Page 127 of Lau Ahi
Alec shook his head as he put the pen he’d taken from me inside his breast pocket. “I’m already going to deal with him because I touched you without permission.”
“Glad you know—” His voice was heavier, irritated like he was annoyed on my behalf.
Alec met his ire with a laugh before he continued talking. “The last thing you want is for him to cut up because he’s wanting to spend time with you and he’s thinking you’re rejecting him.”
“I’m not—”
“Who said—”
We spoke at once making Alec’s smile deepen as he glanced between the two of us. “Enjoy the night guys. Y’all got a lot to get done that’s more important than this. Traffic is winding down, let’s get the weekend started right. This shit will be here in the morning or next week or whenever we get back to it. Take a deep breath, especially you, Asha. You’re working two jobs helping us so no one should give you shit about leaving.”
I let his words sink in before I moved back out of my chair slowly. Alec was on his feet moving my chair back for me as I gathered up my items and Ori stayed silent after he grunted hisdispleasure at Alec. With my bag on my shoulder, I was ready to go and Ori came to my side of the table to walk us out. He dapped up Alec who gave me a respectful nod since Ori had his arm positioned between us as he led me toward the door.
“Don’t work too hard, Alec.”
“Have enough fun for me y’all.”
I gave him a wave and let Ori lead me out of the office. The silence fell between the two of us again as we made our way to the parking garage. There were multiple carbon copies of the same black SUV Ori drove that had to be part of the fleet in the FBI. I knew that Ori’s had special equipment that his brothers had installed to ensure that he had true privacy in the car.
He opened the door for me as always and waited until I got situated before he climbed into the driver’s seat.
“What do you feel like eating?”
“Ori you don’t have to—”
“You know just like Alec that I don’t do a thing I don’t want to. I agreed with the suggestion not because I was put on the spot but because I realized that we haven’t spent enough time together. Learning how we work differs from learning each other. We’ve done the family thing and the professional thing so the personal thing is natural. And keeping you up in the tower like I’m not pro—like we’re not about to get married is a mistake. And I’m going to rectify it.” He spoke quietly the depth of his voice making it almost impossible to hear despite how quiet it was in the car.
My heart was racing wondering what he was going to say before he stopped himself. The way he halted meant it had to be something that was a revelation to him or a glimpse inside that he didn’t want me to have. Either way, I was now too overwhelmed to do anything but put my eyes out the front of the windshield as he navigated us out of the parking garage.
“I don’t have a taste for anything specific. Whatever you pick is fine.”
“Is that what you say and then we get somewhere and you’re pissed because you don’t like the food?”
He was teasing, which eased the heaviness of his honesty but didn’t completely dispel it. “Ori, I’m not a waif, I can find something to eat just about anywhere.”
“Finding something to sustain you and having a meal that you desire are two different things. I’d prefer you to have the latter since this is technically going to be our first date.”
I blinked realizing that while we might have shared meals with one another, usually in passing and never on purpose besides dinner at Xerxes’ wedding and the one we shared with my family, this would be our first date.
Letting him get you for cheap aren’t you, Asha?
“My god we’re really not doing this right are we?”
“It’s not traditional but neither of us are purists or people who adhere strictly to the confines of what society deems normal. We’re too fucking fine to be doing shit like regular people so take the idea of normalcy out of your brain when it comes to us.” He did the lip lift thing that was supposed to be a smile before he focused back on the road.
“Did you… was that a compliment?”
“Act like you know me, Asha. I’ve given you compliments before.”
“That one seemed different.”
He lifted his thick black brows playfully but then his eyes darted behind him briefly before his mouth opened as if he was going to speak.
He never got the chance to.
The world seemed to spin before my eyes and I felt my stomach drop as if we were on a rollercoaster. Ori’s long arm was gripped tight over my chest gripping onto my seatbelt likehe dared it not to do its job. The car jerked or was hit or had a fucking bomb dropped on it with the way everything seemed to spin all at once. We hit something forcing the airbags to deploy and I saw as they hit Ori in the face, snapping his head back knocking him out cold.
“No!”
