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“If you say so…” He shrugs.
“Maybe I should go check on them.” I turn toward the elevators.
Cal loops his arm in mine. “No. You’re taking the night off.”
“But—”
“You’re probably right. Declan wouldn’t risk losing it all now by doing something stupid. Even he knows when to hold back.”
“Now I know you’re lying.”
He chuckles. “Come on. Let’s go inside and wait for Declan. Just think about the way he will try so hard not to scowl and fail anyway. Hell, I don’t think I’ve seen him so much as look in someone’s direction without sneering since—” He cuts himself off.
“Since?”
He avoids looking me in the eyes. “Since forever. I’m pretty sure his dick is permanently chafed from jacking off every night.”
I smack his shoulder with a laugh. “Shut up! He’s myboss.”
“Doesn’t make it any less true. I’m surprised said appendage hasn’t fallen off from that kind of abuse.”
I let out another giggle.
“Callahan.” Declan’s voice booms.
A few stragglers scurry inside of the ballroom at the sound of Declan’s voice.
“He sure knows how to clear a room,” Cal says.
Whatever happiness I saw in Cal’s eyes dies the moment Declan stops by us with a frown. The air morphs into something cold, with Declan’s icy glare threatening to reverse climate change. His massive body blocks my view of the entire lobby. The spotlight behind him only highlights the sharpness in his features, bringing out the darkness in his eyes and the edges of his jaw.
Compared to Cal’s golden boy look of blond hair and blue eyes, Declan reminds me of the deepest part of the ocean—cold, dark, and unnervingly quiet. Like a monster lurking within reach, only a breath away from making someone his prey. From his dark hair to the permanent grimace etched into his face, he gives off a feeling that makes everyone turn in the opposite direction.
Well, everyone except me. Some might say he earned my loyalty through a paycheck, but that isn’t the case. We share a mutual respect for one another that has stood the test of time. While our first few months working together were rocky, my commitment to succeeding as his assistant helped pave the way to our relationship today.
Somehow we click although we’re opposites in almost every single way. I’m a Black woman. He’s a White male. I smile and he scowls. He wakes up early every morning to work out while I wouldn’t be caught dead at the gym unless it was to grab a smoothie at the café. We couldn’t be more different if we tried, yet we make it work. Or at leastIdo.
I step between the two brothers. “Declan, what are you doing out here? Is it time for the announcement already?”
Declan drags his eyes away from Cal and down toward me. Most people cower under his stare, but I straighten my spine and look at him head-on like my nana taught me.
“She quit.”
I blink. “Who quit? The wedding planner?”
“No. The wife. Belinda.”
“Bethany quit?!”
Cal dares to look smug.
Declan doesn’t bother looking away from my face as he detonates all my carefully laid plans. “Yes. Her.”
“This can’t be happening.” I refuse to believe that he ruined months of my hard work. Finding him a wife willing to marry him and have his child so he could become CEO and earn his inheritance was nearly impossible.
Refusing to believe it doesn’t change the facts.
“I hate to be the one to say I told you so…” Cal says.
