Chapter 25
Evelynne:
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Rhysand stared at me in thought for a while before he finally looked away, and I thought I saw his lips pull into a very subtle smile, but it was gone in a couple of seconds.
“About the apartment,” I trailed, thinking of my words before finally continuing, “Thank you. How do I pay for it?”
He rose a brow at me, “I told you I’ll get one for you,” he cleared his throat, turning back to his laptop and I watched as his fingers gently tapped across the keyboard in a majestically elite way. Fast but precise.
“Yes, well. I need to pay you for getting it.”
“I don’t need you repaying me.”
My eyes lingered on him for a while, “Are you sure?” I wasn’t okay with the idea of owing a favour, so I thought hard about how to repay him.
He gave me a weird look, “If you are adamant about paying for it, then tell me the info you have about the rogues.” He relaxed on his chair, staring straight at me.
My brows furrowed into a frown, “That isn’t fair.”
“You weren’t playing fair when you had me sign the contract before withholding the information you promised to give,” he looked me dead in the eyes, with a serious stare.
“That wasn’t me playing unfair. Just me playing wisely,” I said with a shrug and a smile threatening to pull up my lips.
He nodded subtly and looked away, “I don’t need your money then.”
Realizing he was ready to talk about it, I immediately chipped in without thinking, “It could be anything.”
My response was out before I could stop it, he turned his gaze from the window back to me, rubbing the stubble on his chi “Anything?” he asked, as if trying to make sure he heard me right.
“That was a mistake.” I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying to wave off the flip I made, “What I meant was I’ll give you anything within my reach. I can work for a couple of months and pay you back.”
He frowned, “No. I don’t need your money.”
“Then what do you want?” I innocently asked.
His dark eyes locked into my eyes for seconds before he shook his head and looked away, “I’ll tell you when I need something.”
“So, I owe you a favour then?” I asked, a wave of relief and gladness filled me, knowing I’ll finally have a way to repay him. “Yes. You owe me a favour.” He nodded, but for some reason his words came out different from the way I had stated mine.
Without any more reason to complain, I agreed.
“I’ll have my chauffeur take you to the place when you are ready. Pick a day in the week.” He went back down to work, flipping the pages of a file, and I watched as his brows tightened the more he concentrated.
08:27 Mon, 10 Feb S.
Chapter 25
Like he was seeing something that displeased him.
I thought about it for a while, and then asked “Can it be today?” he glanced up.
“You want to check it out today?” Rhysand asked.
“Yes.”
“I have somewhere to be at in the next couple of minutes, and I need my chauffeur.”
“Oh, alright then. I’ll leave it till another day,” I muttered in disapointment, the idea of having to go back to my house at Lakeville and spefiding more nights there didn’t sit well with me.
I wanted to be out of the pack and territory as fast as two days, so I don’t have any more provoking conversations with Desmond or Gabriella.
“I never said you should leave it till another day. You’ll go with us, and he’ll drop you off.” He told me.
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I looked up at him, “You will do that?” he must have been surprised at the sudden glee in my voice cause he stiffened for a
moment.
“It’s along the way, so we’ll drop you off.” He cleared his throat, flipping a pen in his slender, masculine–clean fingers.
“Thank you!” Rhysand glanced towards me, and perhaps seeing how my eyes shone in appreciation, he stiffened once again, for only a couple of seconds.
“You’ll wait here?” he asked, “If you aren’t comfortable, you can stay at the reception downstairs.” He offered.
“Oh no, I’m okay here, if you don’t have a problem with it,” he nodded stiffly, as if considering it, but then he said nothing.
And I took it that he had no problem with my presence as his audience.
The room turned silent once again and I felt like I was interrupting Rhysand with how serious he looked, reading the files on the table and signing some of them, moving his swivel chair back and placing the files on the shelves behind his desk.
He made sure to keep different files on different shelves and I sat down watching him do his work.
In order to not make the air unbearable for him with my stare, I picked my phone from my purse and paid attention to it for a while, doing nothing in particular.
I looked up again, and our eyes met each other on a stare, before he turned away.
I swear I could sit all day and watch this man keep on signing files and placing them accordingly on the shelves. Despite the fact that he was on a white long sleeve shirt, I could still clearly see how his muscles flexed under the neat white shirt.
It felt like I was non–existent in his office as he continued doing his thing, answering a couple of calls, and responding to the other line in a very formal tone, it dawned on me that he’d never speaked to me so formally before.
He had been rude with a sharp tone at first, but that was all.
God knows how long I sat down staring at him by the time he finished signing the files, and instead returned his focus to the laptop before him. He reached out for the tab by the other side of the table, and as he picked it, turning his attention to it he finally relaxed his back on the chair.
My thoughts strayed and I wondered how his back would hurt at the end of the day.
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Chapter 25
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When the table was cleared a little, I noticed the book on his table, ‘Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.
There were different kinds of books on his shelf, mostly on psychology, and a few were politics and strategy.
But the one on his table in particular was something I’ve come across before, “You like psychology books?” I couldn’t help but ask, soon after the question was out I realized how dumb it sounded. Of course he liked them, or else who would have a lot of books on his shelves under a particular topic without having interest in them?
Some people did, perhaps in romance, or fantasy books, fiction in general but not under books like this.
Rhysand looked up from the tablet in his hands, and answered, “No.”
Oh.
Curiosity got the best of me, as I asked again, gaping at him, “Then why do you have so much books under psychology on your shelves?”
He spared me a skeptical look, time ticked by, and it seemed like he was hesitating about telling me, but after a while he answered, “My mother liked them.”
Oh, again.
And then there was silence.
“You read them cause she liked them?” he nodded stiffly to my question, returning back to his tab.
My heart warmed at his response, cause I never had a good relationship with my mom, so I wondered how it must have felt to have a lovely connection to ones mother, “So you were a mommy’s boy, huh?” in an attempt to not return back to the silence in the office, the dumbest words known to man and werewolves slipped out of my lips.
Rhysand stiffened, leaving my question on the air before finally looking up.
Not even the slightest of warmth were on his face, “I wasn’t.” He said in a sharp tone.
“Oh, sorry.” I realized too late that he mustn’t have had a good relationship with his mom as I stared at how rigid his body turned.
“Go stay at the reception downstairs.” His focus was back to his tab as he said in a firm tone.
“I won’t say anything again.” I said, in an attempt to clear the now tensed air between us, but it turned out that I’ve already struck a nerve and it was too late, cause his frustrations were directed straight to me.
“Wait for me there, we’ll leave in thirty minutes.” He completely ignored my words.
“I’m sorry,” the apologetic words slipped out of my lips and I felt awful for a moment, I should have just kept my mouth shut and left the silence between us.
“Leave, Evelynne.” He breathed.
“Alright.” Rhysand didn’t bother sparing me a glance, and with that I turned to my heels and left the office, not turning back. My nerves tightened in an uncomfortable feeling and I realized too late that I didn’t like making him displeased with me. I’ve never felt this much regret at saying something in a long time.
