She threw my covers off her, revealing her nakedness and yelped. I couldn’t help the smile that hovered around my mouth, even as my body hardened.

Danica shot me an accusing look and searched for her clothes. They’d been laundered but were hanging over a chair a few feet from me.

“Your clothes were dirty,” I said. “Filthy.”

“I’m not playing these games with you,” she said, although I caught the flash of amusement that darted over her face. She’d never admit it, but she adored our games.

Danica covered herself with the blankets once more and leveled her gaze on me.

“What happened?”

“It was an attempt to hack our security systems. They likely were attempting to find out where the children were.”

The little witch’s face drained of color and then flushed red as her fists clenched. She threw the covers off once more and stalked to her clothes. Gloria had muttered about wasting her power when I’d ordered her to spell all the blood out of the material.

I fisted my own hands to prevent myself from throwing Danica back onto my bed and rolling her beneath me.

She pulled on her clothes while muttering softly to herself. Her eyes cut to mine as she yanked her shirt over her head, the movement drew attention to her full, round breasts.

I forced myself to look away.

“What do you know?”

I smiled. “My people are better than their people. They didn’t have a chance of breaking through. My IT team allowed them to get close enough that they could uncloak them, revealing their IP address. Bael and Sitri are hunting for them now.”

Danica let out a low throaty laugh. She’d made a similar sound in my bed. I got to my feet and she held up one finger.

“I don’t think so. Stay over there, mister.” She began strapping on her weapons and I gave her my most charming smile.

“You don’t want me to stay over here.”

She slowly backed away. “I have people to hunt. Whoever blew up my car is going to regret it.” Her delicate face twisted into a scowl and she cracked her knuckles.

I suppressed a chuckle. I had a feeling the bounty hunter would not want me to tell her how cute she looked while plotting vengeance.

She headed for the elevator and I watched her as she stalked away. Danica was ephemeral. Every time I thought I had come closer to making her truly mine, she pulled away. In my quieter moments, I wondered why it mattered. Why I couldn’t simply remove the bond and allow this mortal her freedom.

“And where do you think you’re going?” I asked.