Page 22 of Taken By the Fae

“Thanks.” I rush toward the room, but when I reach the door, my hand freezes halfway to the doorknob. Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath, letting it out slowly.I’ve got this.Straightening, I knock before walking into the room.

We all have moments in our lives where we reflect on every bad thing we’ve done to comprehend why a terrible thing is happening to us. To determine why we deserve something so awful. As I approach the table and lock eyes with Tristan as he closes his laptop, I’m sucked into one of those moments.What did I do to deserve this?

He rises from his chair at the head of the table and buttons his black suit jacket, offering me a downright wicked smile. “Good morning, Miss Marshall,” he says as I stand there, screaming profanities in my head.

“This isn’t… You can’t… What the hell are you doing here?”

The corner of his mouth kicks up. “An interesting way to introduce yourself to a potential boss.”

My jaw clenches, and I glance around the windowless meeting room, despite Tristan being the only other person here. It’s not an immense space; there’s enough room for the eight-person mahogany table with rolling chairs around it and a projector screen at the front. “I amnotworking for you.” I step back toward the door. “There must be some mistake. I’ll interview for someone—anyone—else.”

“I figured you’d say that.” He lifts his shoulders in a shrug. “I’m the only mentor available for you.”

I stand frozen, glaring at him in silence as I try to come up with an alternative. I need a completed internship to graduate, which means I have to do this if I want to stay on track with my degree.

With a sigh, I approach the table separating us. “My education is the most important thing to me.” I don’t elaborate. Tristan doesn’t need to know my parents took out a second mortgage to put me through school, and I need to graduate on time so I can start paying them back.

“Clearly,” he offers with a glint in his eyes.

My eyes narrow. “Are you capable of pretending this is something more than some temporary entertainment for you?”

“You can unclench, Aurora,” he says mildly, the curve of his lips making my blood boil.

“No,” I snap, “I can’t. This is my future, and I’m pissed you’re screwing with it, so I’m telling you how this is going to go.”

“Are you?” he asks. “Please continue.”

I step forward, gripping the back of the closest chair. “You ask me questions, and I answer them. You’re impressed, and then I leave. Got it?”

“I thought I was supposed to ask the questions.”

“Tristan!” I shout without thinking. It’s unprofessional, sure, but nothing about this situation is normal, and he has been nothing close to professional either.

He chuckles. “Why don’t we start?”

I stare at him for a moment longer.He’s enjoying this. Bastard. And of course, he looks like a goddamn GQ model in a three-piece suit, the blue of his tie bringing out his eyes and—oh my god, I hate him. “No. No, I’m not doing this.”

Tristan nods. “That’s unfortunate. I’m sorry you won’t graduate until next semester then.”

My chest tightens, and I grit my teeth. “Why are you doing this?”

He brushes his thumb over his lower lip, and I can’t help but track the movement way too close to feign indifference when it makes my stomach warm and flutter. “Consider it an insurance policy.”

I cross my arms. “Insurance for what?”

“You.”

“What is that supposed to mean? Tristan, I’m not—”

“This is theleastinvasive option to ensure my concerns about you don’t happen. Would you prefer I keep you at the hotel?”

“That’s not what you’re doing?” I challenge. “What do you call this, then?”

“Doing you a favor,” he replies, his jaw ticking.

My grip on the back of the chair tightens, and I look around the plain room as my heart races and my thoughts spiral, trying to decipher his motivations. My gaze catches on the mural on the wall next to where I’m standing. It’s filled with soft blues and purples. “If you think this somehow means I owe you,” I say in a low voice, “you are very incorrect.”

Tristan chuckles, stealing my attention once more. “If you stop for a moment and think about the opportunities this internship provides you, perhaps you’d be more grateful. Forget the otherworldly reasons for this arrangement. You are a business major, and I am a successful business owner. Any of your classmates would kill to be in your position.”

---