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“Good evening to you,” he drawled.

“Don’t ‘good evening’ me,” I blubbered. “You’re indecent!”

He arched a brow at me, making no move to cover himself. “I’m not the one who barged in.”

“You told me to meet you in your chambers at this time,” I reminded him. “AndI knocked.”

Raphael shrugged, unrepentant. His bare shouldersreallyshouldn’t look that good doing something as mundane as shrugging, but I watched every flex of his muscles against my will. “Demos caught me while I was bathing. No sense of timing with that one.” He gave awhat-can-you-dosigh that was distinctly un-kingly as he brushed his wet hair back with one hand.

“You have preternatural speed. You could dress in seconds.” I hoped the annoyance in my tone would disguise the fact I was having a very hard time not looking at Raphael like this.

“What can I say? I like to take my time.” But he did push off the desk and cross the room, grabbing some dark clothing and disappearing into another room. He did not, however, shut the door.

I worked very hard not to think about Raphael dressing in the next room, and studied his chambers. They were similar to my own: a sitting room and office, with a grand desk that would have been more impressive if it wasn’t covered in mountains of parchment. The door where he’d disappeared was likely the washroom, and another shut door that was certainly his sleeping quarters. The decorations were different from my own, darker colors, less ornamentation but still luxurious.

Raphael reappeared, mercifully clothed. Kind of. His hair was still wet, skewed in a half-dozen directions like he’d shook it in a towel. His clothing was simply a pair of woven charcoal-gray slacks and a deep mauve silk shirt that was only partly buttoned. Different from his usual black. I studied him for a heartbeat too long before he cleared his throat.

Oh. Right. I was annoyed at him. It took a second to recall the emotions that had me pounding on the door, but once I did, I was seething all over.

“You put me next door to you?” I demanded.

“Finished looking and straight to business,” he said mildly.

I ignored the remark. “How did I not know you were stationed across the hall?”

“Perhaps you simply aren’t overly observant,” he offered.

I didn’t exactly patrol the hallways, but that wasn’t enough to convince me. If I didn’t know, it was because he didn’twantme to know. All these weeks, and I hadn’t seen him enter or leave once. The bastard had offered towalk me to my roomson more than one occasion.

“Why am I sleeping across from you, Raphael? You know what people are going to think,” I hissed.

Raphael drew closer from across the room, until he was right in front of me. There was something lethal about him in this state, half-dressed, hair still wet. And yet his red eyes were utterly focused on me. “What are they going to think, dove?”

Was he going to make me spell it out? “That I—that you—we—ergh!” I was too flustered to get the words out. Kings used the chambers near them for favored mistresses. It would seem like I was placed near him to meet hisphysicalneeds.

By the smirk that threatened the left corner of his lips, he knew exactly what I was referring to. He just enjoyed torturing me.

“You know exactly what they’re going to think,” I groused.

Raphael cocked a brow. “I’m not in the habit of letting gossip dictate my actions. Besides, do you really care what a bunch of vampires think of your sexual proclivities?”

Sexual proclivities. If a pit straight to the second hell could open in the floor then and there, I’d prostrate myself in thanks to the god of circles himself.

“You could have put me near Amalthea,” I sputtered.

“You’re safest nearme.” He took a step closer. “You’re my Chosen, Samara. Or at least you are in their eyes, because that’s what keeps you safe in my kingdom.”

My understanding of being one of his Chosen only meant, for vampire society, I was off limits for anyone but Raphael to drink from. If that was true, there was no reason for me to have chambers across from him.

Not unless there was more to the title than that.

My cheeks heated. At once, the image of Raphael’s undressed body arose, coupled with the thought of what others in the kingdom thought we’d be doing with such proximity.

And he’d let them think that!

“You’re frustrated,” Raphael remarked.

I tried to bite down on the emotion, but it was a lot easier to contort your face than your emotions. “This is why I need you to help me block the link.”