“Woah!”
Our fall suddenly stops as Faulkes catches us both.
Jerked out of the moment with Dec, I fix the balance issue and pull him out of Faulkes’s arms. “Apologies,” I tell my brother, stepping back out of the elevator.
Dec wiggles in my arms. “Put me down!” he hisses.
Faulkes shrugs, pulling his unicorn hoodie over his head. “You’re good, but maybe take it up to your room?” he suggests, scooting past us and walking away.
“Sure,” I call after him.
“No,” Dec rejects, pushing to get me to let him go.
It’s cute he thinks he’s strong enough to make me do anything I don’t want to do, but I put him down anyway because: consent.
I set him on his feet but push in close, tipping his head up as I bring mine in close enough to share breath with him again, “If we were in my bed, I wouldn’t have to ruin your suit with cum.”
Dec, flushed from our activity, catches his breath, and his pretty brown eyes glaze over as his imagination takes over. “Oh god. What is wrong with me?” he groans, blinking up at me. His eyes refocus and his fist clenches, which is when I realize his hand is still on my chest. “It’s because you’re so fucking hot. If you looked like your, uh, brother? Cousin? I don’t know, no one’s told me how you’re related! It doesn’t matter— if you looked like Ethan, I would not have this problem.” He takes another breath. “Ok. Listen. Thoren. You are clearly the incarnation of my dream man, but I work for your uncle and this,” he points between us, “can’t happen. I am not going to lose my job because you’re too pretty to resist.” He looks at me from my chest to my hair and back. “And fuck are you pretty. But no. We are not taking this further. We are going to forget it happened. We are going to resume a purely professional relationship. Yep. That is what we’re going to do.”
He steps back as if we’ve ever had a purely professional relationship, but I think he genuinely means the words coming out of his mouth even though they are utter nonsense. “Unclebelieves we’re fated mates.” I don’t like saying those words because they're also utter nonsense, but I’m happy to play a little dirty to alleviate his concerns.
He scoffs and takes another step back. “That’s ridiculous.”
I raise an eyebrow. “You have met Maxime Staiano, right?”
He opens his mouth, and then shuts it again, nodding. “Yes, that’s a valid point. Wait, does he really think that?”
I press my lips together with a small amount of disgust at myself for using Uncle to get in Dec’s pants, nodding. “He genuinely does think you and I are destined.”
Dec’s confusion is palpable. “But why would he think that?”
“Darcy Hellspinner told him so. Don’t believe a word out of that witch’s mouth. He’s not an oracle. My cards are more accurate than he is at predicting the future.” I pat my deck, even though they’re only slightly more accurate than Darcy.
“Darcy? The, um, Asian man that visited the other day?” he confirms.
“That’s him. He’s got a bit of an ego problem and likes to think he’s right about everything.”
Dec laughs. “He definitely exuded big dick energy.”
I have to give him that because it’s true. “He comes by it honestly—biggest dick I’ve ever seen.”
Dec snort-laughs and claps his hand over his mouth. “I really don’t need to know.”
That’s the truth. The only big dick he needs to worry about is currently attached to me.
Ugh. There I go with the possessive shit again.
I offer him my hand. “Your room or mine?”
Chapter eleven
Dec
(No one is surprised by this plot twist)
Oh he is sosmooth. I almost put my hand in his, but I take another step away to keep myself from making any mistakes. “Nope. No. We are not doing this. We are pretending it never happened. Remember?”
Thoren looks from my face to his outstretched hand and back to my face. “Really?” he demands, but there’s a smile in his eyes that I decide means he’s teasing me.
