"Give it up. Neither of us are happy you’restuck babysittingme."
"Oh shit.” He sucked in a sharp breath. “You heard me say that?"
"Yep."
Chase seemed to debate explanations in his head. I prepared myself to resist his powerful charm and whatever lies he cooked up.
But he only shrugged. "Look, I wasn’t talking about you."
"Wow and I thought you were a good actor before." That kiss certainly seemed much more convincing.
"I swear!" he insisted.
"Then what were you talking about?" I demanded.
"Uh… I can’t tell you.” His shoulders slumped at his totally inadequate answer but then he raised his head indignantly. “It’s official business!"
"How convenient. So the part about my car accident, whether I really saw a fox shifter, that was about someone else too?”
"No, uh.” Chase laughed awkwardly. “See, Merritt—"
“The director? He thinks I’m making it up or…” Lying? The word wouldn’t leave my throat.
“No, nobody thinks that.” Chase risked moving closer until I glared and he stopped several feet shy of me. “He was pointing out one possibility, one he thought I wouldn’t like to hear.”
"I don’t like it either," I whispered.
"Well, that’s not what I think."
When I glanced up, his eyes were already boring into mine. He seemed so sincere, like he really cared about whether I believed him. There, there were his powerful charms.Resist!
“Really?” I asked, doing the opposite of resisting. “You swear the babysitting thing wasn’t about me?”
"I swear." He had been in the middle of a larger conversation, one I heard only a few sentences of. Maybe I’d just jumped to conclusions. Then he continued. “Come on, Lucas. We’re in this together."
I frowned. “That’s what you said last time.”
The few feet between us suddenly felt inadequate. I moved back, putting us on opposite sides of the conference table.
"You’re right." Chase’s words were impossible to ignore even as I tried not to look at him. “I promised to look after you and then I disappeared. That must have been really confusing and scary. I wish I could tell you what I was talking about when you overheard me, but all I can tell you is that I really wanted to see it through."
Chase groaned a second later. “Not like this though. This falls to me because I’m working on finding the mate brokers, and one of their scum clients found you because they tailed me. I can’t believe I didn’t notice...” He shook his head, genuine anguish on his face. “I put you in danger and I’d love the chance to set it right. It’s my responsibility to ensure your safety.”
"Responsibility," I echoed. Of course. Why should I expect anything different?
"Yeah. But this isn’tonlya job for me. It’s personal too."
"I-it is?"
"Uh, isn’t it obvious?" he forced a laugh, turning away to pace before I figured out if the pink on his face had been imagined or not. “I took you back to my apartment, played drinking games, gave you my bed.”
"Why did you do all that?"
“Uh…” Chase’s steps stopped abruptly. "In the name of full honesty, I partly thought you might have a connection to another case Merritt also decided to keep me off in hisinfinite wisdom. But I don’t give a shit about that anymore.”
"And if Merritt pulls you off again?"
"Then you’ll work with some other very capable agents while they’re on duty.” He tossed a sly smile towards me. “And me when they’re not. This isn’t about a case,” he vowed, sudden sincerity stunning me. “It’s just, just, one guy to another… I wanna be there for you."
