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“They got that fire right out,” Lucien mumbled, dropping his eyes to the table. Some of his bluster appeared to drain away.
“That’s not the point and you know it,” Grey snapped and something in Calder tensed as if he were waiting for the Soul Weaver to dive straight into Lucien’s brain and convince him he was a chicken. “Your powers are dangerous when you’re paying attention, but with you constantly fighting with Calder, they are downright deadly to all the Circle.”
Calder had to bite his tongue. He had the strongest urge to snap at Grey, to say something to defend Lucien, which didn’t make a damn bit of sense considering how much time they spent sniping at each other. He should be enjoying seeing Lucien called out on the carpet, but only guilt and indignant anger roiled in his stomach.
Unfortunately, Grey turned his laser-like focus on him, and Calder briefly considered sliding under the table.
“It’s not only Lucien,” Clay murmured, his voice a rumble of distant thunder.
“Calder, you are one of the most laid-back people I’ve ever met,” Grey started gently and then slammed the hammer. “Except when it comes to Lucien. You haven’t been paying attention lately, and that’s the last thing you need. You’ve had your powers the shortest amount of time out of all of us. Your full attention needs to be on what you’re doing and following Clay’s instructions. You’re both putting us all at risk.”
“What the fuck is going on?” Clay demanded bluntly.
Calder shrugged, his eyes locked on the gleaming tabletop. Was he blushing with embarrassment? His damn cheeks were burning, which only made his embarrassment worse. “Nothing’s going on. We just don’t get along,” he mumbled. He hadn’t felt this humiliated since he’d been a kid and his mother had scolded him for not doing well in school.
He slowly glanced at Lucien out of the corner of his eye to find the Black man looking at him with a frown on his handsome face. He kind of hated that Lucien was so damn handsome with his shaved head and his slashing cheekbones. A frown tugged on his own lips, and he directed his eyes to the safety of the table.
A long, loud sigh left Clay. He shifted in his seat and Calder looked up to see the man scrubbing one hand through his hair. “Why can’t you get along?” Clay asked.
“Who the fuck knows!” Lucien snapped. “Haven’t you ever met someone who rubbed you the wrong way? Someone you couldn’t get along with?”
Calder sank a little lower in his seat, nearly drowning in the swirling vortex of dark emotions that had at one time been his stomach. It hurt more than he cared to admit to hear that Lucien didn’t like him. Maybe he’d lied to himself all these months, hoping stupidly that Lucien’s anger at him wasn’t personal.
“Yeah, but I can still stay civil and not start shit,” Clay snarled. “I’ve seen you say stuff to start a fight with Calder. And I’ve seen the same damn thing from Calder. Why?”
“I don’t know!” Lucien shouted.
“If you ask me,” Grey said slowly in a low voice that sent a chill down Calder’s back. How much of the truth did Grey see to his darker, secret feelings? Grey swore he didn’t go digging around in their heads, but some things he couldn’t avoid hearing. “This feels an awful lot like pent-up sexual tension.”
“What!” Calder and Lucien cried in unison. At least they could agree on their shock.
“Have you lost your mind?” Lucien continued.
Clay and Grey ignored them both, looking at each other. “Like they’re attracted to each other and they don’t know what to do with it,” Clay said.
Grey nodded and stared at them. “Why don’t you two fuck and get it out of your systems?”
Calder blinked at Grey. He couldn’t have possibly heard that. “You want us to what, now?” The strangled question came out as a squeak.
“I think I was pretty damn plain.” Grey placed both hands on the table and leaned toward Calder as he enunciated. “I want you two to fuck each other’s brains out, so we can all move on with our lives.”
Heat flooded Calder at the thought of being stretched out naked with Lucien, their sweaty bodies moving together, gasps of intense pleasure filling his ears. The image nearly knocked the breath from his lungs. He cleared his throat and looked at the table, tracing one of the scratches with his finger. That…that was insane.
“No,” Lucien said in a hard, implacable voice. “This isn’t sexual. We just don’t get along. Fucking ridiculous.”
Grey chuckled and some new uneasiness slithered into Calder’s stomach. “I didn’t want to tell you this, but there is something between you.”
Calder’s head snapped up. It was like Grey had kicked him in the lungs. “Like a soul-mate something?” He dared a glance over at Lucien to find him staring at Grey with a similar look of shock and disbelief.
