Chapter 166: Riven and Rae
Her voluptuous chest strained against the fabric with every breath, while her soft, round belly peeked through beneath the coat, unapologetically on display.
Despite looking like she’d crawled out of a lab explosion and straight into a lingerie ad, she moved with purpose, clearly aware of just exactly what she was doing. Her wrenches danced from bolt to hinge with delicate precision, and her eyes glinted with obsessive focus as she studied the deactivated turret.
She was in her element, cheeks flushed, lips parted, and tongue extended in concentration. She looked like a woman falling in love with a circuit board.
"Riven Forjex!" came a sharp voice, slicing through the air like a bureaucratic sword.
The girl froze.
Grace, the chairman’s ever-professional secretary, stormed out from behind the group, heels clicking sharply on the solid pavement. "You are strictly forbidden from dismantling any of the defensive hardware present in this location, got it?!"
Riven turned slowly, like a child caught with her hand in the honey jar. She blinked at Grace.
Then, she pouted.
It wasn’t small, either: her entire expression collapsed into a sulk so powerful it might’ve collapsed a lesser soul. She huffed loudly, but her wrench-laden arms dropped to her sides in defeat. Her eyes met Grace’s, looking at her as if the woman had just kicked a puppy.
Then, with all the dramatic flair of a heavily disappointed mad scientist, Riven scoffed. Hard.
It was the kind of scoff that carried the weight of crushed dreams, delayed projects, and at least three denied funding proposals. Her head tilted just enough for her long, dark bangs to veil her eyes, and her glossy lips parted with practiced disgust, as if Grace had just personally banned innovation itself.
Kaiden blinked in surprise. His eyebrows crept up as he murmured, "What a strange woman."