Chapter 52: Spy [3]

Then, slowly, Yelena turned her head and fixed that exact same look on Cane.

Except on him, the respect was warped by utter, bewildered disbelief.

"The information," Yelena said, the words dragging out of her as if admitting it physically pained her, "is actually useful. Incredibly useful."

Cane shrugged his broad shoulders, a lazy, insufferable grin spreading across his lips.

"Of course it is, commander. What did you expect? I told you I was invested."

Yelena’s eyes narrowed into an intense, calculating squint, her gaze roaming over his bare chest, the sharp lines of his jaw, and the infuriatingly smug smirk that seemed permanently welded to his face.

"You," she murmured, her voice laced with profound reluctance, "are actually useful. Considerably more useful than I have ever given you credit for."

Cane gasped in mock horror. He slapped his right hand dramatically over his heart, fluttering his eyelashes with all the shameless sarcasm he could summon.

"Oh, heavens! A high-born lady shouldn’t flatter a scoundrel like me so boldly! Truly, my lady, you’re going to make me blush right through my tan."

Yelena didn’t take the bait. She rolled her eyes, letting out a sharp breath through her nose, and reached up to finish tugging the fabric of her torn blouse back together. With brisk, practiced, aristocratic movements, she knotted the shredded silk beneath her breasts, yanked the hem of her short skirt down over her flushed hips, and smoothed the wrinkles from the fabric.

In the span of ten seconds, the trembling, half-naked girl moaning against an oak tree vanished, replaced once more by the proud, commanding heir of House Ayula.

"This intelligence gives us a legitimate chance of sweeping the bracket," Yelena stated, her voice brisk, professional, and entirely focused on the mission. "I need to speak with Marcus immediately. If we present this operational plan to the rest of the squad, we can unite the factions and initiate the camp relocation before dusk."

Cane nodded sagely, his hands resting on his bare hips. "A stellar idea. Honestly, you’ve been gone from the tents for nearly half an hour now. If you stay out here in the brush with me much longer, your loyal little maid might start getting funny ideas about what we’re doing to your virtue."

Yelena’s cheeks flared with a brief, furious pink, but she held her composure, giving a curt, decisive nod of agreement.

She took two steps toward the clearing’s exit, paused, and looked back over her shoulder. Her golden eyes flicked toward his bare chest, a faint, lingering hesitation in her expression.

"Are you coming back to camp with me?"

Cane’s smile widened, shifting from lazy arrogance into something purely, ruthlessly devilish.

"Not just yet, commander," Cane purred, his voice dropping an octave into a low, rumbling hum. "You see, our mercenary scout had one more condition attached to her contract."

Before either girl could process the words, Cane moved.

With explosive speed, his hands shot out, latching firmly onto the flare of Raven’s hips. In a single, fluid motion, he spun her completely around, pulling her back flush against his chest so that her spine pressed into his bare ribs and her athletic, tightly rounded ass was planted dead-center against his groin.

He didn’t give her time to react.

His broad right hand slid down, cupping the full, muscular cheek of her ass through her pleated skirt, and squeezed.

Hard.

It was a long, deep, violently possessive grope, his fingers sinking deep into the dense, perfect flesh of her backside, kneading the plump curve with shameless, heavy pressure right there in the open forest, beneath the broad daylight, with Yelena Ayula standing barely four feet away.

"Guh!"

A sharp, ragged gasp tore out of Raven’s mouth.

Her head whipped around, her dark hair lashing across her pale forehead, her eyes blazing with absolute, unadulterated fury.

Her hands shot upward like twin vipers, reaching behind her shoulders, and clamped hard onto Cane’s bare back. Her fingers curved into talons. Her nails bit into the flesh of his shoulder blades, digging deep, sinking straight through skin until a sharp, stinging fire flared across his back. She gouged him with enough vicious strength to draw blood, her knuckles turning bone-white with the effort.

Cane didn’t so much as flinch.

He didn’t pull his hand away from her ass. He didn’t drop his insolent grin. He simply tightened his grip on the plump, yielding cheek of her butt, giving it another slow, deliberate squeeze, entirely unbothered by the violence carving into his spine—treating her murderous claws the exact same way a man might treat an annoying mosquito at a summer picnic.

He locked eyes with Yelena over Raven’s trembling shoulder.

"This," Cane announced, his voice smooth, calm, and devastatingly clear, "was the extra condition."

Yelena froze.

Her face went from a faint rosy pink to a violent, suffocating crimson that swept from her hairline straight down into the knot of her blouse. Her golden eyes dilated, darting from Cane’s shameless hand buried in the top-ten scout’s ass to the terrifyingly submissive way Raven was currently pinned against his naked groin.

She understood.

The realization hit her like a physical strike. Her mind instantly, violently connected what she was seeing to the exact same filthy arrangement she had agreed to barely twenty minutes ago against the oak tree. The crude demands. The groping. The shameless, degrading submission required to purchase the scumbag’s cooperation.

Yelena’s lips trembled, but not a single sound came out. She clamped her mouth shut, refusing to acknowledge the humiliating connection aloud, her aristocratic dignity clinging to whatever pathetic scraps of pride she had left.

Without a single word, Yelena gave a jerky, mechanical nod.

She spun on her heel, her short skirt flaring wide around her pale thighs, and marched away through the ferns. Her back was stiff as an iron rod, her chin held unnaturally high, and her rapid, hurried steps carried her into the green shadows of the forest before Cane could even draw another breath.

Cane watched her go, a profoundly satisfied smirk spreading across his face as the rustle of her retreat faded into the distant birdsong.

The woods fell utterly still.

Raven’s nails were still buried deep in his back.