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“You have a lot of good looks, Daphne, but smartass isn’t one of them.” My full name sounded clunky and unfamiliar on his tongue.
“You should have told me what this was about,Lukas.” If he dropped the nicknames, so would I.
Lukas planted his hands on the table, his head eclipsing the sun and making his dark hair and gruff beard look a shade deeper. “Tell me the logic in letting you back into these meetings like you didn’t run off for a fucking year. For all I know, you spent that time spilling our secrets.”
I shot up out of my chair, barely hearing it skid on the floor as I planted my own hands down on the table, matching his stance. “The person you should be worried about spilling secrets is your brother. And I spent that time knees deep in dig sites doing research, as you so acutely guessed. As for the reason I left in the first place, that’s none of your fucking business.”
Lukas leaned closer, his eyes glowing a brighter blue. The fighting, and yes, the proximity, sent my heart beating double time. He might have deserved my anger, but he affected me the same. And that blue…that was the type of blue you could get lost in as he hovered above you, moving in and—
“If you didn’t bust in here like a cyclone, you might have heard that’s our very concern,” Lukas said, his shoulders curling toward me, making it even more obvious how much bigger he was than me. “As for what is and isn’t my business,youare my concern. Therefore, so is the reason you left. You can either tell me yourself or sit by while I pry it out of your beautiful head.”
My greedy, starved hands wanted to snatch that compliment up.
I had to remind myself that word from him was more of a statement of fact. He’d never acted on it, never given me any indication that there was something other than observation behind that comment.
From Lukas, I didn’t want beautiful. I wanted distracting, maddening, intoxicating. I wanted him in as deep as I was. To join me on the ocean floor with all the other scavengers, hunting for pieces of him.
“That sounds like it could get bloody,” I said, my words biting. He’d never get me to admit why I’d really left. I could only deal with the embarrassment once.
Lukas’s expression turned another degree toward rage. “You get one chance, Daphne. One chance to tell me.”
“How about this, I’ll answer you just once. It’s up to you whether I’m telling the truth or not.”
Lukas’s fingertips dug further into the desk, his arms practically vibrating with restraint. “You always did love your little games. Let’s play.”
I smirked. “I left to travel around the northern peninsula with your brother.”
A deep, dangerous growl erupted from Lukas’s throat. “You’re a little liar. But just so you know, if you ever try that, I’ll drag you back here over my shoulder. If you try to leave again at all, for that matter.”
I cocked my head to the side, relishing in the fact that Lukas tracked the movement with his stare. “Is that meant to scare me?”
“No,” Lukas said, lifting his hand off the table. I almost, almost pulled away. Because if he gripped my chin like he used to, I wasn’t liable for my actions. Halfway toward me, he slammed it back down. “You forget I know you, Daphne. If I wanted to scare you, I’d do it.”
His words landed low in my stomach, my body starting to respond to the rasp in his voice. I spoke before memories I couldn’t relive started surfacing. “If you do, I have a reason to get you back. And we both know that won’t end well for you.”
“Daphne,” Lukas barked. He was halfway over the table, hand reaching toward me when Zale jumped up, bursting our bubble.
I’d forgotten he was even in the room. Lukas looked just as dazed, his eyes widening like he was coming out of a fog. “While I have to say I missed this, why don’t we focus on the problem at hand, shall we? Then you can get back to whatever weird version of your normal bickering this is.”
Neither of us moved at first. There was a thread in the middle of my middle stomach, rooting me to Lukas. I wondered if he felt the same tug, the need to be in my personal space.
Apparently not, because he broke the tension first, severing it when he sat down. I followed slowly, sneaking a peek at his whitening knuckles as he gripped the arm of his chair.
I folded my hands neatly in my lap, crossing my legs. Lukas’s gaze shot to me, taking in my stance. The very one that had been carefully curated by my mother. The perfect wife’s posture.
Lukas turned back toward Zale slowly, almost like it took effort.
“I’ll go knock some sense into him,” Lukas said, his voice communicating exactly how fun he found that idea. He was probably exhausted from having to deal with his brother’s bullshit.
“Want me to go with you?” I asked, echoed by Zale’s “You need company?”
I moved my elbow to rest on the arm of the chair, pushing my thumb into my chin and my forefinger into my lips to prevent any stupid questions. I’d said it on instinct. Of course, Lukas wouldn’t want me there.
“No,” Lukas said to no one in particular. “I can deal with him.”
An ugly voice in the back of my head spoke up then.
You can make him need you, but you can’t make him want you.
