After he showered, and while Suzanne slept off her alcohol-induced whatever-it-was, Declan patrolled the grounds and reviewed security measures. At one point he’d even called Deena to ask what the hell was in the drink Suzanne had guzzled, but it hadn’t contained anything out of the ordinary. He hadn’t expected to hear that it had been spiked with anything strange, but he’d been hoping that maybe there’d been an exotic food ingredient that could explain her behavior.
Nope.
Now he was looking over security footage from the last two days. He hadn’t expected to see anything other than maybe a raccoon or cat walking on top of the fence or on the grounds, but something strange caught his attention.
Last night, shit got real fucking weird.
At the 19:37 mark, just a couple of minutes after she’d gotten up from the dinner table to check on dessert, Suzanne entered the grounds from outside the security gate. What the hell? He hadn’t seen her exit. Frowning, he reversed the feeds, but no, she hadn’t gone outside. Not unless she knew of a way to get out of the house and outside the fence without the cameras catching her. There were a few blind spots, but they were limited, and he’d personally tested them to ensure that it was impossible for anything larger than a cocker spaniel running a complex pattern to get from the fence to the house and vice versa without at least one camera catching them.
Was there a glitch in the feed? He’d check the electronic gate logs to see if she’d been recorded going out as well as coming in, and maybe he could—
The hair on the back of his neck stood up and his fucking tattoo screamed out a warning, as if a lightning bolt had zapped him in the spine. Instinctively, he reached for the comfort of his sidearm, only to realize it was still sitting next to the pool. Idiot!
“What the fuck did you do to her?”
Declan surged to his feet and spun toward the office doorway, but he didn’t even have time to square his stance before Suzanne’s assistant, Hawkyn, had him by the throat and pinned to the wall. His feet weren’t even touching the damned floor.
“I said,” Hawkyn snarled, “what did you do to her?”
Declan swore flames danced in the guy’s green eyes, but that was probably just the result of a lack of oxygen in his brain.
“Nothing,” he rasped. Jesus, Hawkyn’s grip was like a fucking steel clamp. “She had a couple of drinks. She’s sleeping it off.”
Hawkyn growled and slammed Dec against the wall again. Pain cracked in his spine and ribs, and damn, he was going to be feeling that for a couple of days. “You gave her alcohol?”
“The fuck?” The guy made it sound like Declan had given her meth or a venereal disease. “I didn’t give her jack shit,” he rasped. “And buddy, she’s an adult. She drank it willingly. At a restaurant.”
“Did you take advantage of her?” Baring his teeth, Hawkyn squeezed harder. “If you so much as touched her—”
“I didn’t,” he croaked, but even as he said that, he realized that kissing her was touching her. His hand between her legs was definitely touching her. And he’d have done a lot more than that to her if she’d been sober. Probably best not to say any of that to this lunatic. “I put her to bed. That’s all.”
Time stretched as Declan’s vision grew blurry and blotches of alternating lights and shadows danced in front of him no matter how hard he struggled against Hawkyn’s hold.
“Son of a bitch.” Finally Hawkyn released Declan, and he gave silent thanks for the wall behind him. “Don’t let her do that again. Some of us can’t tolerate it.”
Some of us? “What the hell are you talking about? Don’t let her? I’m her bodyguard, not her nanny. If she wants to drink an entire fifth of Jack and have an orgy in the pool, that’s her choice.” Her choice, yes, but there was no way he’d stand by and let it happen no matter what he’d just told her overbearing assistant. The thought of her engaging in an orgy made him a little ragey. “And who are you anyway? Her dad?” He rubbed his throat and wondered if there’d be bruises in the shape of hands there later. “Jesus. Does she know you’re a fucking psycho?”
Hawkyn laughed, apparently cool with being called crazy. “Just do your job and keep your paws off her.”
The sound of a throat clearing shut them both up as they swung to face the doorway. And the very angry Suzanne, lips pursed, fists balled at her sides, standing in it.
“What the hell is going on?” she snapped. “I could hear you two from the other side of the house.”
God, she looked adorable in the short silk robe, her hair mussed, her small feet hidden in fluffy slippers. When she looked at Declan, her cheeks turned rosy and he wondered how much she remembered of the pool incident.
Hawkyn grabbed her arm hard enough to make her gasp in outrage. “We need to talk.” He started to drag her out of the office, but something inside Declan snapped. Hard.
With a growl, he clamped his hand down on Hawkyn’s shoulder and spun him into the doorjamb. “I don’t give a fuck who you are or how insane you might be. You do not handle her like that.”
This time, the flames in the other guy’s eyes were not in Dec’s imagination. No way. Not with the way they were kicking out a blast of heat. And yet, it was impossible. He was losing his fucking mind.
Hawkyn hissed—fucking hissed—but before he launched into what Declan was sure would be a brutal, no-holds-barred battle, Suzanne was between them, one palm on each of their chests. Too bad, because at this point, Dec was spoiling for a fight, and clearly Hawkyn was too.
