Page 18 of Bitten By Desire (Crooked Point #1)

Monday

Titan lifted a page. “And just one more signature. Right there.” He pointed to where he wanted me to sign.

I don’t know what I’m doing… I didn’t come here to open up a savings account.

Or whatever this was. But Zoey did say these guys were wizards with investments.

My hand still hovered over the document though.

Just because Zoey could afford an expensive house didn’t mean it was because of her investments.

I was pretty sure that had something to do with her married clients and phallic fruit.

“Is your pen out of ink?” Titan asked. “You can use mine.” He nodded to a gold pen in a matching gold holder.

My pen wasn’t out of ink. But for some reason I reached out anyway.

It was almost like the pen was calling to me.

It was heavier than the plastic one I’d been using, and I wondered if it was made of pure gold.

I looked back down at the unsigned page.

Titan had been nothing but professional. Except for the way he kept staring at me. Yeah, he wasn’t staring at me professionally at all. And maybe the way he was rushing me through all these signatures didn’t seem very professional either. This whole thing just felt off.

“Um…can I talk to Bennett about all this first?” I asked .

“He should be finished up just about the same time we are.” He glanced at his pen in my hand, like he was impatient for me to get this over with.

But I wanted to discuss it with Bennett before I put my final signature on the page. “I think maybe I should read through some of these documents and get back to you…”

“Do I make you nervous, Emma?”

I stared at him. Yes. “No, I just didn’t come in here today to open an account.”

“You have nothing to worry about. We’re backed by the FDIC. Besides, I would never let anything bad happen to you.”

I laughed uneasily. “But you don’t control the stock market. Or whatever you’re investing in. So you can’t really promise that.”

“Trust me, our investments are more secure than that.”

There were no secure investments. It was all a gamble.

My eyes wandered back down to the line for my signature.

But I got distracted by Titan’s pen. There was an engraving on the side, but it wasn’t words.

It was small pictures. Or symbols or something.

I couldn’t quite make them out. I ran my finger along the indented images. “What does this mean?”

He reached out and took my hand in his. Instead of taking the pen back he leaned forward. He ran his thumb down my palm like he was inspecting my life line instead of the symbols on the pen. “It’s a good luck charm. To ward off evil.”

“How does it ward off evil?”

“It burns your hand. ”

“Wait, what?” I tried to pull my hand out of his, but he gripped it tighter.

“Good news, doll. You’re as innocent as Bennett thought.” He let go of my hand.

What the hell is happening?

“Sign the page and I’ll take care of you. We all will.”

There was something comforting about that.

Yes, Titan was intimidating. But all the tellers had seemed kind.

And I knew Bennett liked me. He wouldn’t let Titan drain my bank account or anything.

And if he did…it was insured by the FDIC.

I signed the page. And for some reason it felt weird. Like I was signing away my life.

“Very well,” Titan said and grabbed the pages back from me.

I looked back down at the pen once more and then reached out to hand it back to him. But he was scanning the pages to make sure I’d signed everything. I placed the pen back into the holder just as Bennett opened the door.

“Sorry about that, Emma,” Bennett said. “Did Titan take care of you?”

I was still staring at the pen holder, vaguely aware of the fact that Titan hadn’t once touched the pen. Would it have burned him?

“Emma?”

“What? Oh, yes,” I said and looked back at Titan. “He took care of me.”

The corner of Titan’s mouth ticked up as he stared at me.

“I got held up in a meeting,” Bennett said. “But lunch will be here any minute. Let’s go to my office. ”

I didn’t know what kind of meetings made bank managers leave the bank. But I didn’t press it because when I turned to look at him I was much more concerned about his face. “Bennett.” I quickly stood up. “You’re bleeding.” I touched my bottom lip to show him where the cut was on his face.

He wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. He looked down at his hand, but didn’t seem very concerned about any of it. “Sorry about that.”

“Are you okay?”

“It’s nothing.”

“It doesn’t look like nothing.” I peered over his shoulder and didn’t see Otto anywhere. Bennett had stormed into the bank looking pissed off at Otto. And now he was bleeding and Otto was missing. “Did you get in a fight?”

