Page 60 of Dark Prince

I glance back at her with a frown, although she grins at me, seeming completely unafraid. It’s a stark contrast to the way she used to act around me, and I find myself enjoying it immensely.

“You should watch your mouth,” I remark with a teasing threat in my voice.

“I’d rather let you watch it for me,” she shoots back, and I chuckle. I glance down at her as we cross the tarmac, and she flutters her lashes back up at me, making my blood heat.

Damn Franklin and his time-consuming ego.

Naamah is waiting for us on the other side of the gate, and I force my mind back to the issues at hand.

“I’ll be leaving you with Naamah today,” I tell Sophia.

“What? At the office?”

I shake my head. “At her place.”

She cringes slightly. “Ah—that’s—”

“Safer,” I interrupt. I look down at her, exuding a warning which has nothing lighthearted in it at all. “This is non-negotiable.”

The grimace doesn’t leave her face, although she doesn’t argue any further. It’s clear she’s not happy about it, but at least she’ll be unhappy and alive.

Naamah greets us with the competent, confident demeanor that I’ve come to expect from her, and the ride to the office is quiet. I’m rolling through facts and assumptions in my head, sorting one from the other. Sophia will be safe with Naamah.Fact. Whoever is perpetuating these attacks is after me and not her.Assumption.

Naamah pulls up in front of the office, and I step out of the car. Opening the passenger door, I look down into Sophia’s uncertain gaze. She has a lot to be uncertain about, but there’s one thing she should be able to hold as absolute fact. I cup her face in my hands and kiss her, deeply and possessively.

Mine.

I devour her lips until I can feel her gasping against my mouth, then finally release her. Blushing and breathless, she smiles. Nodding at Naamah, who’s barely suppressing a grin at our display, I turn and stride into the building.

Someone is working against me and putting Sophia in danger, and I’m going to find out who.

Even if it means tearing Los Angeles apart brick by fucking brick.

Chapter22

Sophia

I’m perched uncomfortablyon the edge of Naamah’s white leather couch, looking around at her things. There’s a massive painting over her fireplace of Cthulhu taking down a ship, and the theme is reflected throughout the room. White and blue creates a clean, nautical atmosphere, while the driftwood coffee table and black tentacle-shaped floor lamps inspire a chaotic undertone. She’s got the right job if she’s into eldritch horrors, I suppose.

Naamah comes in from the kitchen and looks me over with a brief laugh. “It’s okay, you aren’t going to break anything if you relax. You look like a kid who’s been dropped off with a strange babysitter.”

“That’s exactly what this feels like,” I grumble with a laugh of my own, though mine is stilted and awkward. “Like I can’t be trusted to stay home alone.”

Although it is nice to have someone care about me like this. As unsettling as some part of the past twenty-four hours have been, it’s comforting that Lucas—or rather,Lucifer—is so protective of me.

She gives me a stern but amused glance. “Or maybe the world can’t be trusted to leaveyoualone,” she points out. “Besides, you’ve been thoroughly traumatized. How many people would you trust not to fall apart after an actual plane crash?”

I shrug, relaxing slightly. “I don’t know about thoroughly traumatized. Maybe alittletraumatized.” Carlin flashes through my head, and I wince. “Okay, maybe pretty damn thoroughly. But I’m fine, mostly. I had a lot of time to work through things.”

She snorts. “I doubt that.”

My eyebrows shoot up at the casual certainty in her tone. “Excuse me?”

She counts off the points on her fingers. “One: it hasn’t even been that long. Like, less than a day. Two: it’s not like you’re trained to deal with this kind of thing—plane crashes, that is. Three: trauma doesn’t exactly make good pillow talk.”

My mouth snaps shut, and I look away from her, embarrassment burning in every fiber of my body. “He told you?”

“Of course not,” she says with a smirk. “But come on. You don’t kiss someone goodbye like that unless you’ve had a whole lot of practice. And you don’t get all smiley like a schoolgirl because of it, unless you already know what comes after.”

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