I straightened up then, feeling a modicum of composure washing over me in all this chaos. I did what I did for a reason, and it was a good one—one that still stood now.
“We have no future,” I said in my best ‘be reasonable, powerful man’ voice. Nikki called it my dickhead whisperer tone. “You have an omega out there that’s perfect for your pack. I’m a beta. It was a hookup. It was intensely satisfying, mind-blowing, whatever adjective you’d like me to use, because I’m coming up short here.”
“Try,” he said, smiling for the first time. “I find I want to see just how expansive your vocabulary is, because you had plenty to say when you were coming before.”
“If we’d kept hooking up or chatting or whatever, I would’ve started getting attached. Neither of us wanted that.”
“Don’t speak for me.” The smile faded so fast, it was as if it were never there in the first place.
“Well, I didn’t want that,” I said, then looked back over my shoulder. “I don’t know Crystal’s story, what was going on, but needless to say, crying in my old office, begging a man not to let me go, is not on my bucket list. Maybe she’s got a really good reason—”
“She does.” His smile was grim, mirthless. “Billions of them. Like with so many women we meet, the almighty dollar gets in the way.”
Which was why he hadn’t revealed who he was, which building he owned, and all the others. Right then, I looked him over as if seeing him for the first time, seeing the jeans and the Converse sneakers, an entirely improbable look for a billionaire.
This was why Lucien let Tobias take point for the company, why he wasn’t squiring supermodels around town like Beau. He was the quiet achiever in the background, escaping notice, because the way he dressed didn’t scream power and therefore people would always underestimate him.
To their peril, I was willing to bet.
“Crystal wants Max to marry her and set her up as his little beta wifey in a multimillion-dollar mansion of her choice, so she can spit out 2.5 children, who might be his or the pool boy’s,” Lucien said with a shake of his head.
“I…” My voice faded away, then I pressed my hands to the desktop. “I’m not going to discuss a complete stranger’s professional or romantic life. I’m not going to discuss us any further. I’m not going to take this job. I’m sorry for wasting your time.”
I was about to leave when another rap at the door heralded the entrance of someone else, but they didn’t wait for an answer. Tobias Lockwood breezed in, taking in me, his brother, and my résumé with one sharp look. I sucked a breath in, because damn, all those glossy magazines didn’t do him justice.
I couldn’t imagine him living the normal life of an alpha. To see him in a flannel shirt and denim rather than an exquisitely tailored silver-grey suit would’ve been a crime. It fit him like a glove, making clear the long elegant lines of his body, and then there was his face.
When I read romance novels, they often featured patrician bastards like him. Not one of my bosses had ever sported the kind of refined features, the straight nose, the slightly arrogant twist of his lips, with the harsh intensity of his brown eyes. They seemed to see through everything, and that made me flush all over, my skin prickling.
“What the fuck is going on?” Tobias asked, looking at me, then his brother.
“I was just chatting to our new hire, making sure Miranda got us someone decent, not another fuck toy for Beau.”
“Beau would fuck a fur rug if it lay down for long enough,” Tobias hissed, then appeared to realise that perhaps that wasn’t the smartest thing to say in front of a menial. “I’m sorry, I’m Tobias Lockwood.”
He held out his hand, elegantly manicured, his tan brown skin contrasting with the crisp white cotton of his shirt.
“Sage Davies, Mr Lockwood,” I replied, shaking it, then blinking when I saw how small my hand was. I had the kinds of hands drag queens loved, making their own seem slender and petite compared to my paws, but they were nothing against his. Probably because he loomed over me, his head perilously close to the ceiling.
“Just Tobias,” he said with the kind of professional smile designed to put you at ease, even as his eyes raked over me.
He would want to check me out. He thought I was going to work for him, and so he’d be looking for signs of a well put together exterior, of professionalism, but as he did so, something happened. He didn’t let go of my hand, his grip tightening when I went to snatch it back, a small frown forming as the moment stretched on and on. I began to shift in my chair, a compulsion to say something, anything rising, but there was no elegant way to do that.
Then I saw Lucien.
He smiled then, really smiled, that slow, feline thing that had had me drenching my knickers back at the restaurant a few weeks ago. He took in his brother and then me with a look of satisfaction, which was what had me jerking my hand free.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going to be a good fit for the position,” I told him, steering Tobias back to the matter at hand. “I was just explaining to Lucien—”
“And I’m trying to convince her to stay, at least in the short term,” Lucien replied. “She’s got plenty of clerical experience, as well as a specialisation in event planning.”
That was a stretch. I had organised the trade fair stalls for the previous company I worked for and the like, but I suspected what this job entailed went far beyond that. I looked past Lucien to a poster for an international symposium for businesses looking to capitalise on the shift towards ‘green industries.’ People would be coming from all around the world to share ideas and hawk their products at the event.
No, I thought firmly.No, no, no, no, no…
“Yes,” Lucien said with a smug smile, as if he heard my very thoughts. “You’d have your own team and all the support you could possibly want. We just need someone who’s got the nous to keep an eye on what’s going on and report back to us daily on the progress of the event. No making coffees or fixing the printer here.”
“Along with all of the other insanity,” Tobias said with a sigh, settling against the edge of the desk. He rubbed his hand across his forehead. “We need someone we can trust. The situation with Crystal…” Those keen eyes met mine, his full lips thinning. “Well, it was an epic clusterfuck.” He scanned me with that intense gaze. “I’m not going to bullshit you. You’ll have to hit the ground running, put in long hours. Do you have a husband? Children? I know that’s not something I can legally ask, but I’d be concerned if you had people relying on you being home at a reasonable hour if you took the job.”