Page 41 of Elven Prince

“Toyou.” He stepped closer, his brows drawing together in pain and hope.

Rebecca couldn’t very well steel herself against such an apology when she could literally feel how much he meant it.

“Please forgive me,” he murmured.

By the Blood, she was entirely helpless against such a confession and its plea.

Thiswas real. He’d meant every word, and his fear of her holding it against him tightened deep in her gut as if it were her own.

As far as apologies went, that one took home the gold.

“I do,” she finally murmured, surprised she didn’t sound more breathless. “And I won’t hold it against you. As long as that remains an isolated incident.”

She’d softened to his apology, but she couldn’t let her guard down with him, either. Not because he’d lost his shit in the security room. Not because she wanted to punish him.

His apology had been sincere and without conditions, but that didn’t mean she could fully trust him with anything else. Not yet.

And here she was, hiding her own vulnerability behind forced formality and professionalism, just like Maxwell had in the beginning. It was all she could give him.

It seemed to be enough for him, though. He nodded and relaxed at her words, his rigid stance loosening and his features softening as he held her gaze. “Thank you.”

His voice had dropped so low, she could barely hear it.

Afraid the last of her resolve would melt beneath his stare and she lost all self-control, Rebecca dropped her gaze and found herself staring at the shifter’s fingers still closed gently around her hand.

She almost couldn’t feel it anymore beneath the irresistible pull toward him, tugging every physical part of her closer.

Not now. Not like this.

She swallowed the enormous, painful lump in her throat like a dry rock and pulled her hand away.

Maxwell’s grip offered no resistance, but a heavy, shaking sigh escaped him as he watched her fingers withdraw from his. Feeling that same pain of separation like she did.

Hehadto feel it like she did. That was how this thing between them worked.

Then he cleared his throat and nodded, clasping his hands behind his back to resume his usual stern rigidity as Shade’s Head of Security and the Roth-Da’al’s right-hand man.

“I appreciate your time,” he grumbled.

He wouldn’t cut that out until she acted normally around him again first, would he?

Back to business, then.

“I just spent the last two hours questioning everyone about the last twenty-four hours,” she said. “Yes, including the new recruits. No one noticed anything out of the ordinary around the compound. No one had anything to hide. Not good news, I know, but at least we can rule out this attack having come from one of our own.”

His frown darkened. “It’s a start.”

“Nothing new from Security, either. I really thought we would have found something on the video footage, but it’s another dead end.”

“And one more item to mark off the list. I just finished going through all the new inventory and supplies we pulled out of the trailer. Emptied every crate, searched through every box and package looking for evidence or other hidden messages from the attacker. Nothing there, either.”

Rebecca looked him up and down. “That must have taken you hours.”

“It did. Bor wasn’t happy about it.”

She huffed out a wry laugh. “Bor’s never happy about anything.”

The shifter briefly met her gaze again with a flicker in his silver eyes, and one corner of his mouth twitched. “True. For now, unfortunately, until Archie regains consciousness and we can question him, we’re out of leads.”

---