Her eyes caught mine and there was a look of discomfort in them. Whoever this man was, he wasn’t reading her body language, which was broadcasting that she didn’t want him there.
“Hey, baby. Sorry I was running late. The cashier at the store was a mess today.” I walked right past the man like I lived there, and his eyes started moving from me to her, obviously confused there was a man here. That was what I was going for—it was time to bring old Arthur out and make my woman feel safe.
I set the bags down and walked over to her, standing close so she could feel my body heat, but not touching. Didn’t want her to get upset over the unexpected contact.
The man was about five-eleven, not muscular at all, but not fat. He had brown hair, that was cut short and combed back with gel, and brown eyes. He looked like someone who worked at a desk. Accountant, something like that.
“Hi, honey,” she said softly, and that endearment spoke volumes for her. She wanted this man to know she was taken.
“I’m sorry, how rude of me. I’m Arthur. Gwendolyn’s fiancé.” The lie flew from my lips, but there was a large part of me that liked that lie. Very much.
I held out a hand for him, and he shook it in shock.
His eyes darted down to her left hand, and I followed his gaze. Crap. Didn’t think that through.
But Gwendolyn did. She’d used her power with some small amount of metal she must have had on her to create a simple band around her finger. I liked that a lot. My girl was smart.
“She deserves all the diamonds in the world but wanted something simple. Who could resist giving her what she wants?” I grinned and then felt a small hand slide itself into mine.
“This is Bradly. He used to work in my department at Griffin Enterprises. We dated for two months, then it ended, and he left to go work for Terratrex Corp. Our competitor.”
The coldness in her voice made me feel like snow had fallen around us. This was probably the woman he dated, the human robot of Seahill, not the one I was pursuing.
“Right. Well, word is spreading about your robots at the hospital. Very sneaky of you to get them to the public right after Terratrex announced their plans. But I came to congratulate you. I knew that was a passion project for you. I wanted to offer you dinner sometime to celebrate, but I see you’re busy.” He looked annoyed that I was there and standing so close.
“Yep. Thanks for stopping by. But we do have plans.” Her face was stoic, and I was willing to do anything to make that mask of ice come off.
“Congratulations again, Gwendolyn. I’ll, uh, see you at the big robotics convention next month.” Bradly didn’t look defeated as he left, just confused. As soon as Gwendolyn closed the door, her hand was out of mine and she started pacing the room, agitated.
“Need to talk about it?”
“I just don’t do well with surprises, and that was not a nice one.” I could tell that immediately, but I didn’t know what to do to help her. So, I asked.
“You could distract me. Help me focus on something else. I’d been planning on doing one thing all day, excited really, then he came by, and it messed me up. Now I feel scattered.” Her hands went to her hair, and I was worried she was about to have another meltdown and pass out.
“Help me cook. I could use a sous chef if you’re up for the job.”
Distraction. That was my job now, helping her focus on something else.
I told her what to do, and then she got to work. She was quiet and seemed a bit tense, so I started talking about Teddy. She loved robots, and he was one of her projects.
“Teddy has been having fun in my warehouse. I even make little messes for him on purpose. He gets frustrated, but I think there’s a part of him that likes it.”
Her shoulders, which were so tight they were trying to touch her ears, lowered a bit. It was working.
“His favorite thing to clean up is wax. I was working on a canvas with wax, and he was having a fit trying to scrape it off the concrete and rug. Soy wax is pretty hard to get off things.”
Since then I have been lighting a candle and dripping a little here and there. It was like a scavenger hunt for him.
I told her as much, and finally she seemed to truly relax again. We worked together to make fajitas and then settled at her table.
“What were you up to today? What’s the response to the robots been like?”
It was easy to take the lead in the conversation, something I felt she appreciated a lot. She chewed on her food and spoke after taking a large gulp of water.
“Everyone seems to like them. Then I came home, had lunch with my friend Lynn, and devised a scheme to seduce you.”
And the water I was drinking went down the wrong tube.
