Page 31

A knock on his open office door had Richard glancing up. He smiled at Douglas.

“Do you have a minute?”

It was near the end of a long day, and Richard was desperate to finish a few emails so he could haul ass out the door, but he waved the inspirit in.

“Of course.”

To Richard’s surprise, Douglas shut the door, then walked in and sat on the small sofa. A warning pinged through Richard’s brain. The last thing he wanted was another emotional scene with Douglas. It was highly unusual for them to have a private conference about something related to work, so Richard prepared himself for a private chat about the awkwardness between them.

Richard rose from his chair and took a seat opposite Douglas. What Richard wanted was to stop hiding his relationship with Lucas, but he also couldn’t hurt his friend. Maybe Richard would get lucky and they’d move past Douglas’s fascination with being intimate.

“I saw Maribeth walking through the hall with Gabe this morning, is she in town for a visit?” Douglas asked.

Joy and relief flowed through Richard. “She’s moved back home. My parents are forcing her to take this week to relax and get settled, but she has big plans and wanted to take a formal walkthrough with Gabriel today. Mari is taking a job in security. Gabriel and Rhonda will train her.”

“That is excellent news, Rosalind and Clark must be pleased.”

“Absolutely, we all are.”

“Was Maribeth shocked to find that a new inspirit has taken up residence in the Marwood guest house?”

For a single heartbeat, Richard didn’t know what Douglas was referring to, then it hit him. Lucas was supposedly living in the guest house while the Marwoods helped him relocate to a quiet home. At least no one had figured out that Lucas shared a bed with Richard.

“Oh no, we kept her in the loop,” Richard said. “She’s eager to befriend Lucas.”

“Luke. He prefers Luke.”

Wondering why it suddenly mattered what Richard called Lucas since he’d used his full name since the day the inspirit had arrived many months ago, he scowled. “He hasn’t corrected me.”

“You’re his boss. Of course not.”

“You know I don’t consider myself a boss to any inspirit.”

“Your last name is Marwood. Your family owns the resort. Whatever your thoughts are about inspirits like me and Luke, how would he know your feelings? To him, you’re the boss and he’s not going to correct you. Be mindful of what other people want, Richard. As your friend, I feel like sometimes you need to be reminded that the world doesn’t revolve around you. With your wealth and privilege, I think it’s easy for you to forget that the rest of us don’t live in a mansion or have our parents to smooth out every wrinkle in life for us.”

Richard swallowed thickly as he gathered his thoughts. The last thing he’d expected was to be scolded by Douglas. Richard understood how lucky he was to have his family and his vast resources, but he considered himself grounded. Was he kidding himself? Lucas had pointed out that Richard was his boss multiple times. Did he prefer to be called Luke ? Were there other things Lucas kept to himself because of a perceived imbalance in their relationship?

“Thank you, I appreciate your honesty,” Richard said, his mind and soul in tumult.

“Your strengths are your confidence, your ability to assert yourself, and your convictions. But sometimes the things that define us most can also be weaknesses. Once you have a belief, it’s difficult or impossible to make you see the other side of the argument.”

Biting his lip to keep his shit together so he wouldn’t cry at work, Richard took a deep cleansing breath. He wanted the people he cared about to be frank with him, but Richard’s office was hardly the nicest spot to discuss his personal issues.

“I appreciate your candor,” Richard stated, ignoring the tremor in his voice. “But it’s getting late, and I have a few things to wrap up before I meet Gabriel and my father.”

“And Luke. He rides home with the Marwoods, doesn’t he?”

It took every ounce of Richard’s self-control not to shout that he’d never forget about his soulmate. Not a moment went by when Lucas wasn’t in his heart. “Yes.”

“Then mention him or it makes it sound like you don’t put the same amount of value on him. Remember that inspirits are people too.”

“Of course you are. Not that I want to get into an argument with you, but I put Gabriel’s name first. If I was trying to minimize the importance of inspirits, I would’ve left his name out too. Last time I checked, he’s an inspirit, just like you.”

“Except that he’s not. Gabe is married to Eric. He’s become a Marwood.”

Irritated, Richard crossed his legs and wiggled his foot to burn off some of the adrenaline building inside him. Douglas was twisting a knife in his chest, and it was pissing Richard off. “Gabriel has been a Marwood since the day my parents met him over three decades ago. What is it you wanted to discuss with me, Douglas?”

“Before I articulate my request, I have every intention of speaking to Clark if you try to impede my plans. While you resurrected me to serve as your partner, that is no longer what I want. Conference services remain my passion, but I need space to move on with my life. I’d like to be transferred to another resort—preferably outside of the country. My dedication to you has kept me from traveling, and I want to see Europe. There are plenty of Marwood properties there, and surely one of them can use an inspirit with my experience and abilities.”