“Hey, boys. Let’s all take a deep breath. Dec, I’ll be back in a minute. Hawk, let’s talk.”
Declan stood down, content to let Suzanne handle this. But if he heard a single sound that made him think she was in trouble, that Hawkyn bastard was going to get the brawl he was looking for.
* * * *
Suzanne. Was. Furious.
And she had absolutely no doubt who was deserving of her fury.
The moment she and Hawkyn stepped into the massive, soundproof first floor library, she slammed the door shut and rounded on him, fists clenched at her sides, her breath burning like fire in her throat.
“Okay, bro, what the hell was that about?”
“I’m the one who gets to ask questions here.” Hawkyn gestured out the window at the backyard. “I came to check on you and I found your clothes...and his...next to the pool, and then I found you in bed. Naked.”
Her face grew so hot she felt as if she was standing in one of Hades’s inferno prison cells. “You were in my bedroom?” She tugged her robe tighter, wondering exactly how much he’d seen. “Are you kidding me?”
He had the grace to look chagrined. “I thought you and Declan were—never mind. But you—”
“Hold on.” She held up a hand to cut him off. “You thought Declan and I were having sex, didn’t you? Well, I have news for you. Even if we were, it would have been none of your business. None. If I want to do a...a...reverse cowgirl in a restaurant supply closet or a...a wheelbarrow in the pool, you have no say in it at all. Got that?”
He gave her a droll look. “Do you even know what those positions are? Or maybe you think potentially drowning is erotic?”
“That’s not funny.” And no, she didn’t know what those positions were. She’d heard of them, but whatever. That was a matter for Google.
“I’m not trying to be funny,” he snapped. “This is serious, Suz.”
She huffed, tired of being treated like a child. “Do you think I don’t know that? Do you think that after fifty-plus years of you drilling me about all of our laws and customs and rules that I don’t know what they are or what I’m doing? I’m protecting Declan, and I’ll do it however I see fit.”
“So that includes getting naked with him.”
“He wasn’t naked.” She’d only wished he was naked.
“But you were.”
Her face heated again. “Obviously.”
“Shit.” He scrubbed his hand over his face. “I’m assuming you didn’t have intercourse...”
“Don’t say that! I don’t want to hear any of this from my brother.” So gross. “And not that it’s any of your business, but no.”
“Then the guidelines are murky. If he touched you”—He paused and swallowed, as if he felt physically ill—“then you can get away with not declaring it when you Ascend.”
“Ascend?” She threw her hands up in frustration. “Is that all you care about? I’m sick of hearing about it. Ascend, Ascend, Ascend. Screw that. I’m young, Hawk. It’s not going to happen for centuries, so can we stop talking about it?”
She didn’t even want to think about it. Unlike all her other brothers and sisters who constantly fantasized about earning their wings and joining the “real” angels in Heaven, Suzanne liked it here on Earth, and she wanted to experience its history as it happened. She wanted to live it, not watch it unfold from the impersonal distance of the Other Side.
“No, we can’t,” he said. “Because it’s the single most important event that can happen to a Memitim, and if you don’t live your life with that goal in mind, you can stray. I won’t let that happen, Suzanne.”
“Yeah?” She crossed her arms over her chest, digging in. “Well, it’s my life, and how I live it is my choice. Mine. And right now I choose to be alone, so kindly get out.”
“Dammit, sis. I’m trying to protect you.”
She flung her hand at the door. “Get out! And don’t you dare threaten Declan again.”
“You need to fire him and come back to Sheoul-gra.”
“No.”
“It’s not a suggestion,” he said, his glittery wings erupting from his back. “It’s an order.”
She sucked in a startled breath. He’d never pulled rank on her. He’d certainly never flared his wings in a show of superiority. How had things gotten so bad between them? How could he not see that she had to do this? Declan would die without her constant protection.
She’d die if she was stuck in Sheoul-gra.
“I said no. Declan needs twenty-four seven protection.”
“Our brothers and sisters will help watch over him,” he argued, making perfect sense.
She knew she could count on her Memitim siblings to help, but what if the person who was keeping watch got called to their own Primori? Declan would be vulnerable, even if it was only for a few minutes until she could get there.
“You’re too close,” he continued. “And if I have to go to the Council to have him transferred to another Memitim, I will.”
Anger swallowed her whole. “How could you? You...you...asshole!” Squaring her shoulders, she stomped over to the door and flung it open. “You need to leave.”
He spat out a nasty curse, but he didn’t argue. He put away his wings and stormed from the library, his heavy boots cracking on the tile and echoing through the house until he slammed out of the front door.
Crap. She hadn’t wanted that to happen. She loved her brother and hated fighting with him, but she also hated being treated like a newbie Memitim who hadn’t even fought her first demon. Yes, she’d made mistakes, and no, she didn’t have centuries of experience under her belt like most of her brothers and sisters, but she wasn’t completely clueless.
