Read Online The Royal Elite: Mattias by Danielle Bourdon - Free Book Online Page B

imagined the chemistry between them last night. Now here she was, indignant and furious and jealous at his bedding of another woman.
    “Yes, she gave me what I wanted—hey.” He caught her arm when she flipped around to put her back to him.
    “Don't.”
    “I'm telling you the truth. Being honest. The least you could do--”
    “Is what, exactly?” she said, turning back around. “Listen to you crow about your conquest? No thanks. For a while, I thought you might be different but in reality, you're not. You're just like the rest of them, ready to have a fling at a moment's notice.” She snapped her fingers for emphasis.
    “That's not accurate at all—”
    “Isn't it? Because let's discuss what you did--”
    “Stop interrupting me.” He did the same to her if only to let her know he deserved to get a word in edgewise. What an infuriating woman.
    “I won't! You had some other woman in your bed the night before last too, did you not?”
    “Yes.” Katrina again, but he didn't say so.
    “See? You prove my point very well. Now get out.” She gestured toward the door, a flippant flick of her hand.
    Mattias, irritated beyond reason at the order to get out—did so. He turned without another word and exited her suite, leaving the door wide open in his wake.
     
    The entire time he stalked away from her room, Mattias cursed himself for putting his emotions before Alannah's safety. He wasn't usually a man driven by them, not to this extent, and rarely over a woman. Chayton or Ahsan could take over for now, he decided, until he could cool his temper enough to try another round of conversation with Alannah.
    Thanks to the lingering storm, the hallways he traversed back to his room were gloomy. Weak light filtered in through the windows, highlighting the center of the corridor but not all the way into the corners where shadows lurked.
    Entering his suite, he paused halfway in and halfway out when he spotted movement near the bed. Immediately he tensed, ready for action. Chayton Black shifted away from his lean against the wall on the other side of the bed, hands in the pockets of his dark slacks.
    “I thought you were someone else,” Mattias said, muttering a curse under his breath. He closed the door behind him.
    “You're lucky I'm not. You're distracted,” Chayton pointed out, coming around the end of the bed. Of mixed heritage, the prominent being Cherokee Indian, Chayton had long black hair currently tied back at the nape. He wore a slate gray button down, nondescript but expensive, and boots that made no sound on the tile as he walked. His features were sharp through the cheeks and jaw, eyes an eerie blue against his darker skin.
    “It's Miss Astbury,” Mattias admitted. “She's proving to be a handful. Have you heard anything new?”
    “Nothing. I saw Leander on the way here and he's having a hard time getting connected to the outside thanks to the lack of power. His phone's out of juice.”
    “I bet he is.” Mattias contemplated that while Chayton came to a stop a few feet away. If Leander couldn't get access to the outside world, finding the information they needed would be much more difficult.
    “Why do you say Astbury is proving to be a handful?” Chayton asked.
    “It's a challenge to keep her in our sights. She has a tendency to walk off or not want to be around people.” Mattias didn't explain why Alannah didn't currently want to be around him.
    “She was very perturbed last evening.”
    Mattias glanced at Chayton. “What?”
    “I spent the night in her room--”
    “You did what?” Immediately, Mattias saw red. And to think, Alannah had played the wounded card for all she was worth.
    “I said,” Chayton repeated, “that I spent the night in her room. Hiding out, keeping watch. She tossed and turned or paced by the window. Her sleep was disturbed until the very earliest hour of the morning. She never knew I was there.”
    “I see.” Once Chayton explained, the tension gripping Mattias's