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Dariel turns his back and returns to his desk. “Before she destroys us.” He picks up his glass of water but doesn’t drink from it. “And she could. Easily.”
“But she could also fix us.”
“Nothing and no one can fix us, Aden. Best we just go back to the way we were before…” He drops into his leather chair, his face relaxed as he gazes up at me. “Well, before she makes things worse. If you’re set on this, pick out a girl. One night. Maybe it will quieten Kade’s restless energy before he does serious damage to himself or the bar. No one can win every fight.”
“Any girl?”
“Not Lily. A different one.”
Leaning my back against the door, I meet his eyes. I can’t do it for long, not with his wolf so dominant that he’ll view a long stare as a challenge. “Because you don’t think one night with her will be enough?”
“No, because she’s trouble.”
“You want her. Don’t think I can’t read the signs. And you’ve been thinking about it, haven’t you? About us sharing Lily, about all the things we’ll do to her.”
I know I have.
Dariel tears his gaze from mine and opens a drawer. After retrieving a small pile of paperwork, he picks up a pen. And that’s when I realize just how much she’s in his head already. Dariel never looks away first.
Ever.
“I have work to do, Aden. If she needs money, give her some and send her on her way. I’ll pay you back.”
My eyes don’t leave his bent head as he scans invoices I know he isn’t paying the least bit of attention to. “So that’s your answer, then?”
“It is.”
I turn to grab the door handle.
Before I can pull it open, Dariel’s voice stops me. “You’re planning something.”
“No, I’m off to do my job,” I say, my gaze on the hallway just outside.
“No, you’re planning something. You want this thing with Lily too much to just drop it this soon. What are you up to?”
I peer over my shoulder. “My job. Which is to manage the bar, and part of that is managing the staff.”
Frowning, he rises from his chair. “Aden…”
“We agreed. You would deal with the back office, Kade the finances—not that he’s been doing much of that lately—and I would handle recruitment. We have a vacant position. I intend to fill it.”
And because I know Dariel, I don’t hang around a second longer. No one wins an argument with an alpha wolf. They do what they’re told, or they die. So I make a swift retreat, closing the door firmly behind me.
19
KADE
The door creaks open and a statuesque blonde with blue eyes slips in. Her long lashes flutter as her gaze lands on me. A slow smile stretches across her face. “Hi handsome, I’m—”
“I didn’t permit you to talk. Take everything off and get on the bed.”
She nudges my apartment door closed and stalks toward me, her hips swaying just enough for me to know she’s played this game before. Not unusual, since I’ve dealt with the women from her agency more than once.
I turn to track her as she crosses the open-plan living space and enters the bedroom, empty except for a white bed and a white armchair set in front of it.
Moonlight spills in from the floor-to-ceiling windows and onto her slender form as she shrugs out of her black fitted dress and works it down over her breasts, hips, and legs. Back to me.
She isn’t wearing a bra, which is no surprise. They rarely do. Just a black lace thong, a scrappy bit of material that reveals more than it conceals.
