right there, standing up at the counter. “He’s on his way. Leith, did you hear what I said?”
“Madam Sahni, I had already contacted both of them to come in and be ready to stay awhile. Don’t worry. They’ll be here and safe shortly.” Leith patted her shoulder. “Drink your tea and rest. I’m going to make something for Mister Alvarez to eat.”
“How…” I looked between the fae and the not-human.
“We had an entire conversation while you were on the phone with Cassius,” Raphael said.
Should have figured.
“Well, I’m going up to my room. I still have a room, right? It’s not been taken over by whatever her name is?”
“Cassius has made it very clear, you are to always have a safe room in this house,” Leith explained. “Don’t worry, it’s just as you left it, except cleaner. There’s also a spare laptop in there because one never knows what you might need when you visit.”
“Thank you.” I ignored every slight jab. That was normal with Leith, Cassius too. It was normal for the entire household.
Tired, I left them there. When I got into my room, I opened the laptop and wrote a short but sweet report about the evening, then sent it. I went into the private bathroom, showered, and removed all the foreign bodies from my hair. I ignored the bruises blossoming all over my body and only checked if there were any injuries that needed medical attention.
Then I promptly fell onto the bed and passed out, unable to make it much further.
17
Chapter Seventeen
I woke up to someone opening my door. It took me more than a few uncomfortable moments to remember where I was as I hissed at the intruder, who stopped moving.
“I’m not foolish enough to wake you up,” Cassius said softly. “I wanted to let you know I was here.”
Blinking several times, I cleared my vision, and he came into focus. The lights were on. Had I left them on when I fell onto the bed?
“Hey,” I said softly. The last time he and I had seen each other in person had been the last time we were together. “So…sorry about crashing at your place. I know I promised it wouldn’t happen again.”
“My door is always open to a colleague needing shelter,” he said professionally.
“Is that the story you tell her?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Considering I have no intention of sleeping with you, it’s the truth,” he fired back. “She knows you and I used to…”
“Yeah, this is just incredibly weird,” I mumbled, swinging my legs off the bed. “Did I leave any spare clothes here?”
“Yes.” He pointed at the dresser. My naked body wasn’t what made this awkward. It was everything he and I had left unsaid. He must have realized it because he sighed. “Kaliya, there’s no reason for this to be strange—”
“Yeah, you left in the middle of the night and never came back, only leaving a note explaining how you thought it was time to end the toxic relationship we had,” I said, pulling open a dresser drawer to find none of the clothes were actually mine. He had made sure there were things in his house for me, for situations like this. “No reason to be strange at all,” I said as I pulled out a t-shirt, then opened the second drawer—pants, all black leather, all supple and well made. I knew they would fit me like a second skin and still be flexible enough for me to move in. Cassius did nothing if he couldn’t do it perfectly.
“You know I was right. Tell me, if I had stayed, would we have fought, then proceeded to get back into bed?”
Probably. But then you refused to come to Phoenix for three years until this.
“That’s not the point. Let’s just forget it, okay? We’re working.” With a sigh, I opened the last drawer and found the intimates. I grabbed a sports bra and the most comfortable looking underwear I could find. Thankfully, Cassius hadn’t made things awkward by putting in a bunch of lingerie. “I knew it would never last, but it stung,” I admitted as I started pulling on the clothing. “The way you did it.”
“I know,” he whispered. “I just didn’t know how else to do it.”
“Me neither,” I said, my fingers rubbing a soft black shirt. “So, friends now, huh?”
“I would like to attempt a friendship, yes,” he said, nodding. “I miss coming to this city. I miss Leith and the rest of the staff here. I want you to