Page 70 of Mayhem

Camille glanced briefly at Echo before giving me her full attention. “He needed to be moved. He was nearly killed while supposedly under your protection, and the private doctor you chose was keeping him in a location she already knew.”

Echo shifted beside me. I did not look at her.

“You used my authorization.”

“I used access my family has had for years because somebody needed to fix this before your father heard a protected Quorum asset had been tortured under your roof.” Camille’s voice remained controlled, but irritation had begun pushing through. “You left him alone with her after everything she has done since she arrived here. I made sure he was somewhere secure.”

“You made a decision for me.”

“I made a decision you should have made yourself.”

There it was.

The assumption beneath every dinner invitation, every reference to what our families wanted, every time she had behaved as though eventually I would stop resisting and become the man everybody else had decided made sense beside her.

I moved closer. “Your family being protected gives your family protection. It does not give you authority over my territory.”

Camille folded her arms. “This stopped being only your territory when your choices started creating Quorum problems.”

“Careful.”

“No, you need to hear it.” Her eyes flicked toward Echo again. “You brought her into your circle without knowing who she was. She tortures someone you promised to protect, and instead of removing her, you put her under your protection too. You’re letting whatever this is affect decisions you’re supposed to be making for Aldrich.”

Echo remained unusually quiet beside me.

Probably because she knew she did not need to do anything.

Camille had made the same mistake she always made. She believed being close enough to the structure gave her ownership over it.

“I have heard you,” I said. “Repeatedly. That seems to be the part you keep missing. I heard you when you decided we were supposed to end up together. I heard you when you treated every woman near me like she needed your approval. I heard you the last time I told you I was done with this.”

Several conversations around us had stopped completely now.

Camille’s face hardened. “Don’t do this here.”

“You did it here the second you used my name to move someone under my protection.” I stepped close enough that she could not pretend this was a misunderstanding meant to be handled later. “So everybody can hear the rest too. I’ve been done with you. I want nothing from you. Your family is protected because that relationship existed before either of us had a say in it, but I am not your fucking bitch, Camille, and you are not in my bed.”

Color climbed into her face.

“You think humiliating me changes what your father expects?” Her voice sharpened now that control had stopped working. “Desmond has been very clear about what makes sense for both families.”

I laughed once, without humor. “Then you can fuck him.”

Somebody behind Camille choked on a drink.

I felt Echo turn toward me, but I kept my attention on Camille because I was not finished.

“I’ve got a new bitch.”

Then I reached for Echo.

One hand closed around the front of her neck, fingers spanning lightly beneath her jaw as I turned her toward me and kissed her.

I expected resistance.

At minimum, I expected the pause she always gave before deciding whether she was going to allow something or turn it into a fight. I expected her hand against my chest, maybe a shove hard enough to remind me exactly who I had grabbed without warning.

Echo melted into me. Her mouth opened under mine almost immediately, one hand catching the front of my shirt while the other slid up behind my neck. The kiss stopped belonging to the statement somewhere in the first few seconds. She leaned into my grip instead of away from it, and the sudden willingness hit hard enough that I forgot Camille was standing three feet away until the silence around us registered.