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“I’m not nervous.”

“Well that’s… cool, I guess.” He sounded almost personally offended by it, for some unknown reason.

Instead of taking me to Hector’s office at the end of the corridor, we turned down a different one lined with doors. Larkin stopped outside of one and reached for the handle.

“So this is your new office.” He stepped aside after opening the door. “The marketing manager, Taylor, is just across the hall.”

I walked in and looked around. It was pretty nice, I supposed. Comfy seating in the corner, a big desk with two monitors, a glowing neon Goliaths of Wrestling sign on the wall. No windows, obviously, seeing as we were in the basement. But at least I wasn’t in a bullpen with twenty other people.

Ewen would probably call me a basement dweller if he knew this was my new office.

I gritted my teeth as the thought popped into my head. I hated how often I thought about my dickhead neighbour, but he was a constant thorn in my side, despite how little we actually interacted. He just annoyed me. He was annoying.

“You don’t look like a typical IT nerd.”

I stiffened in offence as I looked over at Larkin, who was leaning against the doorframe and watching me. My pierced brow rose. “Not all IT guys are nerds.”

I was pretty sure Ewen had no idea what I actually did for a job, otherwise he probably would’ve made the same joke a million times by now. Asshole.

Larkin straightened and gestured at my new office. “Like it?”

“It’s fine.”

When he offered to show me around, I took off my suit jacket and rolled up my sleeves, wanting to be comfortable and not look too much like the overdressed, overeager new guy. Larkin wasn’t wearing a jacket and his tie was a mess, so they couldn’t care that much about appearances here.

He led me across the hall to meet the marketing manager, Taylor, who I discovered was dating Hector—and was human. Which was certainly a surprise. As we were heading back toward Hector’s office, a huge guy in a suit with short brown hair appeared around the corner.

Werewolf, I realised as I spotted his golden-brown lupine eyes. Then my brow rose again when Larkin bounded over to him and kissed him soundly on the mouth.

Was there something in the fucking water here? Why were all the employees dating?

“Friendly office,” I deadpanned, tucking my hands into my pockets as I stood there trying not to feel too awkward. “Am I expected to do that?”

Larkin whirled around and wrapped his arm around the guy’s waist, narrowing his eyes at me. “No. Seb’s my boyfriend. He’s Holt’s bodyguard.”

I absorbed that bit of information with mild surprise, unable to stop myself from asking, “Holt needs a bodyguard?”

“Uh-huh.” Larkin’s mouth twitched. “Something to do with the mob, I think. Holt’s, like, involved in some shit, dude.”

I was pretty sure he was fucking with me, and I refused to react even if he wasn’t. Did he really expect me to believe that Holt Hector was involved with the mob? Really? The dude who’d taken notes during my interview with a pink fluffy pen? The dude who’d accidentally hit play on the audiobook he’d been listening to when he went to show me something on his phone, so I’d been subjected to a few seconds of a vampire called Fabio railing his human pet, Steve?

After Seb the bodyguard greeted me politely and kissed Larkin again, the two of us carried on walking down the hallway, leaving the big werewolf behind.

“Any other office couples I should know about?” I asked flatly.

“Gabe and Biff have a thing,” Larkin said after a pause.

“And they are…?”

“Nunhallowed Pound and Bedrock Biff Clawstin.” He looked at me. “You been to watch the wrestling before?”

“Only once.”

I’d come in my early twenties, at least five years ago now, with a few of my friends. None of us had overly enjoyed it—we weren’t big on crowds and loud music and deafening screams. And the wrestling was fake, all scripted and planned, so what was even the point? I hadn’t found it all that entertaining, to be honest.

“Well, now you can watch it every week if you want.” Larkin shrugged. “Perk of the job. The atmosphere’s always pretty cool in the arena.”

I couldn’t think of anything worse than standing in a suit in the middle of a screaming crowd, watching two people pretend to kick the shit out of each other. Unfortunately, part of my new job would be setting up a secure channel to stream the matches online so Hector could charge for pay-per-view.