Page 65 of Hercules

Beneath his hold, Lois’s muscles went taut. The energy extended up across her face and shivered her fingertips against his neck. Her lips parted as if she meant to say something, but no sound came out. That was okay. Herc practically filled in the blank just by diving his stare into the depths of hers. And damn it if his intuition wasn’t throwing new warning bells too. His gut added some affirming clangs of its own. He had no choice but to listen.

“Go,” he instructed with a nod, already freeing her hands from his neck. “Get it. Somebody’s feeling mighty goddamned persistent.”

He only hoped it was a car insurance smarm shark or an old lady with the wrong number, and—

“Lois! For the love of fuck, where are you? And why the hell didn’t you pick up before?”

Not the pop idol shrew who was shrieking into the line before Lois could get in a word. Loud enough that he could hear her from down the hall.

Hateful enough that he was off the bed and stalking down the hall, his hand outstretched in a command for the device before his lover could turn around and shuffle back his way.

CHAPTER 18

Was he serious?

No. Damn. Way.

Lois had to be reading it all wrong. The dictator’s glints in his aquas. The strain that all but consumed his raised hand, making her wonder if he was about to go heavy breathing and join-the-dark-side-Lois on her.

Especially with the obstinate way he stuck to the vibe, despite the incredulous glare she flung at him like rotting Wookiee dung.

Fine then.

He might be the Underworld’s hottest Sith lord with the sexual saber prowess to match, but none of that equated to any working knowledge about boundaries beyond the bedroom, twenty-first century style. Nothing about his ongoing scrutiny, like she really was a princess in a flimsy white nightgown, showed her that he was ready to warp jump out of a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

She’d have to throw down the throttle herself.

Starting with the insistent steps she took toward the other side of the living room.

“Nat. Hey.”

And then her firm but soothing tone into the mild static that had her guessing Nat was still on her flight and snuck a way—or bribed a flight crew member—to place this call. Whatever the reason, she also surmised that they were talking for a limited time chunk.

“Sorry for your trouble. I was in another room, and—”

“Another room where?”

There was the rattled roar to clarify the bigger issue at hand. Even Chunk was too generous a label for their time constraint—unless Nat’s fury was tied to something besides impatience. Her fast huffs, rivaling the Darth Vader touchpoints for intensity, began to frame exactly that insinuation, along with the lump that took over Lo’s throat as a result.

“Damn it, Lo. You need to consult your trusty thesaurus here? Because believe me, I’m not. Here’s the question, in plain English. Tell me why I’m at thirty-five thousand feet, attempting to answer a hundred emails and listen to twice that many demo tracks, but can’t because of the notifications parade in my Beats!”

“The notifica…parade…whaaa?” She usually savored the chance to reward Nat’s creative linguistics with a small chuckle, but the inclination didn’t stand a chance between the woman’s persistent huffs in her ear and the male who consumed her vision, stretching his huge arms in the door frame to the hallway. “Okay, I don’t think I’m followi—”

“Of course you aren’t,” Natasha spat. “Because you were too busy disappearing from the charity party with that blond hunksicle!”

“Nat.” She didn’t hide her rising stress, stoked by sparks of growing confusion. “Honestly, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Okay, there was an odd intrusion at the cafe, and it was a little rattling”—okay, more than a little, but you probably don’t care—“but not once did I blow the cover, you have my word. And yes, there was a very nice guy who helped me out of the dust before it became chaos—”

At least that part wasn’t stretching the truth, though the harsh seethe across the line was a solid broadcast of Nat’s I don’t care.

“The one you felt okay about taking back to my house and flaunting to the paps mob?”

All right, maybe that part too.

“I—I thought it might help.” It took a supreme act of focus to even out her tone, with Herc continuing to advance like he was ready to seize and squash her device any second. “I mean, they all seemed happy to see us.”

“Of course they did,” came Nat’s fast retort, punctuated by another weird sound. Something that could almost be mistaken as…half of a sob? “Because of all the new issues with The Flock.”

Lo flinched into a double take despite the tens of thousands of miles between them. “The huh?”