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The music is so goddamn loud I have to yell into her ear. “She’s in her office?”
Fiona hesitates, looks in Andrei’s direction, and finally nods. I’m about to make my way down the hall but she stops me, latching onto my forearm. There’s urgency in the move and it’s weird. Fiona is typically brimming with banter and humor. Even the outfit she wears, a subdued dark blue dress, is unlike her usual flair for showgirl glitter and sequins.
I lean closer so she can yell into my ear if she needs to but she lowers her head and lets go. She gestures loosely in the direction of Haven’s office and I don’t hear her sigh but I do see the slump of her shoulders.
Nothing about the mood here feels right.
Andrei takes his job as head of security very seriously but tonight the tension in his posture reminds me of a tiger about to spring. Another guy wearing the black polo of the security staff trots up and says something to him. By now I’ve met all the staff but this other guy must be new. His head swivels when I walk by. Recognition flares in his beady eyes. He scowls.
Not a fan I guess.
As I make my way warily down the hall there’s a break in the music amid an outburst of vulgar cheers. I crack my knuckle on Haven’s door and turn the handle before I get an answer.
She sits at her desk. Her face is an unsmiling pale oval, framed by curtains of dark hair that I sometimes forget isn’t her natural color.
Haven doesn’t stir when I walk in the door. It’s eerie, the way she looks at me like she’s never seen me before and wishes she didn’t have to see me now.
“Hey, baby.” I shut the door. “What’s going on?”
She watches me cross the room and approach her desk. When I bend down for a kiss she turns her head to the side.
“I’m extremely busy,” she says, still facing away.
There’s nothing on her desk except a pair of dice. No papers, no evidence that she’s been doing anything except sitting here alone in an empty room.
Before I walked in here I thought something might be wrong. Now I’m sure of it.
Refusing to budge, I grip her chin in my hand and turn her face to me. Haven bats my hand away with a hiss and springs out of her chair, stalking away on her stiletto heels.
“Haven, what the hell is going on?”
She crosses her arms, throws me a steely eyed glare. “I told you. I’m busy. We don’t all have half the year off to be nothing but frivolous celebrities.”
“True. How can I atone for my sin of being frivolous?”
Her mouth twitches, fighting a smile, then a grim look passes over her face and stays. “I don’t want you to atone. I want you to leave.”
I’m at a loss. No idea where this came from. When she left my house this morning she could hardly tear herself away. “What the fuck happened?”
She clucks her tongue. “Conner, I know you’re slow but I’m really getting tired of explaining.”
Ouch.
This isn’t her.
Something’s got her freaked out and I need to talk her down.
“This is our last weekend together before I report to the training camp. From there, it’s going to be kind of hectic for a while once the season gets underway.”
She shrugs. “Sounds like you need some time to focus. You can have it.”
“What I need is to spend every available moment with you.”
“What the fuck for?”
No more of this. I grab her and pull her close. “Because I’m crazy about you. That’s why.”
She melts. Just for a split second. I see the spark in her eyes and feel her body soften.
