NINE
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That morning Raven’s ringing cellphone had woken them up. Before the first ring had completed its drone, he was up, seated on the edge of the bed answering the call. With a brisk, “Hang on a minute” into the handset, he’d put the device to his shoulder and turned his face in her direction, though he didn’t twist his body far enough to actually look at her.
When he’d told her that he had to take the call in private, Zara forced herself out of bed with a yawn and wrapped herself in her kimono. She got as far as the kitchen before she realized she had been dismissed from her own bed. Since there was no point in arguing with him while he was on the phone, she went to work making breakfast, which it turned out she had plenty of time to do because it was half an hour later that
