Page 96 of Charmed By Destiny

“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 soulmateLucas?” 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.

Chapter 32

The second Richard was seated on the bench in the bathroom to do his hair and makeup, Luke snuck out of their suite. As Luke stepped into the hallway, he noted that the scent of fresh paint no longer clung to the air. Rosalind had worked quickly to get a contractor into the house to build a closet for Luke, but things were moving slower in the new office area being set up near the bedrooms.

Plans for furniture, curtains, and all kinds of things Luke had no clue about had been talked about at dinners for many nights. While he had no interest in being part of the project, he loved how enthused the Marwoods were about the venture.

Almost all the Marwoods.

Gabriel and Eric kept as silent as Luke, and they had mild panic in their eyes. Luke understood. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to ask his opinion on any of their choices. He’d already decided that if he was asked, he’d pick something at random.

Shaking off his fear of being included in something so far out of his element, Luke trudged down the stairs and headed for the kitchen. To his delight, it was full of Marwoods chatting.

“I need some help,” Luke announced.

Clark’s black brows shot up. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, do you remember that thing I bought for Richard? I want to give it to him today.”

Rosalind beamed at him. “Wonderful, how can we help?”

“Okay, um, I was thinking…Maribeth, do you have plans for today? If not, could you take Richard out for a while? Maybe some shopping or something.”

Propping a hand on her hip, Maribeth narrowed her brown eyes. “What did you buy Richard?”

“Oh, show her, Lucas, she’ll love it,” Rosalind insisted.

“I need Clark’s help with that,” Luke said. “Where is it?”

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