Chapter Three
Seraphina
"Who?" I mumble, my legs trembling and my whole body one second from causing an actual forest fire. I thought he called me in here to fire me. I was prepared to give him hell about it. I am not prepared for whatever sorcery this is.
"The little prick on your MASH board," Stone growls against my ear, nuzzling my throat before he pulls back with a groan. "He isn't your future, angel. I am."
"I…I am so confused."
I think I said that already, but it bears repeating.
"I know you are," he murmurs, his tone softer than I've ever heard it. His eyes are soft, too. And so damn warm. He's looking at me like he wants to spread me out and feast. "You want me, don't you?"
"No."
The way he growls at me shouldn't be nearly as hot as it is.
"Don't lie to me, Seraphina. I know you do." His hand curves around my jaw, craning my head back. He's looking at me that way again—with pure hunger stamped across his face. "You put my name down on that board hoping it'd land on me, didn't you?"
I bite my lip, refusing to answer that question. I'm taking the truth to the grave with me. There's not a chance in hell I'm admitting it to him, not when my future here is in hands. Not when this could be some trick. Not when he could use it against me in a million different ways.
"No," I gasp, pulling away. "I wanted it to land on Liam."
His eyes glitter with something that can only be described as unholy possession. It isn't hot. It isn't. Except…my nipples are hard, my panties are drenched, and I'm two seconds from spontaneously combusting.
"Liar," he growls before softening again. "But that's okay, angel. I'm going to convince you to tell me the truth."
I read the warning in his words and take a big step out of the danger zone. I'm delusional enough to fantasize about the man. I am not delusional enough to make those fantasies a reality. Not even if the thought is tempting as hell.
"Stone…" I hesitate, trying to marshal my thoughts into some semblance of order. They're chaos, like usual. He always does that to me. "I'm not sure what kind of crisis you're having right now, but perhaps—"
"You're my crisis," he growls. "You've been my crisis for six months, Seraphina. I come to work every goddamn day and try like hell to pretend that you're just my executive assistant. Instead, I spend most of every fucking day so hard I can't think straight. You know what that does to a man, baby?"
"You mean other than make you so irritable I dream about choking you out with your own whistle?" The question just slips out without my permission.
He actually smiles at me, one of those rare, real smiles. "Yeah, other than that."
"No clue." I glance down my body. "Wrong parts."
He groans softly, tipping his head back. "Don't talk about your parts."
"This is…I think we should probably call an ambulance for you or something," I say. "This is probably some kind of stroke or aneurysm."
"No." He tips his head back. "This is honesty, maybe the first bit I've given you since you started working here."
"I… Gee, thanks?" I say, not sure what else I'm supposed to say to that.
"You can tell me to fuck off," he says. "You can quit.
You can decide you'd rather be transferred out of this office.
Hell," he says, grimacing. "You can file a sexual harassment complaint if you want.
I won't fight it. But I'm asking—begging—for one shot first. Just one.
" He swallows hard. "And you're allowed to tell me no.
Your job doesn't hinge on you agreeing. That's why Hector is your boss now. "
I stare at him for a long, silent moment. "So…let me get this straight," I finally say. "You asked Hector to become my direct supervisor so you could ask me out because you saw your name on my MASH board and…what?"
"No." He meets my gaze. "I asked Hector to become your direct supervisor because I saw my name crossed out on your MASH board while some other motherfucker's name wasn't, and that's not a future I'm willing to entertain."
Oh.
Oh, wow.
"One date," he says softly.
I want to say yes, especially with him looking at me like he's desperate to hear that word on my lips.
"I need to think about this," I whisper instead, my head spinning. My entire universe is currently being reordered. Everything I thought I knew about him was wrong. Everything I thought was impossible is suddenly right in front of me. I can't answer him. How can I answer when I can't even think?
"That's fair," he says, scrubbing a hand through his hair. "I'll give you time. I'll be on my best behavior. I won't even be a Thanos-level villain."
"You…" I gape at him. "Hector told you?"
"Was he wrong?"
I shrug instead of answering, which makes him grimace.
"Give me a chance, angel," he murmurs, his voice a gritty rasp. "Just one chance to make it up to you and prove that I can be more than just a grouchy asshole."
