And he had to have moved as fast as lightning to do it.
I lifted my gaze as his scent swirled around me. His muscles flexed, keeping me tight against his chest. It was like sitting near a warm fire instead of standing out in the chilly air.
His pupils expanded and shrunk again when the sun moved through the clouds.
“You…” I uncurled my fingers from the fabric of his jacket. I pointed. “You were just standing over there.”
“And now I’m standing here,” he said, “stopping you from rolling down that hill.”
“I wasn’t going to—” I shook my head. “That’s not the point. You were standing way over there. Like twenty feet away.”
His hold loosened, then fell away. He gave me a look that said I was crazy. “Miss Thompson, I saw you start to slip and I ran over to see if I could stop it. Lucky for you, I did.”
“You’re fast,” I said, my heart still racing.
“Is that a crime?” He turned away, heading back to the cars, not seeming to care anymore if I fell on my ass or not.
I slipped two more times as I followed after him but managed to stay upright. Not a crime, no, but not possible either.
Declan stood at the car, the door open as he waited for me. “Would you like to see the competing location?”
I held his gaze for a long moment, challenging him. I knew what I saw, knew that there was no way he’d have been able to reach me that quickly.
No way.
“Miss Thompson,” Declan said, voice so low it sounded like a warning. “I’m a busy man.”
I trudged around the side of the car, mumbling, “Yes, I’m ready to see the next location.”
“Good.”
He got in after me, but I noticed this time he sat as far away as possible. He promptly got on the phone with his lawyer to discuss some merger I had absolutely no clue about and even less interest in.
Damn Declan. He was making it seem like nothing had happened. Like I’d just imagined the whole thing.
After he spent the entire ride to the next location ignoring me and doing everything he could to avoid eye contact, I almost started to question myself, too.
But no, I knew what I’d seen. And the more he ignored me, the more I believed he was up to no good.
Chapter 9
“So he’s…Superman?” Xander asked. “No, wait, he’s that one—the guy who runs really fast.”
“The Flash,” I mumbled as I turned in the shower and reveled in the heat of the water on my back.
Xander sat around the corner, on a stool, as I gave him the scoop from my first day as a businesswoman at Dark Enterprises.
“Yeah,” he said. “That’s the one. But isn’t The Flash like some regular dude? He’s not rich or anything. What you’re looking at here is a Batman situation—”
“Batman can’t run or move really fast,” I reminded him, feeling more relaxed than I had all day. Sure, we were discussing whether my new boss was some kind of superhero but at least Xander believed me.
At least I hoped he did.
“Batman’s superpower is money,” I told Xander. I squirted shampoo on my hand and then rubbed it into my hair, scrubbing my scalp and closing my eyes.
Xander snorted. “Sounds like Dark to me. I mean, sure, his father’s the one who started the company but now Declan runs the show—and Dark Laboratories alone made enough money last year to buy a couple of countries. No, a lot of countries—”
“Are you trying to distract me?” I asked.
I shut off the water and grabbed a towel from the hook outside the solid glass wall. I padded across the tile until Xander came into view.
He had his phone in his hand, but he didn’t seem to be looking at it. His eyes lifted to mine. “Distract you?”
I sighed. “Okay, listen, I know what I told you was…you know, basically impossible. But my faculties are intact. I’m not prone to exaggeration.” When he started to grin, I frowned. “I mean when it’s something like this. I’m pretty grounded in the real world. I’m a scientist.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” he said, standing when I walked out of the bathroom and headed to my room. “Okay, so break it down for me again.”
“We were talking, I was pacing, nothing exciting. Then I turned to look at him and he was doing his weird stare thing so I was like, no eye-contact, and turned back around really quick. And I swear to you, he was standing nowhere near me.” I walked to the closet and pointed to Xander. “Stand over there in the corner. Right by the mirror. Yeah, there. We were standing this far away—maybe even a little more—and in a split second he was right in front of me.”
“Holding you,” Xander said.
I rolled my eyes. “He was trying to stop me from falling so yeah, he kind of had to touch me to do that.”
“Was he strong?” Xander asked. “He looks strong. I mean, I’ve only ever seen him in a suit but—he wasn’t wearing a suit today, was he?”
“No. Jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. Boots. Simple.”
Xander shivered, making me crack a smile. “Mountain man chic. God, I need a visual.”
“Sorry,” I told him, walking into the closet to find something comfortable for the evening. “I didn’t take a picture.”
“I knew I should have had a camera on you today. Work was boring after the morning meeting. Employees are whiny and I just wanted to binge-watch your life. It’s way more exciting than mine.”
After I was dressed, we walked to the kitchen together as Xander told me what he’d seen on the cameras at Dark Enterprises today.
“So basically, nothing
