Page 15 of Merger
Lance gave me double kisses.
"You can't be European already,” I said with a light smack to his shoulder. “You were only there for three months."
"I can be anything I want to. And you look great."
Morgan rolled her eyes and slapped down her menu. "I already told her she looked great. She doesn't need you to reiterate."
Lance opened his mouth to start in on her, and I slapped my hand on the table. "Both of you, shut it."
The waiter came over with our drink orders. Morgan just stared at me when my drink arrived and I downed half of it. "Wow. Rough day?" she asked.
"Yeah, you could say that. It's like I don't work there anymore."
Lance sat back. "What? At Pendragon? What do you mean?"
"There's this guy, Jack, and he's taken over my job." I spent the next fifteen minutes telling them about how my morning had gone. How I'd been stalled at every step and was unable to do the things I needed to do. They listened dutifully because that's what they were there for.
Lance rubbed the back of his neck. "There's no reason why you can't manage your team. It doesn't make any sense."
"Yeah, tell him that."
"Also, it doesn't make sense that he would put someone like Jack Farlow in that position. The guy is an idiot,” Lance said, confirming Macy’s earlier assessment. “The team won't respect him."
"Again, tell him that."
Morgan piped up. "Have you talked to Atticus about it?"
"No, he was at an off-site meeting. And as you see, I have my bodyguards out there." Two of them, Sven and some other guy, were at a table near us. The others were at the exits. "And then I was left to fend for myself but without any information. Lance, you must know something."
Lance shook his head. "No, nothing that would impede your work. But…”
He snapped his mouth shut then and shook his head.
I knew Lance. He was keeping something quiet. "What's up? Spill it."
"No, it's just… Atticus said something the other day, that you were ‘the crown jewel and we had to protect you at all cost.’"
What the hell did that mean? I wasn’t some asset to protect. I was his wife. "But how is not letting me work protecting me? That's ridiculous. Besides, I think he fell in love with my brain first, so it really makes no sense."
Lance shrugged. "He did also say that you might have to be protected from yourself as well."
I lifted my brows. "He said what?"
Lance winced. "You know he's not my favorite person. However, up until two weeks ago, he was your favorite person, so that's on you. But I think he's just really freaked out and worried about you."
This was insane. He was talking to Lance before he was talking to me? "He won't even have sex with me.”
Morgan's jaw unhinged, and Lance choked on his water before saying, "Eww. Do I need to hear this?"
Morgan shook her head. "It's okay, Lance. People have sex. You'll learn about it one day too."
He looked like he wanted to put his hands around her neck and squeeze. I put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't, okay? I don't want to get kicked out before I eat my burger."
He sighed, and Morgan did this little side-to-side jig in her seat like she was kicking her feet joyously under the table. She lived to irritate him. There was something very wrong with the two of them.
"Anyway, so he thinks he needs to protect me from myself?"
Lance winced. "I know. When you say it out loud like that, it sounds far worse than when he said it. I'm just saying that he is very much concerned about your wellbeing."
