“Yep,” I said to Lexi out loud, walking up to her. “So what’s first?”
“Well,” she said in a seductive tone. “I know you love lifting weights, so we could visit the gym or maybe the pool.”
Damn. They had a pool here? And a gym?
“I’d kind of like to see your office,” I admitted. “Or wherever it is you work.” Shit, that sounded more suggestive than I was anticipating, especially if her office involved a separate room with a lockable door. I glanced back at Winter, who had taken a seat in my spot, her hand in her cheek as she spoke quietly to Liz, before moving to begin walking down the hall. Doubtful the woman cared even if I had meant for it to be suggestive, but it was just strange knowing someone was privy to all my thoughts.
The sensation wasn’t like Freya’s ability, where she could only use the power for a few minutes after drinking blood.
I supposed ultimately I didn’t care too much, but part of the discomfort came from not fully knowing what kind of a person Winter was. She’d initially seemed super distant, only to show a brief few minutes of openness, followed immediately by that same distant attitude. Granted, I supposed it didn’t matter, since I was unlikely to see her again anytime soon.
I focused on the purple eyes looking up at me expectantly. “Or maybe I could meet some of your coworkers,” I continued. “Assuming they aren’t too busy right now.”
Lexi nodded. “Yeah, we can do that. I kind of made them get the whole birthday thing over with so that I could focus on you.”
I sighed. “You didn’t have to do that.”
She shook her head. “No, I did, and honestly it only took like five minutes. Otherwise, you’d end up just standing around while everyone was focused on me, and I didn’t want to do that to you when you don’t even know anyone. But now, the focus can be on meeting you.”
“Do they already know about me?” I wondered, pausing as Lexi hit the button for the elevator. Given that there were eight of them, it dinged right away, one of them opening, so we stepped inside. Without hesitation, Lexi immediately grabbed my hand the moment the doors closed, intertwining her fingers in mine.
“Sort of,” she answered, acting as if we weren’t doing anything unusual. “They know there’s a negotiation going on today, and they’re aware I’m involved, but they don’t know anything about you yet.”
“And what will they eventually find out?” I wondered, focusing on her. “Like, will they have access to my evaluation?”
She shook her head, giving my hand one more tight squeeze before letting go as the elevator stopped. I followed her into the hallway as she responded. “No, there will only be two ways they come to find out what you can do – either you tell them, or else they find out via a mission. Specifically, if it’s disclosed why you’re being assigned a particular role. However…” She stopped next to a doorway, turning around to look up at me. “For the first month or two, you’ll probably just accompany me on any missions I’m assigned, just to watch things in action.”
I nodded, seeing that the door she was standing next to was labeled ‘Lounge.’
“Ready?” she asked expectantly.
“Oh, sure. I didn’t realize we were already here.”
She smiled. “Yeah, this is basically our breakroom. Jackie came to get me when they were just starting on cake, so probably most everyone is still here.” She opened the door then, ushering me into the most fancy ‘breakroom’ I’d ever seen.
Like damn.
There was literally a place for ‘lounging’ including plush couches and chairs, as well as a full kitchen, multiple vending machines that would prepare the food right in front of you, and even a large dining area.
Shit, the place felt like the lounging area for the fanciest college dorm on the planet.
“You like?” she asked in response to my stunned expression.
I simply nodded.
A cluster of people, all of them guys, were socializing on the other side of the room by a table with a birthday cake that put some wedding cakes to shame. One of the men noticed us enter the room, and commented on it.
“Hey, Lexi’s back with the new guy.”
I ignored them for now, since we had a few dozen feet to walk to be within comfortable speaking range, although one of them broke away to meet us halfway. “That’s a big cake,” I commented, kind of glad it was her birthday after all, since everyone was in a good mood when there was cake around, but also surprised by how elaborate it was.
Lexi frowned. “It’s excessive,” she agreed. “Have as much as you want,” she added, looking frustrated now. “I certainly won’t be eating any.”
My first thought was that maybe Lexi didn’t like that someone bought something so expensive for her, especially if that someone was one of her male coworkers. But I didn’t get a chance to try to figure out what she meant, because the guy approaching us walked right up to shake my hand. He looked like he was straight out of a rock band, with spiked hair as red as Lexi’s Ferrari, most likely dyed, and a lean muscular figure.
“Hey, nice to meet you,” he said cheerfully. “The name’s Benjamin.”
“Sam,” I replied, letting go of his hand. “Nice to meet you too.”
“So you got something really cool up your sleeve?” he wondered with a grin. “Seems like there’s been a lot of secrecy and hush-hush about you. And damn, you’ve got some crazy eyes going on there. That’s pretty awesome. Do they always glow like that?”
“Oh,” Lexi interjected, before I could respond. “Jackie just wanted to make sure they ironed out the details of his contract beforehand.”
“Uh-huh,” he replied skeptically. “So then, that mean you’re just a cinderblock too?”
“Cinderblock?” I repeated, sincerely confused.
“Strong and durable,”
