“I put them all over the building that day I ran into you in the elevator.” I looked down at my hands twisted together in my lap. “And I had one on me, too. My bumblebee pin. I had it on me that day I tried to catch you in your office, and the night at the restaurant.”
His jaw tightened but his eyes were partly amused. “Clever.”
“I wasn’t going to use it for anything but—”
“Blackmail. To get me to talk to you,” he concluded. “I understand.”
And he truly looked like he did. He moved another step closer, so his thighs rested against my knees.
“And the rest?” he asked. “I need the truth about last night. I need you to acknowledge you felt it too.”
I knew exactly what he was talking about. The wildly passionate make-out session I’d relived in my mind more than once in the short time we’d been apart.
I lifted my chin, meeting his eyes directly. “I felt it.”
His chest moved up and down with a few controlled breaths. “I don’t want to walk away from this.”
“I don’t either,” I told him honestly.
Declan took my hand, examining my palm and tracing his fingers over mine. “This is the first time I’ve wanted someone to know the truth—not just about who I am but about where I came from. Me, who I truly am aside from Dark Enterprises and the billionaire persona no one cares to see behind.”
“It’s a risk,” I told him.
“One I’m willing to take. If you are.”
How had we gone from answers and revelations to hovering on the brink of a relationship? But it lingered in the air just as much as all of our questions—that attraction between us.
“I…” I got out of the seat, unable to sit still. “I need some answers first.”
His eyes didn’t waver. “I thought that’s what I just gave you.”
“Okay, I need one answer. Just one.”
His shoulders relaxed. “I can do that.”
“Wait, two answers—”
“Royal,” he growled.
I couldn’t help but smirk. Because I knew he wouldn’t hurt me and I knew he was going to give me what I asked regardless, I couldn’t help but see the light side of his frustration and impatience.
“Two answers,” he conceded, moving another step closer.
“No touching,” I qualified.
“Too many rules.”
I pointed at him. “Stay where you are. I get distracted when you touch me and I—I—stop smiling like that, okay? Yeah, so you affect me. I—I like it when you touch me and—uh uh, you’re moving. Stay there.”
He held up his hands, though his smile still lingered. “I won’t touch you. Yet.”
Yet. A shiver rained down my spine. God, I wanted his hands all over me. Even in the midst of what today was and the confusion and the elation of my dad waking up, I still wanted Declan. Just him and I, together.
“You’re running out of time,” Declan said, voice rough with longing. His eyes scanned my body. “You wait too long, and that agreement will be off the table.”
“Who are you?” I blurted. “The things you can do—how did that happen?”
“Those are your two questions?”
“No. I mean, that’s the same question. I still have one more,” I mumbled.
He ran his hands over his face. “I don’t… There’s a long version and a short version.”
“I’ll take the short version now if you’ll answer my other question,” I told him.
He chuckled. “You’re a good negotiator too. Hiring you as my intern is proving to be better than I expected. These things I can do…they didn’t start until a few years ago. And how? You’ll have to ask my father about that. Or yours. Christopher Dark, the man who adopted me when I was nearly old enough to be emancipated, promised a cure. I was sick—a heart condition. He came along, said he could fix my heart—a simple but serious procedure—and then asked me what I thought it might be like to never be sick again. Never get hurt again. Be more than human.”
My lips parted, amazed by what I was hearing. “He…he created something that could do that?”
“Yes. Right in the lab at Dark Enterprises. And your father, without knowing exactly what he was assisting in, helped create it too. With the help of a few other scientists, my father perfected it and then administered it to me. And then…nothing. Not right away. He monitored me and kept me close, teaching me the business along the way. It took more than two years for the first symptoms to show up. Although, I hadn’t been sick that whole time. Felt better than usual, even. I didn’t need to sleep as much. I didn’t tell him, but I knew things were changing.”
“Are there…other things?” I asked, venturing a few feet closer.
“What do you think?”
“I think…you’re faster than any human. So fast, I can’t keep up.” I licked my lips and took another step, close enough to touch him. I reached out and took his hand to trace my finger on his palm where he’d cut himself with the glass. “You can heal from a cut—maybe more.” I lifted my eyes to his. “I don’t know what else.”
“Does it scare you?” he murmured.
I shook my head. “It’s fascinating. I have so many questions, but I promised I’d only ask one more. For now.”
His fingers closed around mine. They were warm, overly warm, heating me up. That was another thing. He was always warm. Almost like he had a fever. I’d have to ask him about that too.
“What’s the other thing?”
I swallowed and forced myself to say it, even though I knew the answer. “Did you do something to my father that day of the accident?”
His pupils dilated, then went back to normal while his jaw clenched. It looked
