Page 17 of Titan

He straightened and looked around. I wasn’t sure what to say or if I should stop him. He strode off a moment later towards the bedside table that doubled up as a small fridge with water bottles and other drinks inside it. I watched him extract a bottle and bring it back over to me, opening the cap as he went. He shoved it in my face, forcing me to take it. The slight brush of his fingertips had me swallowing as my skin lit up with the feel of him.

“Drink.”

I did as I was told, clutching the bottle to my chest after I’d taken a large gulp. He probably thought I was a complete idiot now. This was the worst session I’d ever had with a client. Even the first time I’d done this was nothing compared to what was happening right now. At least then I knew what to expect. I understood the assignment. Right now, I had no fucking clue what to do, say, or how to act. Gil had well and truly thrown me right off course. What was even worse was the fact he was still watching me with no emotion on his face.

What is with this man?

“Better?” he asked when I didn’t say a word.

I dipped my head in agreement, still holding the bottle like it would save me from him. Gil wasn’t a physical threat to me. His presence was dangerous to my composure. And that was possibly worse.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

My mind couldn’t compute what he’d asked for a second because it was ridiculous, him catering to me when he was paying for my time. I stood up, shoving the bottle at him. Gil looked a little startled but took it and screwed the cap back on.

“No. I should apologise for my behaviour. This session is for you, not me, and I’m not giving you what you need.”

He frowned. This man was actually impossible to read. No wonder I was so all over the place when he gave nothing away.

“Theia.”

Damn it, why does my name sound so good on his tongue?

I shouldn’t have even told him my real name, but I never imagined he’d want to see me at work like this.

“Yes?”

“You’re not doing anything wrong. I should apologise for springing this on you. It wasn’t my intention to make you uncomfortable.”

Now I felt worse. He wasn’t making me uncomfortable, he was throwing me off-kilter, and it wasn’t his fault. It was mine. I was the one having an inappropriate reaction to him.

“You’re not.”

“No?”

I shook my head and looked at my hands.

“No, I’m honestly a little… thrown by this is all. I don’t get clients wanting to just talk to me, you know.”

He nodded slowly as if he got what I was saying.

“I should’ve let Remi tell you it was me and what I wanted instead of springing it on you. That wasn’t fair of me. I didn’t think… I just… I need not to be in my own head.”

He looked a little powerless as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders and he had no clue how to handle it. It tugged at my heartstrings. Life had clearly dealt him a rough hand the way it had me. It made me want to do something to make things easier for him.

“Then let me make it better,” I murmured, staring up into his brown eyes that were so full of helplessness it made my bottom lip tremble from the intensity of his gaze.

I stepped closer to him. He flinched but didn’t tell me to move away.

“Come sit with me and you can tell me what happened to make you feel so out of control, okay?”

He inclined his head, even though he looked a little scared by my suggestion. I went to sit back down and patted the fabric next to me. It took him a second to take a seat, leaving a large space between us. Getting him to sit made me feel like I’d made some semblance of progress in bringing this back on track.

Gil stared down at his hands resting in his lap. His shoulders were tense as if this whole thing made him incredibly uncomfortable. I imagined talking to a relative stranger wasn’t easy, even if he’d sought me out.

“When you saw me coming out of Zayn’s office… that’s when he told me he needed me to take over from our father. I had to get our… my men in order. And it didn’t go the way I planned. It’s not normal for the second son to run things. It should be the eldest, so no one is happy about it, our cousins especially. We saw them this evening, and that went to shit too. But Zayn still has all this faith in me, and I don’t understand it. I didn’t have enough time to learn how to be a leader from our father before he died. I have these huge shoes to fill, and I don’t know if I can.”

He sighed and rubbed his hands on his thighs.

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