Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40972 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40972 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
He looked so hot, Julien wasn’t even thinking about the possible loss of his position. It didn’t matter anyway because the third-party investigation would clear his name and show William as the thief he was.
A rumbling rolled through the office, and the ground began to shake more violently than it had in the past. Emory let go of William and reached for Julien, yanking him into the doorway of the attached restroom and wrapping his arms around him. William took advantage of the earthquake and raced from his office.
“He’s getting away,” Julien bit out as file folders started falling from the shelves and the glass in the windows rattled.
“He won’t get far. Xavier will find him and learn everything he knows.” Emory tucked his face in Julien’s neck as the world shook around them.
When it finally stilled, Julien didn’t move right away because Emory just felt too good wrapped around him and he was enjoying his breath on his neck. “That was a bad one,” he murmured quietly. “There’s something magical happening isn’t there?”
“Yes. Xavier is investigating it, and it seems your CFO knows at least some of what’s going on. Did you notice he had a staff tattoo on his wrist when I had him against the wall?”
“No. What does it mean?”
“I don’t know yet, but I’ve seen the same one on someone else.”
Julien didn’t feel bad for William because he deserved whatever he had coming to him. Surprisingly, he was content to stand here and feel Emory against him while the sounds of frantic people outside the office told him it was utter chaos out there. He did smirk though. “You know you can let go now, right?”
“I don’t want to.” The words were breathed against his skin right before Emory pressed his lips to Julien’s neck.
Heat streaked through him, and he forced himself to step away before he ended up walking back to his office with an erection. He stared at this fucking beautiful man who was completely disrupting his world, and all he could think about was getting him alone somewhere.
They’d be alone a lot now, so he’d have plenty of chances. But Julien was still pissed. Pissed that someone—probably William—had hired that penumbra and actually videotaped that attack. Pissed that even with a third-party investigation, he had no way of explaining the video, and it made him look bad.
He’d worked too hard to have his own damn company yanked out from under him.
Chapter Fourteen
Emory
When they got back to Julien’s house, Julien disappeared into his gym, and Emory stepped outside to call Xavier, filling him in on what happened, including the tattoo.
“The CFO warned Julien away from investigating the information he found. He said that he was messing around in things that weren’t a part of his world. I’ve got a gut feeling that Julien is in more danger than we thought.”
Xavier sighed over the line. “If the magical beings gathering know he’s aware of their presence here, then yes, he is. It would be better to take him to a safe house.”
“I’ll do that.” Emory squinted up into the sun currently boiling them alive. “What’s going on, Xavier? That last earthquake was worse than the others.”
“The magic has grown unstable, which is why you all saw that mutated deer in the woods. It’s my belief that more than one preternatural is feeding magic into the ley lines instead of taking it out—making things worse.”
“But why?”
“There could be several reasons, ones I’m looking into.”
He waited for those reasons then shook his head when he realized Xavier wasn’t going to give him any further information. Probably because he didn’t yet know himself, but it wasn’t unusual for the sorcerer to keep things close to his chest.
“Which safe house is open?”
“There are two, but I just refreshed the wards at the one that backs up to Interlaken Park.”
Emory was very familiar with that one, having stayed in it often. He said goodbye to his boss and decided not to wait for Julien to finish in the gym. He went down to the basement, which was basically one big room with a laundry area on the side and the gym equipment on the other. The walls were a gray stone veneer, the floor polished concrete. There were several exercise pads in the room and a stereo system along one wall. It wasn’t playing, which was a shame because he’d love to know what kind of music Julien listened to.
Julien was currently on his weight bench doing arm curls, and for a moment, Emory watched the muscles flexing in his biceps. Then he got a good look at Julien’s face and the anger tightening his lips. It really had been a shit show earlier, having someone he trusted trying to make him look the fool in front of his board of directors. It had been all Emory could do not to beat the man senseless. His job was to protect Julien, but his feelings where the man was concerned had his protective instincts soaring off the charts. And beating William wouldn’t have been a part of that protection, no, it would have been pure revenge—which was not something normally a part of his personality. He’d wanted to crush the man out of pure fury for what he’d done. For hiring the penumbra, for trying to humiliate him.