Page 7

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…blah, blah, blah, blah blah…blah blah…

Rowan’s elbow slipped and he nearly brained himself on the conference room table as his former best friend (as of one second ago) Troy, shoved him to get his attention.

The absolute betrayal.

He flushed as the whole team stared at him in unison.

“Sorry, what was that?” he asked, picking up his pen and pretending to be professional.

The blur of their project lead, Cornelius, shifted on his feet at the front of the room. He was fully shifted in his dragon form, his breed allowing him to camouflage against whatever surface he was in front of. This often happened when he got nervous. Right now, he was just a pair of floating glasses and a cat print tie. “I was asking if you had any questions about the slide, sir?”

The slide? There were slides now?

Rowan glanced at the PowerPoint presentation that had appeared somewhere between “What’s your coffee order?” and his musings of I wonder if that totally NOT attractive guy is still chained to the tree? I wonder what he’s doing right now? What was his deal, anyway? My arm still has the indent of his teeth. Do I need to get a shot? Did he infect me with the disease of not being able to stop thinking about him? I bet he did. This was a conspiracy—

“ROWAN!” Troy exclaimed.

Rowan jumped in his seat. “Lunch? Shall we order lunch? I think now is a good time to break. Cornelius, great presentation.”

Cornelius was flustered beyond measure, his glasses and tie bopping about and his camouflage fading in and out. “But what about—”

“Burgers? Pizza? Calzones? That’s what I like about you, Cornelius, asking the right questions,” Rowan shoved the desk sideways with his bulk as he got up and blustered his way to the door.

He opened it and stepped out, meeting Terry’s eyes and hoping he didn’t look like he was trying to avoid a death sentence, even though it felt like it. He snapped the door shut behind him. “Would you be able to place an order for lunch for the room, please? Whatever is quickest.”

“Sure,” he said, putting a folder aside. “Anything in particular?”

“A mixture is fine.” Rowan mopped his brow with his handkerchief. “Rachel has a gluten allergy.”

“And Cornelius doesn’t do spicy.” Terry jotted it down, a small smile ghosting across his lips. “Tough meeting? Is the guy still chained up? Did he really bite you?”

Rowan cringed but tried not to let it show. He also refused to think about where Terry got his intel when he never left the building during work hours. “We’re handling it. Nothing to worry about. And uh…if my parents call…you can tell them the same thing.”

“Mr. Rangecroft already left a message, actually.” Terry picked up a small memo pad. “He’s eagerly awaiting your team’s solutions to this situation. Also he said he’s consulted Raina and Riley and is strongly suggesting you pull them in on this.”

Rowan saw his life flash before his eyes in real time.

“Please call my father back and tell him that won’t be necessary. I have it all under control.”

He escaped before Terry could ask any more questions, reentering the room and clapping his hands with false confidence. “Where were we?”

Troy gave him the stink eye. “In the same place we were an hour ago. Trying to figure this mess out.”

“I really don’t see why we can’t just go back there. The foreman says that the idiot unhooked himself, so there’s nothing stopping us,” Mitchel said.

Nothing except the voice in Rowan’s head telling him that was a terrible idea.

“We should come up with something better than that to avoid a scandal. The media has already gotten wind of this. It would end up reflecting badly on the company,” he said.

“Then do you have a suggestion?” Troy asked. “You seem to have a lot of reasons why we can’t do anything, but no ideas of how to push the project forward.”

Troy had always been quick to call him out on his bullshit, and he was right, Rowan didn’t have an answer for him readily available, and that frustrated the hell out of him. It was a block in his mind where once there was free thought.

How had that insane tree guy got him so tangled up so fast?

“Uh, sir?” Rachel said. “You’re smoking a little.”

A few wisps floated past his eyes as they streamed from his nose, and he quickly waved them away, then readjusted his tie. “Let’s revisit some options while we wait for the food to arrive.”