“I suggest you calm down,” Erik said.
“Come and sit with me.” Sloan patted the space on the bed beside her.
I stared at Scott for a few moments before my aura receded back towards me and I took the seat. It didn’t disappear. I was too far gone to control it.
“Gray, I trust her,” Sloan said, her tone soft and gentle. “So does Erik.”
“That’s a stupid move,” I muttered.
“You do as well.”
Glancing back to Scott, I chewed over Sloan’s words. Scott had moved to the other side of the room, allowing us some privacy.
“I just want nothing bad to happen,” I admitted, changing the topic of trust and looking between my family.
“You would know if it was,” Sloan said, patting my hand.
Erik laughed. “It’s your job.”
I rubbed my face with a hand and shook my head. “I swear —”
“I think you should apologise to her,” Erik suggested.
“What? Why?”
“There’s something there,” he said with a glint in his eye.
“There’s nothing there, Erik. I told you to drop it.”
Sloan looked at her husband disapprovingly and said, “Even if there was, he can’t act upon it.”
“I never said they were in love,” Erik countered sulkily. “But I sense an attraction.”
“It’s a slippery slope, love.”
“You’re getting as bad as the rest of them now,” I cut across them.
“Just apologise to her,” Erik said, looking at Scott’s back.
“Fine,” I relented, if only to get away from Erik trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.
An attraction. There was an attraction. I was a God with eyes. I’d seen her out of the workplace where clothing no longer had to fit workplace regulations to avoid chemical spills on bare skin. No. Outside of her domain, Scott was a little less modest with plunging necklines, fitting clothes, and scandalous hems that left me curious about how to unravel her.
Pushing myself off the bed, I stalked over to Scott, who turned around as she heard me. The look on her face said she was ready for another fight.
“I’m sorry,” I gritted out, for Erik’s sake. My little brother would one day be my undoing. “For the outburst.”
“To be entirely honest, I’ve grown to expect it from you,” she said, pushing past me.
My eye twitched. “You can’t just accept the apology, can you?”
She may have been easy to look at. She might have been worth a lingering glance and the uncomfortable tightness in my trousers. But the moment she opened her mouth, every dark desire morphed from sexual to sinister.
“When it comes from you, it’s hard to believe it’s genuine.”
“See, Erik!” I said, throwing my arms out wide. “What a waste of time.”
He stared back at me with large eyes, and I hoped that this display popped a bubble in whatever ridiculous notion was forming in his head.
