Page 52 of Seduced By the Mermen
“I was there too,” Clark says.
Delmar places his tablet on the table in front of him. “You were more than there.” He grips Clark’s shoulder, and I couldn’t be prouder of the faint wince he places on the architect’s face.
“Yes. I’m not hiding anything. That’s what this meeting is about. Right?”
“Absolutely. We need to be on the same page before we give the female the bends from being jerked around.” Delmar taps his tablet on the table. “Open your tablet and write this down,” he says in his schoolteacher voice.
“I’m not writing down anything.” What I am is a second from pushing back from the table. “There’s ahagissasomewhere that must be able to free me from this group of blubber fish males.”
Forrest gives me his disapproval look. It’s never worked on me. For it to have worked, someone, somewhere would have had to have given a shit to begin with.
“Give us a month,” Forrest says.
“Done.” Now I push back from the table. I can avoid the lot of them for the month. It’s going to be harder to avoid Blair since King Atlas has assigned her and Marlee to my team. To protect without being in the way. Whatever the hell that means.
“Sit down, Sterling,” Grayson says. “You can’t hole up in your office for a month and say you’re done. You’ll have to spend time with her too.”
“I’m not fucking her.”
“Didn’t say you had to. But you have to spend time with her.” Grayson’s using his damn doctor voice, and it makes me want to throttle him and send him to his coworkers.
“Fine.” Also not hard to do since she’s currently my assigned target—not target, task. My mission... my charge. Poseidon. King Atlas is right. They both need protecting, and getting out of it isn’t happening.
“Talking. You’ll need to actually talk to her,” Zion says.
Delmar leans on the table, his fingers arched like mangrove roots. He lifts one hand and points at me. “And more than grunting.”
“I don’t grunt,” I growl.
Alexei bursts out with a huff of laughter. “And orcas aren’t assholes!”
My jaw snaps shut.
“Enough,” Clark says. “Acting like sharks swarming in blood isn’t going to help our pod.” I don’t need Clark to protect me. “Sterling knows who he is.” I definitely don’t need him to speak up for me, not that way...
“I’ll play along,” I say.
“This isn’t playing.” Clark runs his fingers through his light brown hair, his brown eyes glaring at me. “We’re not going to play with Blair.”
“Heard,” I say and stand.
“I haven’t called for an end to the pod meeting. I called it, and I’m the one who says when it’s over.” Delmar stands. He glares at me, but it’s like a butterfly fish trying to be intimidating—it’s not working.
“Fine. What else do you want to talk about?”
His eyes twitch.
I cock my head to the side. A chair screeches back. I don’t turn to look, but from the placement of it, I’d guess it’s Forrest’s. I raise my hand. Our dear governor doesn’t have to be in the middle of everything. If I try hard enough, I’ll be able to pick out Delmar’s heart rate from the rest of the table.
Delmar puts his hand on my shoulder. His amber eyes hold mine. I’m a little shocked. Actually, I’m a little shocked that I haven’t removed his hand from his arm.
“It’s not your fault,” he says, his amber eyes glassy.
“What’s not my fault? Nothing is fucking my fault.”
There’s a thunder of noise around the table now.
“True, there’s nothing we could have done,” Forrest grumbles.
