His friends, now carefully mute, followed us in and began taking seats in the room. They watched me with distrust in their eyes, not looking away. It was slightly intimidating with all that masculinity watching me like they were going to attack at any minute.
An assistant sat behind a desk identical to the one in the main lobby. He peered up from his work, a small look of surprise flashing in his eyes when he saw Godric pulling me along behind him.
“Sir, is there anything I can get you?”
“Just hold my calls, Reed. And cancel my seven o’clock meeting,” Godric griped. He opened the lone door and shoved me inside the room. He followed me in and peered out the door, ordering, “No one disturbs me.”
He slammed the door shut, and barked, “Lock.”
Wonderful.
I was locked in a room with my father’s enemy.
Godric turned to face me and unbuttoned his suit jacket. He leaned back against his door and crossed his arms over his impressive chest. His golden regard scanned my features, and then he stared hard into my eyes.
“I know we said we would contact each other again, but after what happened, I didn’t expect you to come to me.” His voice was restrained calm. “So what are you doing here, Poppy? Are you spying on me?”
I rubbed at my bicep. I’d have a definite bruise there. “Are you joking? I don’t want to be here any more than you want me here.”
The brows on his forehead rose. His beautiful voice enticed me to tell the truth. “So you’re saying you were brought to my place of business against your will?”
I clicked my teeth together and grimaced. “No.”
“Then what are you saying?”
He was excellent at interrogating, his patient hunting maddening. All that hostility he had tucked away to get the answers he wanted. No emotions now showed on his features, his eyes even clearer, only intelligence lurking in their golden depths.
I shook my arm out to make the blood flow in it again. “Did you really have to hold me that tight?”
“You were going to cause a massive scene downstairs. That wouldn’t have been good for either of us. I did what I needed to get you here. My office is soundproof.” He tipped his head. “Now quit deflecting. Why are you here?”
I sighed and turned to walk to his desk. His office was just as ridiculous as the crown on the roof. Expensive items were everywhere—on his bookshelves, his desk—the couches were leather and even his lighting fixtures were over the top lavish. I picked up a baseball on his desk and tossed it up and down as I peered back to him. “Why do you let them call you God?”
Godric didn’t comment on my change of topic. He rolled effortlessly with it. “Rune stuck me with the nickname many years ago. There is no stopping it with those four. But I blame my parents for naming me Godric in the first place.”
I put the baseball back down in its proper place. “It’s a nice name. Don’t be too mad at your parents.”
He hummed, watching me evaluate his stuff.
Waiting for me to answer his question.
I picked up another item on his bookshelf and showed it to him. “What’s this? It doesn’t look like an ordinary knife.”
“It’s a letter opener. People once used them when they received paper mail to their homes. It would slice an envelope, what a letter was carried in, opening it much cleaner than tearing it with your fingers.”
“Hmm.” I put it back down and touched more of the items, all of them shined with care. “So you collect old things?”
“Of a sort.”
I sighed and turned to him. Enough stalling. “I’m here because I’m a recruit for the Corporate Army. We’re doing a tour here today. And I’m now going to be in trouble for ‘wandering away’ from the group.”
He didn’t blink. “The Corporate Army?”
“Yes.”
Wrinkles on his forehead showed his confusion, no longer hiding his emotions with the answer given that he’d wanted. “General Carvene would never agree to that.”
I nibbled on my bottom lip and glanced away.
In the resulting quiet, he started to chuckle. It was wicked and soft. “That’s a bad girl, pet.”
The endearment was back.
“Running from Mr. Moore, are you?”
I cleared my throat and pretended to examine another one of his collectibles, not looking at him.
He didn’t quit. “But you did seem to like your fiancé’s appearance. I believe you even blushed at one point.”
“Don’t call him that,” I griped.
I turned with my mouth open, ready to argue the injustice of arranged marriages. But I stopped in my tracks.
Godric peered down at me with his golden eyes, only an inch away from me. I hadn’t heard him move. His heat pulled at me, and I stepped closer, removing the gap between us. Our bodies aligned just right. The lushest lips curved up at the edges in the sexiest smirk.
He asked, “What else were you going to say?”
I stared at his chest straining the buttons on his white dress shirt with each heavy inhale he took. “That corporations are the reason I had to run away. It’s your law that makes women marry by the age of twenty-five.”
“If it wasn’t there, this world would vanish.”
“Women should be able to marry whenever they want. And definitely not to someone their father picks for them.”
“The planet needs more children. Adults are dying faster than babies are born, thanks to lawless activity outside of our cities. Do you want the world to end?”
“No.” I closed my eyes. My shoulders slumped.
He purred softly, “Look at me, pet.”
I shook my head and kept my eyes closed. “I know what you want. And we can’t do that. It’s a horrible idea.”
He hummed in thought. “Are you afraid of your father?”
I snorted. “Never.”
“Are you afraid of what he would think?”
“Of course.”
He whispered on the deepest rumble, “Then we won’t tell him.”
The man was pure temptation.
“That’s not all of it.” I opened my eyes and lifted my head to peer into his wondrous golden gaze. “I don’t trust you. And if word ever leaked… It wouldn’t be good, big man.”
He held my eyes with a steady and patient gaze, even though heat simmered in those golden orbs. “Do you want to know something?”