Page 87 of Elven Crown

That was definitely a possibility, and at the same time, Rebecca acknowledged why that tingling rush washed over her again now. Why it made her flush so quickly with so much heat. She was sure Rowan could see it all over her face.

Maxwell was approaching her again. She couldn’t see him yet, but she had no doubt.

He still just didn’t understand appropriate timing, clearly.

But Rebecca wasn’t as skilled at hiding it as she had assumed.

Not from Rowan.

He looked her over from head to toe, leaned away, and wrinkled his nose. “And now I have to ask… What’s going on with you?”

“Nothing,” she replied flatly and swallowed.

Rowan didn’t buy it, but he seemed content enough with having talked her into this new trap of his.

“Well, great,” he said. “There’s nothing going on, and everything’s fine. Then it won’t be difficult to spare a few minutes of your time for me, specifically In case there was still any confusion about that.”

Dammit, she should have made up an emergency.

Now was not the time for any conversation with Rowan that extended beyond surface greetings. If Rebecca had her way, there would never be a time for it.

She wanted to explain that to Rowan, but for some reason, her mind had drawn a complete blank, and now she could only gape at him like an idiot who didn’t know how to handle any new situation.

Could she just walk away from him and leave it at that?

In a matter of seconds, Rebecca went down the list of all her available options and landed on the unjustified response ofshoving Rowan Blackmoon away from her, sounding the alarm, and letting Shade deal with him as if he were a traitor.

Because she could so easily make him out to be exactly that.

The fantasy whipped through her mind in an instant, and there was no way to tell whether she would have acted on it in desperation.

Because Maxwell swooped in before she could decide.

He appeared beside her, not quite between her and Rowan but still looming over the elf man with a warning growl and his eyes delivering a quick flash of silver. “Let me remind you that all requests to Command go through me andonlyme. I’m the one with a direct link to Shade’s commander, and that hasn’t changed.”

Rowan’s smile remained unchanged until Maxwell finished speaking. Then the elf scoffed before he grinned at the shifter and somehow made it look incredibly judgmental at the same time.

“Oh, please. Are you hearing yourself? You make it sound like you think shebelongsto you. If I didn’t know better, I’d sayyou’rethe problem here, shifter. Gatekeeping for the commander? I’ve seen entire civilizations with more access to their monarchs than this place has to its own Thon-Da’al.”

Oh for fuck’s sake. Now he was talking aboutmonarchs? Next thing, he’d be making even less-subtle references to Rebecca as a ruler of far more than just Shade, and she couldn’t let that happen.

“We’re not talking about other civilizations, Blackmoon,” she replied.

Rowan’s upper lip twitched in response, but he still stared up at Maxwell. “Why don’t we let the commander make her own decisions here, hmm?”

Surprisingly, Maxwell looked down at Rebecca with a questioning frown, as if Rowan’s inciting comments had made sense.

As if heagreed.

Rebecca didn’twantto make those decisions right now. That was part of the allure of her Head of Security close by at all times, especially since Rowan’s arrival. Now he was giving her an opportunity to undermine him if she wanted?

She shook her head at Maxwell, then turned back toward Rowan and shrugged. “Those are the rules, and I don’t see them changing anytime soon.”

She’d expected that response to make him angry, but it didn’t.

In fact, he tilted his head and gawked at her, as if she’d spoken in a foreign language he didn’t know she could speak.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed Maxwell standing perfectly still beside her. Technically, she’d just taken his side in this pseudo-argument, but the feeling of his stare on the side of her face convinced her he was just as surprised as Rowan.

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