The suite door opened and Ian Bishop stepped inside. I’d never seen him in anything other than a suit or tuxedo and today was no different. He wore a dark navy suit with a white shirt and pale blue tie. He was a handsome man, with blond hair and blue eyes and just enough rough edges to be interesting.
Ian bowed slightly. “Lady Ada, I heard you had returned. I am glad you are safe.” He sounded almost sincere, despite the fact that I’d been unsafe for two years thanks to him.
“Thank you, Director Bishop. Please, come in.” He stepped past me into the sitting room. He was nearly as tall as Loch, but built a little leaner. In his late twenties, he was incredibly young for the director of security of a High House. He’d climbed through the ranks so fast no one had noticed until he was running the show.
“You already know Lady Bianca,” I said with a wave to her. Even watching closely I couldn’t see a reaction from either of them. Bianca was well and truly in public mode.
“And this,” I said, turning to Loch, “is Vincent Loch, my bodyguard. He needs diplomatic immunity and access to the house. I’ve already cleared it with Father.”
An odd look passed between Loch and Ian, but it was over before I could catch the meaning.
“Vincent Loch, you say?” Ian asked.
“In the flesh,” Loch said.
“Lady Bianca, Lady Ada, may I speak with you privately?” Ian asked, his gaze laser-focused on Loch.
“No, you may not,” I said. “Mr. Loch is in my employ. I vouch for him. Add diplomatic immunity and house access to his identity chip.”
“You are making a mistake,” Ian said. He met my eyes. “He is dangerous.”
“Not to me,” I said simply. “And I advise you to keep your theories to yourself. If anything happens to Mr. Loch, I will come after you and then you will see who is truly dangerous.”
Ian stared at me for a few more seconds as if judging my seriousness, then he smiled. Bianca’s eyes widened before she regained her icy control. She had it bad, but he was incredibly gorgeous when he smiled. I wondered what would happen if I accidentally locked them in a closet together.
“Very well,” Ian said at last. He turned to Loch. “I need to scan your identity chip.”
Loch held out his right arm. Ian used his com to scan the chip then tapped on the screen a few times. “Your identity has been tagged with House von Hasenberg diplomatic immunity, but that won’t necessarily prevent other Houses from arresting you. Stay out of trouble.”
“I’m not here to cause trouble. I’m just here to protect Lady Ada,” Loch said. He grinned and continued, “She’s here to cause trouble.”
Ian slanted me a sharp glance. I shrugged. “I am not going to blow up the building, if that is what you are thinking. I am on a diplomatic mission.”
“I will ensure Lady Ada stays out of trouble,” Bianca said.
Ian did not look reassured. But his gaze had snagged on Bianca and now seemed stuck. Interesting.
“If you are finished,” Bianca said, “you are free to go.” She followed it up with a dismissive sniff. The condescension was so perfectly executed that if I hadn’t seen her reaction earlier, I’d buy it—and I was her sister.
Ian didn’t stand a chance.
He stiffened as if struck, then his mask slid back in place. He bowed to Bianca and then myself. “Ladies, I am glad to be of service. Please let me know if you need anything else.” He didn’t wait for dismissal; he just walked from the room and let himself out of the suite.
I rounded on Bianca. “What was that?” I asked, outraged on Ian’s behalf. She tried the sniff on me and I laughed at her. “Oh, no, that doesn’t work on me. Spill.”
Bianca’s public persona crumpled and she looked small and frail and sad. “I don’t know,” she said miserably. “I always say the wrong thing to him, so I’ve started preemptively striking to end the conversation early. It’s less embarrassing for both of us.”
I crossed the room and sat next to her. I pulled her into a hug. “Hey, it’s okay,” I said. “You like him, right?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “But it’s one-sided.”
“You don’t know that—” I started.
“I do, actually.”
I winced. Okay, that had to sting.
“Just let it go, please,” she said quietly.
I nodded my agreement and changed the subject. “What are the odds that Ian will go to Father with his suspicions about Loch?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“He’ll keep it to himself for now,” Loch said. “If not, he wouldn’t have warned me about the limits of the diplomatic immunity.”
“We’ll still have to keep a low profile and hope Rhys’s identity holds,” I said. “And get the info about the Genesis Project as quickly as possible.”
Bianca stood. “I will get started. Will you host dinner tonight?”
I nodded as I rose. It was tradition that whichever sibling was most recently returned from a trip would host a dinner for the others. “Who is around?”
“So far, just Benedict and myself,” Bianca said. Benedict was Bianca’s twin brother. “With the war, Father called everyone in, but they haven’t arrived yet.”
I smiled. It was rare for all of us to be together at once. House business usually kept my siblings spread across the universe, with only one or two stationed in Serenity to represent House von Hasenberg’s interests. It would be nice to be able to catch up with everyone, even if it was under the threat of war.
Bianca turned to Loch. “Remember my vow,” she said.
He inclined his head with a poorly suppressed grin.
After Bianca left, I showed Loch around my suite. It was one thing for him to know I was the daughter of a High House but it was entirely different for him to see it. I flushed with embarrassment. My guest bathroom was bigger than most of the places I’d stayed in the last two years.
Loch’s scowl deepened in each new room. By the time we reached the master bedroom, he’d returned to the chilly, forbidding face he’d used to meet Bianca. When I reached out to touch his arm and he didn’t react, I knew we needed to talk.
“Okay, I know I’m hideously embarrassed for you to see how spoiled I was growing up, but what’s going on with you?” He tried to shrug me off, but I tightened my grip. “Communication is important, remember?”
He refused to meet my eyes, but finally he said, “How am I supposed to compete with all of this?”
“You’re not,” I said. “I don’t care about any of this stuff. I left it all behind. It’s true that I like a little luxury when I can get it, but I have enough money to make that happen—for both of us.” I swallowed and looked away. I couldn’t preach communication then refuse to follow through. “I care about you far more than I care about any of this,” I said, waving a hand at the suite.
Heat crept up my cheeks. I held my breath to see what he was going to do with the fragile piece of my heart I’d extended. I peeked up at him to find him staring at me as if he could see the thoughts in my head if only he tried hard enough.
“You mean that,” he said.
“Of course—”
His lips slanted across mine, interrupting my words and scrambling my brain. His tongue traced my lips and I opened with a moan. He pulled me closer as his tongue slid into my mouth. I pressed up against him and slipped my hands under his shirt to caress the rippling muscles of his stomach. He made a deep sound of pleasure that sent lust bolting through me.
A few minutes later, I pulled back with a groan. When Loch tried to follow, I pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “I have to put in the dinner order with the kitchen before you distract me and I forget,” I said.
He gave me one last squeeze then let me go. “Hurry,” he said with a devastating grin.
Stepping away from that grin was nearly impossible, but I forced myself out of the room and to my study. If I stayed in the bedroom with him, dinner would be the last thing on my mind.