He slid the coffee across the counter, and I couldn’t help but watch his long, elegant fingers as they efficiently released the mug and passed me the tray of items to doctor my drink.
“You were,” he admitted. “Impressively so. Samantha Thompson, with an entire backstory. You even had social media and online profiles. Did you come up with all that yourself?”
“Hell, no. I had help. My—” I snapped my mouth closed and narrowed my eyes. “I probably shouldn’t tell you.”
He laughed. “After all this, you’re going to clam up? I’m pretty sure you know all my big secrets now.” His eyes heated. “And I’ve told you more than you’ve told me.”
Warmth bloomed between my legs and my heart picked up speed. He was right. He’d told me he was falling for me. And I knew his biggest secret—or at least a big one.
“He’s my roommate. He gave me a whole new persona,” I told him. “He’s basically a technical genius.”
“Is he looking for a job?” Declan joked.
I relaxed when he smiled. “You couldn’t afford him.”
“You’d be surprised,” Declan said but changed the subject swiftly. “I knew you before you ever came to Dark Enterprises with your cameras and alias.”
“How?” I lifted my coffee and took a sip, feeling more balanced now that we weren’t talking about love.
He scratched his cheek, looking like he was trying to figure out how much to say. “After your father’s accident, I went to visit him. More than once. I see you have questions about that too, just give me a minute. We’ll get to everything.” He nodded at me, reassuring me that he had all the answers. “One day when I went to visit him, I saw you. You were sitting by his bed and talking about your mom and how you missed her—something we have in common. I listened to you talk for twenty minutes.”
I tried to remember, tried to think of a time I’d been there that I’d felt watched—that I wasn’t alone—but I’d been focused on my dad.
“I was discreet,” Declan said with a small smile, repeating my line from earlier. “And it was more than once. I learned a lot about you, Royal. When you showed up in my building, I was surprised for sure, but not worried.”
I remembered the look on his face, how he kept looking like he was trying to figure out a puzzle.
“I knew why you were there,” Declan continued. “I just needed to know how far you wanted to go for the truth. And then…” He cleared his throat. “Working with you showed me a whole other side of you. You were enthusiastic and helpful. And you cared about the resort project—”
“Wait.” I wrapped my hands around my mug to warm them. “That was for real? It wasn’t a project you made up just to… I don’t know, keep me busy?”
“It was a passion project I’d been putting on hold because I lacked the time. I thought you might have an interest, and you did. It reignited my passion for it. For a lot of things,” he said softly.
His words made me shiver. He’d reignited my passion for things, too. After my dad’s accident, life didn’t seem to be as vibrant as it was before. But being around Declan made me feel something again. The project made me feel something again and his kisses made me feel something again.
“I thought you said it was a family project or something like that,” I reminded him.
He shrugged and looked away. “It was a project I was interested in before I took over on the business side of things for my dad. He hadn’t been interested when I’d told him about it, but when I finally got to head up things, I had my chance. I just ended up getting busy and didn’t have time for it. Until now.”
“So that day you found me in your elevator…” I started.
He nodded. “I knew you. I had no idea what you were doing there, but when I walked in the elevator and saw you…” He blew out a half-humored laugh. “My first thought was ‘What the fuck?’”
“I bet.”
His eyes lit with humor. “I had to do some quick thinking. I knew you were there for a reason, but I didn’t know why. I figured it had something to do with your father, but I still only knew what I’d heard—overheard—in your conversations. Although that was enough to make me feel like I already knew you,” Declan admitted.
It was a weird feeling knowing someone had heard so many of those conversations I’d shared with my dad in private. That someone knew me so well before ever even really meeting me. That had given him a head start on his feelings for me. He knew more than most people.
“But dammit, you didn’t cooperate,” Declan said. He finished off his coffee and pushed the mug aside. “I thought I’d get you to work on the project and then you’d open up. But then you started dropping and breaking things all over the place. I knew you were suspicious and by day two I realized you were trying to figure out my secret.” He walked around the counter again. I spun to face him, wary and turned on at the same time. “That’s why I couldn’t stay in there with you. I…” He swallowed. “I knew I’d tell you my secrets if you asked—or you’d find them out anyway—and I…I wasn’t ready for that.”
“I wouldn’t have told,” I mumbled, my skin prickling with heat when he stepped closer. “I just wanted the truth.”
“You had cameras, I’m assuming.”
This was it—my time to tell him the truth. He’d told me more than I expected,
