Liam looked at him. "You are leaving me unsupervised?"
Stanford froze so badly that Liam thought he might become a statue. Only his eyes moved from Arik to Mezos to Mara and then back to Liam.
"My lord," Stanford said carefully, "I think you have enough security around you."
Liam's face fell into a slight pout.
Arik unapologetically loved it.
He found it cute.
That was a private disaster, because Liam pouting in the middle of a compromised laboratory, while a maintenance passage was being investigated for Canmore thieves and Ray's execution approached above them, should not have been cute. It should have been concerning. Irritating, perhaps. A sign that Liam was tired and emotionally strained.
Instead, Arik looked at his fiancé's faintly offended mouth and felt a warmth so sharp it almost made him forget the service tunnel.
At the back of his mind, Goliath made a low, amused sound.
Arik ignored him.
Or tried to.
The old emperor was not helping.