He laughed. “No. I must have just bit it or something.”

“You didn’t bite the corner of your mouth. And it’s already bleeding again.” I turned toward Titan’s desk, but there weren’t any tissues or anything. “Where’s your bathroom?” I grabbed his hand and pulled him out of Titan’s office without waiting for a response.

“Emma, I’m fine.”

“You’re bleeding, you’re not fine.” None of the tellers were standing behind the counter. The whole bank was empty. I looked around for the sign for the bathroom and pulled him toward it.

“Emma…”

I needed to clean his cut for him. I opened up the door and turned the sink on. I pumped out a little soap on a wet paper towel and turned to him. Before he could protest anymore, I blotted it against the cut by his lip.

He didn’t even flinch. But the cut looked deep. Deeper than something he could have done by biting it. More of a deep scratch than a busted lip. What the hell had happened?

“The woman’s restroom, huh?” he said with a smile. “I’m not supposed to be in here with you.”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have gotten in a fist fight.” I looked down at his hands but didn’t see any evidence that my conclusion was true. I wet the paper towel again to get rid of the soap and gently blotted his cut.

“Emma, I really am fine. I’m more curious about what you’ve been up to here without me. I’m guessing you met my friends. What did you think?”

“They were…interesting.”

“Interesting how?”

“Titan tried to burn me with a pen. And did you tell everyone about the Ferris wheel? Because they were all acting like they knew. And apparently someone at the market was calling me Ferris wheel girl and…”

“Hey.” He grabbed my hand so I’d stop blotting his lip. “Who cares what people say?” He leaned closer to me. “Who cares what people think? As long as you’re happy, what else matters?”

I smiled up at him. How could I argue with that?

“And do you know what would make me happy?” He put his hands on either side of the sink, caging me in. He was staring at me like he was seconds away from lifting me on the vanity and having his way with me .

I put my hand on his chest. “As fun as doing sinful things in the women’s restroom would be…your friends already have the wrong idea about me.”

“Do they really?” He leaned forward and placed a kiss against my lips. “Because I think you’ve made a great first impression.”

Meeting them a moment ago wasn’t what I was referring to. Although I wasn’t sure I made a good first impression here either. Especially now that we’d been in the restroom together for so long. “Did you tell them about what happened on the Ferris wheel?”

“I may have told them…”

“Bennett!”

He smiled down at me. “What? I share everything with them. And we just talked about this…who cares what anyone else thinks?”

“I want your friends to like me.” I wasn’t mad at him for telling his friends about us. I knew guys bragged about these things. But it was still a little awkward.

“Trust me…they like you. What’s not to like?”

I was going to protest again. Titan had literally tried to burn my hand because he thought I might be evil. But Bennett silenced my impending rebuttal with a searing kiss.

As he pressed me more firmly against the vanity, I knew he was right. Nothing mattered more than this. God. I buried my fingers in his hair. I was glad that his lip had stopped bleeding so we could do this.

He grabbed my waist and hoisted me up.

I wrapped my legs around him as he deepened the kiss.

But there were nagging thoughts in the back of my head. Or more accurately, Theo’s voice telling me that Bennett was a liar. I put my hand on his chest. “Bennett?”

“Yes?” He smiled against my lips as his fingers skimmed the exposed skin between my jeans and my shirt.

“Do you know Theo Gold?”

He pulled back. “Why would you ask that?”

I just stared at him. His response wasn’t an answer. “It just seems like you don’t like him very much. And I wanted to know why.”

“I told you why. I didn’t like the way he looked at you in that maze.”

“That’s it? There isn’t something else? Because it seems like you both really dislike each other and I don’t understand why.”

He lowered his eyebrows as he stared at me. “What do you mean we both dislike each other? Did you see him again? Did he say something about me?”

Oh shit. I hadn’t been planning on telling him this. I was just going to pretend it never happened. Like Theo was pretending he wasn’t Callum Walsh. And that he didn’t fuck me and forget about me ten years ago.

I cleared my throat. “Zoey and I bumped into him at an open house on Sunday. She’s convinced he’s not Callum Walsh.

