“What the hell were you so focused on?” he demanded. “You weren’t doing anything.”
I could feel my face heat up like a furnace.
“Nothing. Just thinking about it. The spreadsheet. Thinking really hard.”
“Right,” he said, drawing the word out into several disbelieving syllables. “It’s lunch time.” His eyes took on a special gleam that I’d come to know intimately, and my heart sped up in anticipation. “We’re going back to the suite for…lunch. Save that and let’s go.”
Oh, I could not possibly have saved my spreadsheet and closed the laptop quickly enough.
Declan actually smiled at me, which had my heart thumping even harder, and we turned to the office door.
My answering smile died a sudden death as Walter appeared in the doorway, soundless and scentless and creepy as always.
“Walter,” Declan said, sounding distinctly uncomfortable. Jesus, finally he was getting it. And then he explained the tone by adding, “I forgot we were going to have a working lunch today.”
A brief flare of mean satisfaction at having driven creepy, magic-assaulting Walter completely out of Declan’s mind made me grin involuntarily, and by the look of pure death Walter shot me, he noticed.
Shit. He already had it out for me, even though Declan wouldn’t admit it. And now I’d humiliated him. I went cold all over.
Alphas weren’t supposed to be afraid. But Walter terrified me. I couldn’t help it, and it was obviously an instinct I shouldn’t ignore, given what he’d already done to me.
“A working lunch?” Walter said, a tinge of bitterness clearly audible. A date. He’d thought he and Declan had a lunch date. “We agreed you needed to spend less time working and relax.”
Declan let out an equally uncomfortable-sounding laugh. “I’m sorry. It’s been a busy morning and it slipped my mind. But I was about to relax, so I was taking your advice.” He gestured at me.
That fell as flat as a deflated balloon. Walter stared at him in stony silence, his unnaturally expressionless face blank and smooth.
Fuck. Walter really did want Declan. I was certain of it now. And he wanted me dead, I was just as certain.
“Why don’t all three of us go grab a bite?” Declan said, and I barely refrained from slapping him silly. Why were some men so incredibly dense when it came to this kind of shit? I wasn’t exactly Mr. Tactful, but—fuck’s sake. “It’ll be a good chance to—”
Oh, no, fuck no. I couldn’t let him finish that sentence with the inevitable and horrifying “get to know each other,” or possibly, “let bygones be bygones.”
“It’s fine,” I put in, a little too loudly so as to make sure and drown out any other stupidity coming out of Declan’s stupid mouth. “I have a few things I need to do anyway, I wasn’t quite done. I’ll stay here in your office for a while, okay? And catch up with you later.” And though it made me want to gag, I forced out, “Enjoy your lunch.”
If murderous, creepy Walter doesn’t poison or roofie you. I managed to keep that part silent.
Walter stared at me as if I’d grown a second head, and he didn’t seem to be placated in the least by my stepping aside to give him his Declan-time. Oh, gods, I’d just humiliated him a second time by acting like I had the prior claim. But what the fuck else was I supposed to have done? I didn’t fancy my chances of making it out of lunch alive.
“I don’t blame you for wanting to bow out of lunch,” he said smoothly, with a hissing undertone like a passive-aggressive snake. “After all, if I were you, I might not be comfortable eating with someone I’d tried to kill, without even so much as offering an apology.”
Rage boiled up in me, sudden and fierce, and my fingertips itched as my claws tried to surge out. He had the nerve to—after he’d hit me with his foul magic, after he’dset me up!
I looked over at Declan the way you would when you wanted to share your anger with someone, and remembered too late that he wasn’t on my side here. He still believed some random third party had made me freak out.
Declan’s eyebrows had drawn together in a deep frown, his eyes dark and troubled. He glanced from me to Walter, all the lines of his big body tight with tension. “Blake was under a spell when he attacked you,” he said after a moment, turning back to Walter. “He’s sorry for any damage he caused, I’m sure. Buttried to killimplies intent. And that was lacking, Walter. You know that.”
Walter’s eyes sparked with anger, a faint flush spreading over his cheeks—the first sign of involuntary anything I’d seen from him.
“I don’t feel safe with him, Declan.” His voice took on a faint, irritating whine. “I told you that. Any decent individual would apologize.”
“This matter’s already been settled,” Declan said with great and quelling finality, a hint of his alpha voice creeping in. “And if you didn’t notice another warlock on the premises, then I’d say you bear some of the blame as our head of magical security.” I rocked back on my heels, shocked beyond belief. Declan might not believe me completely, but he wasn’t only taking my side…he was using my own logic, my own point about Walter’s incompetence, to defend me! And when he took a half step closer to me, shoulder to shoulder, I was so grateful it made my knees weak.
I nearly missed Declan adding, “No one’s apologizing. No one has anything to apologize for. And that’s that.”
Walter had gone so red I thought he might explode, his fists clenched at his sides. I almost empathized with him, having caught the sharp edge of Declan’s cutting tongue more than once.
Almost.
