And when he confessed about his memory loss… With pale skin woefully deprived of the sun and hardly being more than skin and bones, he’d looked so fragile and defeated on his knees in that parking lot. My gut response had been so visceral it scared me, like my heart cracked apart at seeing him in pain.
Max touched my arm. “Lysander are you okay?”
"Uh, huh, what?" I blinked, surprised to find us still in his room. The innocent touch of his hand now seemed so loaded.
He touched his neck, self-conscious and biting his lip, as I kept being weird. I shuddered as a bolt of desire rocked me to my core. Oh… oh no.
"You’re being kinda weird," he laughed. God, he had a nice laugh. “You’ll keep it up, bringing me books? Reading is alright, but you bringing me the books, you caring so much about me, it’s, well, obviously." He gestured to the book instead of having to say it, this was one of his favorite things. “Nobody’s ever cared about me like you,” he mumbled.
Yeah. I was afraid of that. It hit me that I cared a little too much. When had that happened? When had his dark hair and teasing smiles started making my heart beat faster?
If I’d recognized the signs, if I’d seen it coming, maybe I could have prevented this. But it was too late.
I liked him. I liked Max.
Shit.
13.Feelings First, Headaches Later
Lysander
It won’t be that awkward. It’ll be fine. Fine, not awkward at all, and then you can go get drunk.
When did I start lying to myself?
The last one wasn’t even a purposeful lie but since I was still on the clock I wouldn’t be able to get drunk for several hours. So it counted as the truth. With several hours in between.
Okay, focus on the facts.
I set up a meeting with my boss. Merritt Slate, the ultra-serious, ultra-professional werewolf badass. This felt like a bad dream, needing to tell him about my inappropriate crush on Max. It would be extremely awkward. And painful. But then it would be fine. The protocol here was clear: remove the conflict of interest.
Thought not totally convinced this play seemed right, my judgement was clearly compromised. The boss needed to weigh in.
“Temple, why the hell are you loitering in the hall?” Merritt opened his door already scowling at me. “I didn’t say anything when you arrived because there was still five minutes until our meeting but now you’re two minuteslate.”
“Oh, sorry sir.” I hurried inside, closing the door behind me and sitting down. Thank god the room was soundproofed so nobody else could hear the humiliation. “I guess I’ll get right to it.”
“You’re seven minutes shy of getting right to it but better late than never.”
Alright then. Here goes nothing. “I need to be reassigned, sir.”
His left eyebrow rose though he gave no other physical reaction. “No can do. You’re on desk duty until further notice. Hell, desk duty has becomedouble desk dutybecause Max’s case gave you a break from all the desk duty you should be drowning in right now.” He sighed. “EvenifI felt like going easy, doing you any favors won’t do you any favors, if you know what I mean."
The Director cutting me a break would look like favoritism. Fortunately I didn’t need a break. I needed to get back to my punishment.
"It’s Max’s case I’d like to be released from, sir."
Both eyebrows rose now. "Bullshit."
"It’s true."
"You’d like to go back to desk duty and taking everybody’s crap? Are you insane? Or an idiot? Because there’s no other reason—"
“Those are debatable given my issue, but there’s at least one other reason. I’m concerned about my ability to assist Max objectively. Our situation is already somewhat informal, it’s easy for lines to get blurred between professional and friend… but those lines should only blur so much.”
A muscle twitched near Merritt’s jaw. He stared at me in stony silence. Desk duty seemed more appealing with every passing second as long as it meant leaving this room.
"What are you saying, Temple?" He needed to hear it from me, but he already knew, judging by how he pinched the bridge of his nose like he was trying to hold back a headache.
