Demetrio's POV
She walked back toward the patio with her chin up and her platforms making that specific sound on the marble that I had come to associate with her particular quality of determination, and I stood in the corridor and watched her go and thought about the specific irony of a man who had spent twenty years building a comprehensive system for managing his responses to things standing in a hallway unable to look away from a woman in a green sundress.
The system, for the record, was not functioning.
I had sent the McKell party on their way with the minimum courtesy the alliance required, wrapped up the agenda faster than Dominic would have approved of, and followed Cadain through the estate with the specific focused energy of a man who had one objective and was not interested in discussing it.
The objective had been standing in the corridor looking like the most infuriating and compelling problem I had ever encountered, which was consistent with her general effect.
