Page 40 of Elven Prince

By the Blood, had it really been just this morning that she’d almost opened up to him about her past despite all the new complications of being able to trust him?

Though she couldn’t tear herself out of his gaze as she headed straight for the archway into the hall she wanted, she didn’t slow or stop in her approach. Even when Maxwell stepped aside to let her pass into the hall, Rebecca continued past, as if she hadn’t seen him at all.

“Roth-Da’al,” Maxwell murmured as she barged past him and continued down the hallway. “Do you have a moment?”

The blaze of heat, desire, longing, and rightness surged through her with a mix of the nerves and remorse wafting off Maxwell and into her. But it all faded beneath the striking stabs of pain through her chest, shoulders, and along the back of her neck as she continued past him.

That horridly painful separation made her suck in a sharp breath, but she shoved the sensation aside and tried to bury it beneath the biting disapproval in her words. “That depends. Is this another—”

“I was out of line,” he blurted behind her.

Rebecca stopped short, fighting off the compulsion to let herself be tugged back toward him in every way.

Maxwell Hannigan didn’tblurtanything.

This was new.

He clearly took her pause in the hallway as an invitation to continue. Even if his footsteps hadn’t echoed closer, the agony of leaving him faded again beneath the swell of rightness and dark belonging as the tingling warmth spread through her limbs.

He was coming after her anyway.

She’d stood against him in the Security office to put him in his place—to knock him out of his rampage, because she’dhadto.

But By the Blood, trying to resist him now, hours later, was almost impossible.

He stepped in front of her and stopped tantalizingly close, not to block her path but to let her see the earnestness in his eyes. To ensure she heard the genuine remorse in his words when he continued.

Or maybe their connection had rendered him as incapable of being farther from her than this as it had made Rebecca incapable of storming away from him.

When she looked up into his darkly glowing silver eyes, any last chance of escape she might have had disappeared.

“I let my anger get the better of me earlier,” he said. “It doesn’t excuse my actions or the way I conducted myself. I spoke to you in a manner unbefitting of both my position and the respect I have for you. It was unacceptable. It won’t happen again.”

Well, what a surprise. Her Head of Security describing his own shortcomings and reprimanding himself for them on her behalf.

It was more than she’d expected, but now that they were here and she’d heard it straight from his mouth, it still wasn’t enough.

“I’m glad you’ve come to that realization,” she said flatly. “Because if it happens again—”

“It won’t.” He nodded curtly, all formality and decorum restored.

So why didn’t she feel like anything had changed?

She had to get away from him. Dealing with thisthingbetween them, whatever it was, on top of the very real and still unidentified threat facing all of Shade, was too much to take on at once.

She couldn’t do this with him and effectively do her job.

“Good,” she muttered, then slipped around him to continue down the hall.

“Rebecca…” A warm hand slipped around her own, gentle and pleading.

She could have ripped herself out of his grasp so easily, but the pain in his voice made her stop anyway.

Then she found herself turning back toward him without consciously deciding to, her hand lit ablaze within his and intensifying the tingling burn now racing up her arm and neck and bringing an instant flush to her cheeks.

“I also want to apologize to you personally.” The way Maxwell growled out the words made them no less genuine. “And I hope that lapse of judgment on my part doesn’t reflect poorly on me or my dedication.”

“To your duties? Of course not.”

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