The muscles along Richard’s jaw ached. He forced himself to unclench his teeth. There were so many issues with Douglas’s little speech that Richard wasn’t sure where to begin. Pain and fury blended inside Richard, and it was impossible to separate them. They’d been friends for so long, and Richard had tried everything he could think of to protect his feelings—even keeping his genuine relationship with Lucas a secret.

“I resurrected you because I hoped you’d share my interests in conference services, but I didn’t mandate that you act as my partner. All these years, I thought you were my co-director because you enjoyed working with me and I believed we made an excellent team. As for your transfer, that has nothing to do with me. You know that. Every inspirit is aware of how it works. My father handles that. Call him up. You have his number.” Richard rose and brushed the wrinkles from his slacks. “If Clark doesn’t answer, call Gabriel. Or Rhonda. They’ll have you on the next plane to wherever you want to go within hours. Why you think I’d impede what you want to do is a question only you can answer. I demanded nothing from you. In fact, all I’ve done is reject the idea that I’m your soulmate. Suddenly, my desire not to sleep with you has made me your enemy.”

Douglas opened his mouth to say something, but Richard held up a hand to silence him. He marched to his office door and whipped it open.

“We have nothing more to discuss,” Richard stated calmly. “I’ll tell my father and Gabriel that you want to speak to them the moment I see them. Right after that, I’ll ask Lucas about his feelings regarding his damn name so no one thinks I’m devaluing inspirits.”

“Richard—”

“I’m leaving for the day, Douglas. If you decide to transfer immediately, please ensure your assistant can access your files so this office isn’t left in the lurch by your departure.”

Douglas walked through the door but paused just past the threshold. “My resignation letter will state that I’m giving you two weeks’ notice.”

“That should go to human resources, not me, our titles are equal. But if you’d prefer that I send it to them, have it on my desk first thing in the morning.”

Richard was tempted to slam the door, but he closed it gently between him and the inspirit he’d considered his friend for years. Maybe there was something left in the tatters of their relationship, but it was apparent now that space would be a good thing for them both. With a shake of his head, Richard went to his desk to pack up his things for the night.

???

One of the things that sucked about being Richard’s secret was that Luke had to march to the car without his soulmate. It was usually only mildly annoying to Luke, but this evening was different. Douglas had shut himself in Richard’s office, and Luke’s desk allowed him the advantage of seeing for himself that the inspirit had sailed out with color high on his cheeks and temper making his gait stiff.

Now Luke was sitting in a limousine, waiting to find out what had happened between Douglas and Richard. The door opened, and Clark climbed in. Gabe was with him, as always, and Luke greeted the men distractedly.

Clark glanced up from his phone. “Everything okay, Lucas?”

“Yeah, I’m eager to talk to Richard. He and Douglas had a private conference in his office right before I left. Douglas appeared pissed off as he walked out.”

“Interesting. Douglas texted me. He’d like to meet with me in the morning.”

“The question is, why did he send me a text too?” Gabe asked. “No one wants to meet with me except my own staff.”

“You’ll join us so I don’t have to fill you in later,” Clark replied. “Maybe if you worked on being more personable, people would want to meet with you. My assistant swears you didn’t learn his name until you discovered Eric was your soulmate. The man nearly died of shock when you asked him about his holidays last year.”

“I knew his name, I just never used it,” Gabe grumbled.

“No one believes me if I tell them you’re nice,” Luke told Gabe.

“That’s because if it doesn’t involve Marwood security or our wonderful Eric, Gabriel is oblivious to it,” Clark said.

The car door opened. It took a single look at Richard for Luke to know the man was pissed. If he had any doubt, it was banished by the way Richard grabbed Luke’s face and kissed him passionately. Normally, Richard was happy to allow Luke to take the lead, but not today. His tongue was aggressive, and it was so hot, Luke nearly forgot Clark and Gabriel existed.

As suddenly as the caress had started, Richard pulled away again, then snuggled close to Luke on the long seat.

“Sorry, needed to do something with all this excess energy,” Richard said, grabbing Luke’s hand and wrapping it between his own.

Trying to grab his scattered wits and calm his dick down, Luke nodded dumbly as the car pulled away from the curb.

“What happened with you and Douglas?” Clark asked. “And why does he want to meet with me and Gabriel in the morning?”

“I’m happy to answer, but I have a question for my soulmate first,” Richard replied. “It was pointed out to me today that I’m an entitled wealthy man without a clear perspective of how other people live. Would you prefer if I called you Luke instead of Lucas?”

“What?” Luke asked.

“I call you Lucas. Every Marwood does. Did any of us ask if that was okay with you?”

