. I still had my claws in her, I knew—she’d been texting me while she was in New York for the past few weeks. I hadn’t failed with her, not yet.
Even if she agreed to an alliance with me, I still had the problem of her lover, Ellis, to deal with. If Cal found out she was seeing him instead of setting her cap at the next Sovereign, his displeasure would be lethal. So, if she wouldn’t go along with my plans of her own accord, I could always dangle Ellis in front of her like a tasty lure. I would be the hook.
Still, she’d divulged nothing about her father’s plans. The trial was almost here, and I hadn’t been able to divine the actual mechanism Cal would use to wreak havoc on Stella. Rage exploded in my chest, and I beat against the cage I was born into like I’d done so many times before. In the end, I was still trapped, still lying here with the woman I’d kill to protect, but harm to save Teddy.
A light knock sounded at my door.
I pulled Stella next to me in the bed and covered her with the blanket. “Yes?”
“I’m sorry, sir. There’s a man at the gate demanding to see you.” Farns’ voice wavered through the wood.
“Who?”
“Red Witherington.”
“Fucking hell.” I moved to the edge of the bed and stabbed my legs in my jeans. “Farns, let him in.”
“Very good, sir.”
Stella rose and pulled her tank top over her head.
“You’re staying here.”
“Like hell I am.” She yanked on her panties and jeans.
I turned. “He hates you. If he has even a shred of information that can help us, then I need you out of sight. Understand?”
“What makes you think he came here to help?” She threw her hair over her shoulder and pulled her top down the rest of the way, covering the sight of her mouthwatering breasts.
I strode to her and grabbed her shoulders, holding her gaze. “I don’t know why he’s here. But if he sees you, it won’t matter. It will all go to hell.”
She opened her mouth to argue, then then closed it.
“Do you trust me?” I asked the question I had no right to even think in her presence. I held my breath, wishing we were different people in a different life. Even as we were, could she give me the trust I didn’t deserve but desperately wanted?
She rested her hand against my chest, over my heart. “Yes.”
She must have had something in her palm, because warmth spread from it as surely as if she were the sun on a hot day. I kissed her harder than I’d intended. I must have put the weight of everything I felt, everything I was capable of feeling, into it. She wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me closer, matching me with the same fiery intensity I’d seen in her the very first day we met.
She broke the kiss and stepped back. “Okay. I’ll stay away, but I won’t promise not to eavesdrop.”
I took her hand and kissed her palm. “I would expect nothing less.”
I turned and strode out and down the hallway to the main stairs. I met Lucius on the landing. Dragging his carry-on behind him, his clothes were rumpled and he needed a shave.
I smirked. “You look like hell.”
“Thanks. Just got back from Brazil. Rough fucking flight.”
“Everything all right?”
He shrugged. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
“Good.” I dropped down the next few steps.
“What are you up to?”
I glanced over my shoulder at his curious expression. “We have a guest.”
“Who?”
“Red.”
He let go of the handle on his carry-on. “Fuck yeah. I’m dying for a fight.”
“We aren’t fighting.”
“Since when?” He raised an eyebrow and stripped off his jacket.
He had a point. We’d never gotten along with Red, even before the Acquisition.
“I need to see if he has any information about the trial. That comes first.”
“So we’re just going to take his shit?” Lucius shook his head.
“Of course not. Still, we will listen to what he has to say.”
He followed me down the stairs. “I can live with that, but if he pulls anything, I’ll knock his goddamn teeth out. Where’s Stella?”
“I just left her in her room. She’s getting dressed.”
His jaw tensed, and I felt a decidedly non-brotherly satisfaction in him knowing I spent the night with her.