He wasn’t sure he was even capable of love. He imagined it came with too much chaos.
They were silent as he finished the drive and pulled into the restaurant’s lot. He was meeting William for a lunch meeting at a restaurant close to the office. As he parked his car, he looked over at Emory again. “I need to discuss business during this lunch, so I’d prefer it if you sat at a separate table.”
Emory gave him one of those quick smiles that transformed his already pretty face into something mesmerizing. “Not a problem. I’ve eaten here before. They have really good pasta.”
“I’ll cover your lunch.”
Emory shook his head. “That’s not necessary. Expenses are in your contract.”
Julien nodded because he knew that. Of course he knew that. He never signed anything he hadn’t read thoroughly. These new feelings were wreaking havoc with his mind.
He got out of the car, strode into the restaurant, and spotted William at a table near the back. He left Emory to deal withhis own table and headed that direction. As he approached the table, he noted that once again, William looked disheveled, completely the opposite of his normal put-together appearance. His lips were pinched, and he ran a shaking hand through his light brown hair, leaving the ends to stand up. But he quickly smoothed out his expression when he spotted Julien.
“You’re early,” Julien said as he took the seat across from him.
“Well, you usually are, so I thought we’d be arriving about the same time.”
Julien was chronically early to every appointment, so he understood. He absolutely loathed people who were always late and felt it was the epitome of rudeness. He glanced around to find Emory a couple of tables away and giving a rather flirtatious smile to the male server.
That smile was sexy as fuck, and he didn’t stop staring soon enough. William had followed his gaze and the obvious interest widening his eyes stabbed through Julien.
“Wow,” William muttered quietly, causing Julien to look at Emory again. “I can see why you’re staring, though I have to admit I’m surprised. I didn’t realize you leaned that way at all. In fact, I don’t know if you know this, but office gossip has you at anti-sex altogether.”
Julien’s gaze snapped back to William. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You do know your nickname is The Robot, right?”
Julien waved his hand. “I don’t care what people call me as long as they do their jobs.” He picked up the menu and began perusing the options.
William continued to look at Emory, which began to really annoy Julien. He set the menu down and really looked at his CFO again. William’s air was tense, his usual smiles completely missing.
“There’s something I wanted to speak to you about today,” Julien said to pull William’s attention back to him. “There are some discrepancies in accounting. And they’ve been going on for a long time, so it’s not something you should have missed.”
William squared his shoulders, his eyes narrowing. “Small discrepancies are on my radar. I’m looking into what’s going on now. Why are you going through financials?”
“Not all the discrepancies are small. And I go through every part of my business. You know that.”
“Yeah, I do know that. You work so much, you don’t have a life. The way you just looked at that blond is the first time I’ve ever seen you show interest in another person. Maybe you need a little fun time to break up all that work. Ask him out.”
“I don’t need to ask him out. And I was looking at him because I wanted to make sure he had settled somewhere close. That man is actually my bodyguard.”
“What?” William blinked hard. “Why do you need a bodyguard?”
Julien couldn’t very well tell him about the penumbra, so he shrugged. “Just some threats I decided to take seriously.”
“From competitors?”
“I don’t know exactly where they are originating from, but I decided to err on the side of caution and hired someone.”
“It must be pretty serious if you actually hired a bodyguard. You aren’t the type to do that at all—taking care of everything yourself.” William looked back at Emory, his face paling. “And that’s who you hired? How did you find him?”
“He’s just a bodyguard from a company here in Seattle.” Julien narrowed his eyes and studied William more closely. He knew William was a preternatural because there was a faint feeling of magic about him, so he was sure that William could see what Emory really was. And that seemed to be upsetting him. So much, he pushed his chair back.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go. I just remembered a phone meeting.” William stood and dropped some cash onto the table.
“A phone meeting.” Julien didn’t phrase it as a question.
“Yeah. We’ll have to discuss whatever this was about later. I’ll swing by your office around four, okay?”
