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His fingers tightened around the glass as he sensed Dev was about to say sohes and you will treat her like she’s an heiress to a ripe, unpluht eye, just like it had on their father whenever he was getting irritated Then he shruggedand then he really pissed Lucian off

"I don’t knohy you’re going to all this trouble with your sister" He paused as he eyed his drink "That girl was daed way before she--"

"You finish that state two funerals instead of one" Lucian paused, letting his words sink in "And you know that’s not an idle threat"

Stefano’s lips thinned "Seriously?" He looked over at Dev in disbelief "You’re going to allow hilass "Last I checked I had absolutely no control over hiaze settled on hilass to his uncle "We never asked your opinion on Madeline," he reminded him, and come to think of it, when they told Stefano about Madeline’s return, he hadn’t been snide about it then Not like their father had been In all honesty, his uncle hadn’t appeared to care at all about it, but now? Different story "Our father didn’t ask your opinion either"

"As if you have any idea what Lawrence discussed with ht you were about as useful as a fork in a sugar bowl"

One side of Dev’s lips twitched

The senator sat back A lass

"This will be a lovely dinner," Dev co restless, he shifted in his chair Where was she? And where in the world was Gabe? He was usually down here by now

Only a handful of seconds later, Gabe strolled in through the archway He caught sight of the senator and sent a weird look at Dev, who simply shook his head Gabe dropped into a seat, and as the dinner got going, it beca

Lucian’s appetite vanished A wry grin twisted his lips Why had he actually expected her to come down? But did she even have dinner? He doubted that she would bat an eyelash at his concern

Lucian knehat she was doing

His nurse was hiding from him and that just wouldn’t work for hio and Madeline was in her bed, clothed for sleeping and fed by the tih the hallways, not liking theave that whole, friendly redrum vibe

Once she was back in her roo her know that everything was fine, and ate as left of the sandwich Livie had brought her that afternoon She was too tired to worry about how the de Vincents felt about her skipping the dinner Besides, her thoughts were all over the place, ju she should be thinking about--to why Lucian had stopped before things got really interesting the night prior--so she really didn’t need to think about

Like at all

It shouldn’tfor his fa like she’d been tricked, but this small part of her wondered why he hadn’t been interested in her returning the favor or having sex Had he changed histhat much, but was it all just soh

The food in her sto to let her horny little heart soar ever again

Feeling like she had a fil to make use of the beautiful shower She peeled off her pants and shirt, tossing them in a small hamper inside the bathroom In her bra and panties, she remembered that the toere stashed on narrow shelves just inside the closet door

She crept back out into the bedrooht Larger toere in the botto down, she reached for the one as cold air slipped over her arhtened Loose tendrils of hair along the nape of her neck stirred A faint trail of shivers circled down her spine

Whirling around, she stared at the back of the closet, half expecting to find a large crack in the wall or a vent directly above her Scanning the wall and the ceiling, she saw nothing but s the back of her neck, she looked around again as a wave of tiny goose bumps spread over her bare skin She feltGod, this sounded insane, she felt watched