"Can you?" I ask, genuinely curious because he isn't just a grouch to me. He's a grouch to literally everyone.
"Yeah." His lips quirk into a smile that makes my stomach flutter. "If you let me, I can be your grouch."
"You are never going to believe what happened today," I cry, sliding into the seat beside Nova at the baseball stadium. Her brother, Nathan, is playing. We aren't here to watch him, though. We're here to watch Huxley Saint, the man Nova swears she hates.
"You and Stone finally went at it like rabbits on top of his desk?" Nova says, grinning as she passes me a foam finger and a bag of popcorn. "Because if one of us isn't getting laid, this whole reality is done for."
"We did not have sex on his desk," I growl, earning curious looks from the couple in front of us. My cheeks turn pink, but Nova just smirks at them and waggles her brows until they quickly turn back around.
"What a waste of a perfectly good desk," she mutters, deadpan.
"He's no longer my boss."
"What?" Her eyes fly open wide. "What the fuck? He got fired?"
"Nope."
"Holy shit. Did you quit?"
"No. He—"
"That bastard fired you?" she growls, hopping to her feet with murder in her gaze.
I grab her arm, yanking her back down into her seat before she decides to go hunt him down and bury him under home plate. "Will you listen?" I whisper-hiss.
"Fine," she grunts. "But if the next sentence out of your mouth is that he fired you, I'm killing him.
Emelia and Ava are helping, so we're going to need a lot of bail money and excellent lawyers.
I'm also going to need you to pack everything in my apartment so my psycho roommate doesn't try to sell it off to the highest bidder. "
"You really need to move." If the devil had a sister, I'm pretty sure it'd be Nova's roommate, Larissa. The woman is just pure evil. But Nova is stubborn, and she refuses to let her win, so she won't move. They're in this weird stand-off.
"We're talking about your drama, not mine."
"Fine. He didn't fire me. He found my MASH board."
"What?"
"The stupid game of MASH I played that weekend," I growl. "He found it. Actually, I accidentally gave it to him. It was on my desk, and I grabbed it along with his schedule."
"Hold the phone. Why the fuck did you have it at work?"
"I forgot it was in my purse," I mutter.
"You little liar!" She jabs me in the arm. "You've been looking at it, haven't you?"
"What? No." Not even the armies of hell could torture that truth out of me. "I just forgot about it."
"Uh-huh," she smirks. "I'm sure you did. And then you accidentally gave it to him."
"That was an accident!"
She pops a piece of popcorn into her mouth, still smirking. "So…he knows you have a thing for him now, and he asked Hector to be your supervisor? At least he didn't fire you."
"That's the thing," I mutter, still trying to process how I ended up in this alternate dimension. "He, uh…he might have asked me out?"
"Shut the front door!" She's on her feet again, staring at me like I just hit a homerun. "Holy shit."
"Would you lower your voice and stay in your seat?" I growl, trying to wrestle her back down before she breaks into a dance and we end up having this conversation on the jumbotron. That's just what I need.
"You can't kill my vibe, Seraphina," she says, falling back into her seat. "You're finally having sex with that fine specimen of a man. Let me enjoy the moment."
"We aren't having sex."
"Yet." She cackles so loud I'm sure they hear her in the dugout. I swear to God, I can't wait until she's finally forced to face the way she feels for Huxley. I'm bringing popcorn, booze, and a comfy blanket so I can live in luxury while I enjoy watching her squirm.
"I should have called Emelia instead," I grumble.
She flings an arm around my shoulder, giggling. "I'm just happy for you because you want the man, even if you are too stubborn to admit it."
"Huh. Sounds like someone else I know."
Her gaze drifts to the Hux on the pitcher's mound and then whips back to me. "No idea what you mean," she sniffs.
"Right." I roll my eyes at her, not buying her bullshit for a second.
"When is the date?"
"I didn't agree to go."
"But you are going to agree, right?" When I don't immediately answer, she glowers at me. "Right, Seraphina?"
"Fine!" I cry. "Yes. I'm probably going to agree, okay?"
She smiles like the cat that ate the canary, and I swear to God, I feel the gates of hell slamming closed.
This is going to be a disaster.