“Wait, I’m stuck on the first part. Who said that to you?” Luke asked.

“Given the context clues, I’m guessing Douglas,” Gabe remarked.

“Excellent deduction,” Clark commented. “I can’t remember, did I ask you if it was okay to call you Gabriel instead of Gabe?”

Gabe offered Clark a ghost of a smile. “The day I met you, I mentioned that everyone calls me Gabe. Rosalind told me the archangel Gabriel was a protector and a defender. It was something she learned despite necromancers having no faith in human religions. Somehow, she thought I had something in common with the archangel Gabriel, and she liked the sound of my name. It’s impossible to forget any part of that conversation. It changed my life.”

“As usual, my soulmate was right,” Clark responded. “You were destined to be a protector and a defender of one of my most precious treasures, Gabriel.”

Luke’s gaze widened. “I’m never calling you Gabe again. That’s beautiful.”

“Stop embarrassing Gabriel, but do call him that,” Clark said with a grin. “You’re a Marwood like he is, and that’s what our family calls him.”

It was amusing that Gabe—no, Gabriel —had color in his cheeks, but Luke didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, so he returned to the important matter of why his own soulmate was fuming.

“To answer your question, Dragonfly, no one called me Lucas until I met the Marwoods. I wasn’t going to correct you, Clark, because I was intimidated. After I settled down, I thought it was neat that the Marwoods decided I was Lucas.”

“Except for Gabriel, because he can’t help but defy tradition,” Richard grumbled.

“If anyone wants to know, Lucas means bringer of light ,” Clark said. “An apt name for an inspirit.”

Richard’s mouth dropped open. “I didn’t know that. What a perfect name for you, Lucas.”

“I’ll stop calling you Luke,” Gabriel stated firmly. “Sorry.”

“It’s because he feels an innate need to defy his family,” Clark whispered conspiratorially to Luke. “He gets over it, eventually.”

“Yeah, then he goes wild and does something bold like sleeping with Eric,” Richard teased.

“So, Douglas gave you shit for calling your soulmate Lucas ?” Gabriel asked.

“He doesn’t know Lucas is my soulmate,” Richard reminded the other inspirit. “But he lectured me about how I basically think the world revolves around me and I believe inspirits are beneath necromancers. Oh, and I resurrected him to be my partner in conference services and he had no choice. Douglas also told me that if I blocked his request to be transferred to a European Marwood property he’d go above me to contact my father directly.”

“You don’t handle inspirit transfers,” Clark replied, his brow furrowed. “That goes through my staff. Every inspirit has my direct number. They also have Gabriel and Rhonda’s if they can’t get me immediately. The only questions we ever ask are where they want to go and what can we do to make a move easier on them.”

“Douglas is obviously still pissed about your refusal to his invitation,” Gabriel remarked.

“Dragonfly, I’m sorry,” Luke said, pressing a kiss to Richard’s perfectly coiffed hair. “It sounds like it was a pretty ugly conversation.”

“I’m sorry I hurt him, but if circumstances were different and destiny hadn’t brought you to me yet, I still wouldn’t have accepted the invitation,” Richard replied. “While he may think that’s because I’m being a stubborn ass who refuses to bend my own rules, I’m not attracted to him. If he needs me to spell that out so he can move on with his life, I’ll do it. But I think it’s best if we get through the next two weeks without having any further personal conversations.”

“Two weeks?” Clark asked. “Inspirits can be transferred immediately if they wish. Did you request that Douglas give you notice? I don’t care if the humans remark on it, our rules aren’t going to change.”

“No, that was Douglas’s idea,” Richard replied. “But if he changes his mind and wants to move sooner, I have no objection. As long as his assistant has a key to his office, we’ll be fine. I’m going to check tonight to ensure that he has uploaded every file for upcoming events on the shared drive. If anything is missing, Douglas needs to give us that information.”

“Good, I don’t want him there for two weeks,” Clark said. “Once you’re sure you have what you need, let me know. Gabriel has keys to everything, so it doesn’t matter if his assistant has them or not. If Douglas wants another day or two in the office to say his goodbyes to the staff, that’s fine, but two weeks is excessive. He can stay in Vegas until he’s ready to move, but he doesn’t need to keep going to the office. You’ll have to decide what to do with his position.”

“Good point, sorry, my brain is scrambled. I’ll give it some thought, Dad.”

“I’m sorry your day ended like that,” Luke told Richard.

Richard leaned his head on Luke’s shoulder. “That’s okay, it’s already way better. I hate that my friendship with Douglas is torn apart, but perhaps someday it can be mended. I’m in no hurry to find out.”

With a kiss for Richard’s sweet lips, Luke privately hoped Douglas would move on with his life without bothering to rekindle the fragments of his former relationship with Richard.