Because he was definitely wearing brown contacts to try and throw me off.

It convinced her, but not me. It’s so obvious he’s hiding something.

A lot of somethings probably. But he needs a new photographer for his real estate business and Zoey practically forced me to go for an interview. ”

“It was just you and Theo? Alone? ”

There was no way he could possible know what had happened on Theo’s desk. But he looked pissed off anyway. “Yeah, but…”

“Why didn’t you call me? You promised not to talk to him again unless I was with you.”

“I know, but Zoey forced me. I didn’t want to go. And I couldn’t exactly have you tag along to an interview.”

“He’s dangerous, Emma. I already told you this.”

“So you do know him?”

“No, I just…” He took a step back from me. “I know of him.”

I was so confused. “So you have mutual friends or something?”

“No, I definitely wouldn’t say that.”

I slid off the vanity and closed the distance between us. “Then what do you mean? How do you know Theo’s dangerous?”

“I just need you to trust me on this.” He put his hand on the side of my face.

Did I trust him? I barely knew him. And Theo’s words were in the back of my head: “You said you don’t date liars.”

“Please,” Bennett said. “Don’t see him again.”

I didn’t know what to say. Bennett wasn’t answering my questions. Kind of like how Theo didn’t answer any of my questions. What were they hiding?

Bennett was just staring at me. Waiting for me to respond.

I didn’t want to ruin today. And I needed to trust my gut.

I felt safer around Bennett. Theo terrified me.

Bennett was just looking out for me, not manipulating me like Theo was.

And I’d already turned down the job with Theo.

I slowly nodded my head. I wished I hadn’t said anything at all. I didn’t want to fight with Bennett.

I hugged him and pressed the side of my face against his chest. His warmth radiated off of him. And I could hear how fast his heart was racing. He was just being protective over me. There was nothing wrong with that.

“Can we just rewind and pretend we never stopped kissing?” I asked.

“Hmm.” He touched the bottom of my chin so I’d look up at him. “Consider it all forgotten.” He kissed me gently this time. With no urgency at all. “I think I promised you a tour of the bank. Although, I’m pretty sure you already saw most of it since I was late.”

I wanted to ask him about that too. What had Otto done that had made him so upset? And had Otto hit him? Because it definitely seemed that way. But I swallowed all my questions when Bennett grabbed my hand and led me out of the restroom.

Ace elbowed Huxley as we walked out and they both smirked.

Okay, they definitely thought we’d just hooked up in the women’s restroom. Now I was going to be Ferris wheel bathroom girl. I internally groaned.

“So you’ve already met Ace and Huxley,” Bennett said. “And Titan.”

“And Otto,” I added. “Where’d he go, anyway?” Titan wasn’t standing here either, but I knew he was probably back in his office. Otto on the other hand…I had no idea where he’d gone after Bennett stormed in here and got a bloody lip.

“Otto will be indisposed for a bit,” Huxley said. “He wasn’t acting like himself. ”

Okay. “So he and Bennett did get in a fight?”

“No,” Bennett said at the same time Huxley said, “Yes.”

I stared at Bennett.

“It was just a disagreement,” Bennett said. “I wouldn’t call it a fight.”

“But he hit you?”

Ace laughed. “It’s a guy thing,” he said. “It wasn’t a big deal. We roughhouse all the time. But it’s nice that you’re so concerned about Otto.” He put his elbows on the counter as he stared at me. “If I had a cut, would you clean it up for me?”

“I…” my voice trailed off. That was a weird question. “Yeah, of course.”

He smiled. “Good to know.”

“Your lunch arrived while you were in the restroom,” Huxley said. “I put it in your office.”

“Great,” Bennett said. “My office is pretty much the final thing you need to see anyway.” He lowered his lips to my ear. “And maybe we can pick up where we left off in the restroom?”

I would have melted at his words if I hadn’t just heard a clanging noise.

It echoed around the bank, making it impossible to know where it had come from.

But there were definitely a few places I could guess.

The seven large metal vaults behind the counter for starters.

The clanging noise sounded again, louder this time.

What the hell was in there?