Lucian discreetly pressed the volume-down button. He was just about to stand up and put some distance between them when he realized Cate had already tilted her head up and brought her face close to his.
"How did yesterday go?" Cate stared into his eyes, a dangerous, probing edge in her voice. "That old woman Starlight didn't do anything to you, did she? One look at that woman tells you she's trouble."
Lucian glanced at the phone in his hand.
The moment he heard Cate speak, he had already moved the phone away.
Good thing I saw that coming.
But Lucian had underestimated how worked up Annie was at that moment.
Even with the volume turned down, the same shrill questioning still came through the phone's speaker. "Lucian? Are you listening? Who's talking?"
Cate froze. She had heard the voice too.
Following the sound, her gaze landed on the phone screen Lucian had deliberately held away.
The screen was lit, displaying the caller's name clearly.
Annie.
A trace of just-awakened grogginess still lingered in Cate's eyes.
Annie? Which Annie?
Two seconds later, the sleepiness in Cate's eyes was instantly burned away by fury.
"Fuck!"
Cate abruptly sat upright, staring fixedly at the screen. "Isn't that the bitch who uses her position to get sex?"
She was completely awake now.
Cate turned to Lucian and seized the wrist of his phone-holding hand.
Lucian frowned slightly, his arm muscles instinctively tensing.
With his current physique, if he refused to hand it over, Cate couldn't pry his fingers open even with hydraulic cutters.
Gritting her teeth, Cate tried to force his fingers apart, one by one.
She was putting a lot of force into it. Looking at her vicious, almost murderous gaze, Lucian sighed inwardly.
Forget it.
Lucian relaxed his hand, put up