The senator took her words as a positive sign. He circled the desk like a lazy cat and leaned over her chair, his fingers light as he began to massage her shoulders. “I have no plans for the season. Is that why you wanted me to stay this morning? So that we could talk about spending the next few months together?”
“That’s a little presumptuous, don’t you think, senator?”
“Dorian.”
“Senator.”
La Roux’s fingers stilled. “I could make you very happy this winter. We might not be a love match like my cousin and your sister, but there are other sorts of matches. Sexual matches. We had fun, didn’t we? Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy it. I saw your face. I heard your moans.”
Lila’s stomach rolled as she remembered how much she had enjoyed him, knowing what he must have been thinking while he fucked her. He’d probably had his eyes on her room the entire time, wondering where he would plant his bugs.
She had cast Tristan away for this man.
That wasn’t right, was it? She had cast Tristan away for her family. She had cast him away for duty. Senator La Roux had merely been on the agenda for the day.
Besides, Tristan had cast himself away long before she ever met the senator.
“Is that what you’re used to? Have the lowborn women you’ve bedded been so eager to produce an heir from a pretty senator that they engaged you for the season after one night, hardly bothering to talk between all the rutting?”
La Roux slipped a finger u
nderneath the strap of her militia tank and tugged it down. His soft finger trailed across her naked shoulder. “Are these your talking clothes?”
Lila shivered and knocked his hand away.
“What? I thought you liked bluntness?” He sat upon her desk, facing her once more, but his amusement did not reach his eyes tonight. Clearly, she had flummoxed him.
At least she had that going for her.
“Tell me about your day,” she said.
La Roux seemed amused by her question, though annoyance had begun to bubble under it. He methodically listed his activities, from how he had woken up in her agreeable company, to staying in his room at Bullstow all morning while closing out his files, to enjoying a long lunch with a group of senators from Beaulac while they discussed a few bills for the next legislative session. Afterward, he had engaged in another battle against his office files before getting ready for dinner with Lila.
She heard the words but didn’t listen to them. Instead she studied the way his eyes washed over hers when he lied, then away when he told the truth. The way his fingers alternately tapped or stilled upon her desk. The way he shifted underneath his suit coat.
“In point of fact, my day was rather boring. I’m sorry that I had to leave you this morning. I would have rather stayed in bed with you all afternoon. Tell me, what did Chief Elizabeth Victoria Lemaire-Randolph do with her day?”
His smile was a little too broad and proud.
She chuckled at the use of her full name, though it sounded forced even to her own ears. “I worked at the security office this morning, then returned to my room after lunch to organize my own files. I had so many that it quite overwhelmed me. In the end, I just wiped my computer. I’ll tell everyone my hard drive crashed.”
La Roux nearly choked on the wine.
“I also had a very interesting visit from the Bullstow militia. They seemed to be investigating some sort of disturbance at Bullstow a few days ago.”
“Is that so. Why would they come to you about it?”
“No idea. Did you hear of anything that might have happened on Wednesday?”
La Roux shook his head. “I didn’t even return from Beaulac until yesterday morning.”
“Oh, that’s right, isn’t it? I know this might surprise you, being from Bullstow yourself, but not all men from Bullstow are ethical. The militia lied to my face. Sometimes men betray their calling when they think they can get away with it.”
“Women, too.”
“Yes, of course. Don’t look so upset, senator. I’m not that worried about it. I’m rather good at reading people. I suppose it’s a gift from the prime minister or my mother.”
“What did you learn from the militia?”