Page 27 of Song of Lorelei

Phil pointed at her from around the glass he held. “That’s even worse! I don’t think you understand the gravity of the situation here. She could have escaped.”

“Nireed is a volunteer, not a prisoner. She can leave the study whenever she wants, but she stays out of good will. She’s our responsibility, and we need to take care of her. And prolonged separation from the ocean is deteriorating her health. That’s good for no one.”

“Well, the board doesn’t see it that way. That creature is property of…”

Rage boiled beneath Lorelei’s skin, and suddenly Lila gripped her elbow and whisked her around. Reflected in the glass office door were two glowing green eyes. Talons elongated from her nail beds and wicked sharp teeth pricked her tongue. Lorelei stuffed her hands into her pockets and squeezed her eyes shut. Shit. Shit. Shit.

“We’ll discuss this another time,” Lila snapped at him over her shoulder, all while ushering Lorelei toward the door. She let Lila tug her along.

“I’m not done talking to you, Dr. Branson! There are going to be some changes around here because of this.”

Lila’s tone dipped low and cold. “And we can talk about them tomorrow morning when you haven’t been drinking.”

He slammed his glass down on his desk, but screwed his mouth shut. The door closed quietly behind them. “Keep your head down and your hands in your pockets,” Lila murmured.

But Phil’s secretary, Helen, had returned to her desk, apparently staying as late as their mutual boss. Rising from her chair, she looked up at them from the stack of file folders she cradled. Her jaw dropped.

“Sit down,” Lorelei growled. “And forget about it.”

Closing her mouth, Helen obediently dropped back into her chair. She blinked several times before shaking her head and trading her files for her computer keyboard.

The command had come so easily. Too easily. And the satisfaction that came with, the alluring rush of power, was a slippery slope Lorelei couldn’t afford to slide down. She needed to be more careful.

Lorelei and Lila left their boss’s office to the sound of clacking keys.

Chapter Fourteen

LORELEI

It was late when Lorelei returned home. Killian sat on the couch, snoring softly with his head lolled forward. A book sat in his lap with a thumb tucked between the pages to mark his place. He must have tried staying up for her. Easing the book out of his hands, Lorelei bookmarked the page and set it on a side table. She was rifling through the antique sea chest in the corner of the room for a light blanket, when she heard Killian stir behind her.

His joints cracked as he stretched his arms above his head. “How did it go?” he yawned.

Lorelei plopped down on the couch beside him. “Not great,” she huffed, picking at the frayed plastic edges of her employee badge. “We still have our jobs, as best as I can tell, but we won’t know for sure what the consequences will be until tomorrow morning.”

He patted his lap, and she swung up her feet to let him massage away the aches she got from wearing heels all day. Foot massages had become an evening ritual between them, a simple physical connection tethering them together while Lorelei played catch up on her work laptop. There would be none of that tonight. And probably not tomorrow night either. The evening’s dealings with Carrie, the security guards, and her pissed off boss, soured Lorelei’s mood to all things work-related.

She also had a familial fallout to deal with that felt much more important. “How about on your end? How are Marci and Walt?”

Killian kneaded his fingers into her arch. “They are going to need some time to process.”

She tipped her head back against the arm of the couch. Forgiveness seemed so far off. Maybe not possible. She rubbed her chest against the ache of regret pooling there. What if their easy-going family dynamic never returned? All because she got a little carried away with her power trip.

“Hey,” he soothed. “It’s going to be okay. I promise. You making a scary mermaid face isn’t grounds for breaking up the family.”

“You know I didn’t just make a scary mermaid face. I sung, too.” She scrunched up her nose. “And licked your ex.”

“Out of context, that would be valid, but it wasn’t that kind of lick.”

Lorelei arched her brow. “Because the ‘mmm, you taste good enough to eat’ kind of lick is so much better.”

He shrugged. “It is for me.”

Pulling her feet from his grasp, she sat, locking eyes with him. He twisted to face her and slung his arm across the back of the couch. “Are you sure about that, Killian? Because I liked it. The taste. Her fear. Using my voice to subdue her. It was such a power rush. And I would do it again if the Walshes weren’t around to see it.”

Swallowing, he tugged at the front of his jeans and shifted his hips uncomfortably. “You are as seduced by it as I am.”

Lorelei blinked, slowly processing his words. “Do you mean that? What happened with Carrie doesn’t bother you? The last time I went scary mermaid on her, you were afraid to kiss me for weeks.”

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