Hanna’s features tightened, but she kept her gaze level. “I’m asexual, Your Highness,” she said. “I know you’re highly charged—but not feeling sexual attraction is as much a part of me as desire is a part of you. I find people aesthetically beautiful, sure, but I don’t think wow, they’re hot, I want to bang them, you know?”
Frankie eyed Kris over her shoulder. No. He didn’t know. He was frowning at Hanna like she’d told him her grandmother had died.
“Stop looking at her like that,” Frankie muttered sharply.
“Sorry.” His features leapt from concern to confusion. “I’ve just—never met someone who’s asexual before. Or, uh, ever heard of it.”
“You’ve probably heard us called other names.” Hanna cleared her throat, running her hand over her collarbones. “Frigid. Unfuckable. Being ace is often viewed as a failing, instead of an orientation. Which kind of sucks.”
“That does suck.” Then he smiled at her. “Thanks for telling me.”
Hanna raised a shoulder. “It’s not a secret.”
“I’ve known next to nothing about you for over three months,” he said. “Everything about you is a secret.”
“Hey, I kind of like that.” She moved her shoulders a little, as if trying on the title of woman of mystery. “Speaking of secrets . . .” Her attention shifted to Frankie. “It’s late, and your eyes are glazing over, but tomorrow, I’m going to charm you into giving me details of your night out. You borrowed my dress. It’s my price.”
Frankie rolled her eyes, but didn’t argue as the guard turned to leave.
Then an uncomfortable fear lurched up her throat.
“Hanna,” she said abruptly. The woman turned back to her, smiling curiously at the use of her first name. “Do you think the others will stop respecting me?”
Hanna looked baffled. Then she arched a brow at Kris. “You offended by that question, Your Highness?”
“The implication that being in a relationship with me makes her less respectable?” Kris sounded amused. “Not particularly.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Frankie eyed them both in exasperation. “Will they think I only got this position because of my relationship with Kris? Everyone’s figured out that we knew each other in Montana—that there’s been something going on between us. Will they cry favoritism?”
“Ma’am,” Hanna said, quite frankly. “You’re intimidating—flat-out terrifying if we have to deal with you before breakfast—and the closest any of us will ever get to an actual badass. Your time up and down The Scepter thrashes anyone on the team, I can’t beat you at anything and you took down that psycho misogynist like a boss. Everyone’s seen the footage. You deserve your position. Favoritism will never cross anyone’s mind.”
“Oh.” Frankie looked down, twisting the pearl necklace that she’d forgotten to take off. “Good.”
“It’s criminal how fast she takes those steps,” Kris said.
“I know, right?” Hanna answered in mock scandal. “And the way she elbows you as she passes you on her way back up?”
Kris’s chuckle tingled down Frankie’s spine as he walked around the desk to lounge against it beside her. “I think she thinks it’s cute.”
Frankie barely held back a laugh. Then she yawned. “Sounds like me.”
Hanna grinned. “See you tomorrow, sleepyhead.”
Frankie offered a small wave as she yawned again and the guard closed the study door behind her.
Then Kris’s hand was sliding around her waist, drawing her in, and she turned to press her cheek against his chest. She shivered at the feel of him even as exhaustion dragged her eyelids closed. She could do this now—lean against him, bury into his strength. Marveling, she buried harder.
“She knows what we did, doesn’t she?” Kris kissed the top of her head, his hand slipping to the rear of her jeans.
“One hundred percent.” Frankie pressed her ass into his palm, a challenge he accepted when he shoved back, pushing her firmly against him. Her lips parted on a light, hot breath, before her mind played a distracted game of hopscotch.
Hanna—friends with Gul—would talk to Gul about her and Kris, assuming he’d have heard about it from Ava—except Ava couldn’t tell Gul because she didn’t know—because Mark didn’t know—
“Oh, God.” Horrified, she drew back and scrubbed a hand over her face. “I told the guards before you’d told Mark and Tommy.”
Kris raised a shoulder, unfazed, his eyes on her mouth. “I’ll tell them in the morning.”
“They’re your brothers. You’re not upset?”
“Upset that you announced our relationship to a room full of people? Are you kidding me?”
Well, when he put it like that.
Blushing, she leaned her forehead against his chin. “I missed