She uttered obscenities under her breath as she made her way back to the security office, where Declan was standing in front of one of the monitors, the muscles in his broad back rippling with every tiny movement. Her stomach churned with anxiety as she stood in the doorway, wondering what to say. He was probably pissed at Hawkyn and confused by her behavior in the pool.
So embarrassing. She wished she didn’t remember, but it was all way too clear. She could blame her actions on the alcohol, but deep down, she knew that everything she’d done and said originated with real desires and feelings.
But what about Declan? His mixed signals constantly left her off balance. He’d kissed her, and she’d felt the evidence of his desire pressing into her belly in the restaurant closet and the pool. But he kept turning her down. Granted, it had been the gentlemanly thing to do given her inebriation.
Maybe it was time to find out where they stood. She just hoped they were standing in the same place. It wasn’t as if she was looking for marriage, after all. She wanted just one night in bed to break a rule and a hymen.
A figurative hymen, anyway. Memitim didn’t have them.
She took a deep, bracing breath and stepped inside the security room, where Declan was hovering over a camera monitor, his gaze focused on the screen. He was dressed in black military-style pants with boots and a black tee, and no one who saw him would doubt he was a force to be reckoned with.
“Declan. Hey. Look, about earlier...”
He didn’t look up, but his grip on the table turned white-knuckled. “Your assistant is a nutcase and you should fire him.”
“Hawk is a little overprotective,” she hedged. “But he means well.”
He spun around, his expression carved from granite, his eyes as cold and gray as winter in England. “Then what would he say about this?”
He gestured to one of the camera monitors, where a screenshot of her outside the fence, night before last, was on full display.
“Oh, that.” Shit. She’d forgotten about all the security crap. Maybe Hawkyn was right to worry about her. She sucked at Memitiming. “Yes, um, while I was checking on dessert, I looked out the window and thought I saw a cat and I went to check.”
“A cat. Really.” Skepticism dripped from his voice. “And how, exactly, did you get outside the wall without triggering any of the motion sensors or showing up on camera?”
“Obviously some piece of equipment is glitchy. Why don’t you take a look into that?”
“I considered that,” he said. “But then I found something else that didn’t make sense.” He pointed to a screenshot of the gate logs. “Maybe you can explain why there’s a record of you entering through the gate but no record of you leaving the property, and while you’re at it, explain how Hawkyn got inside the house without the gate logging him in?”
Shit, again. She shrugged. “Like I said, glitches.”
“In two different, independent systems?” Declan took a step closer and she fought the urge to step back. “Why are you lying to me?”
“What? Lying?” She tried to sound both innocent and offended. The combination made her sound guilty instead. “I’m not.”
“Bullshit. You’re flushing. Your pupils are dilated. And unless you two can teleport, there’s another way into this house that you didn’t tell me about. Where is it?”
Oh, crap. How the hell was she going to explain this? She couldn’t. She’d have to deflect.
“Look, I’m sure there’s a logical explanation that doesn’t involve secret tunnels or superpowers or something.” Palms sweating and her heart fluttering around in her chest like a trapped bird, she started toward the doorway. “I’ve got to plan my next cooking show episode, so I’ll just get to work—”
He blocked her path, his big body a virtual wall between her and the exit. “I take security failures personally,” he said, “and I really, really don’t like being lied to.” His gaze locked on hers, holding her as captive as if he’d fitted her with power-neutralizing Bracken Cuffs. “There’s no glitch.”
Caught in a lie, she panicked and took another tack. “Well,” she said briskly, summoning her father’s aura of command, “I’m your boss, and if I say there’s a glitch in the security system, then you should check it out. Now get to work or I’ll find someone who will.”
Disappointment darkened his expression, but it was gone in an instant, replaced by something harder. And colder. “Go ahead. I didn’t want this job anyway. Consider this my three-day notice.”
Stung and even more panicked because she couldn’t lose him as a “bodyguard,” she lashed out. “If you quit, I’ll go straight to your supervisor at McKay-Taggart. I’ll make sure you’re fired.”
She didn’t mean it. In fact, she regretted saying it before she even finished talking. But now it was out there, and Declan’s head snapped back as if she’d hit him.
“I thought you were different,” he said roughly. “I really did.”
“Different? Different than what?”
The contempt in his gaze chilled her to the bone. “Than other rich people.”
“Well,” she said softly. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
He barked out a bitter laugh and brushed past her on the way to the desk. “Being disappointed is nothing new.” He gestured to the screens. “I’ll just get back to work since you’ll tank my job at McKay-Taggart if I don’t.”
“I didn’t mean it, Declan. I don’t want you to quit. Please stay.”
Turning away from her, he tapped on one of the keyboards. “Close the door behind you. Ma’am.”
She hated the distance between them. Hated the frosty tone of his voice. Hated herself for putting it there.
So she told herself that this was for the best. His hatred would keep them both out of trouble. He’d be more alert and ready for danger, and she’d be in no danger of not Ascending.
It was a win-win.
So why did she feel like she’d just lost everything?