She tossed a blanket greeting over the room, not bothering to make eye contact with her staff or any waiting visitors.
“I only need to grab the rest of the counseling center presentation,” she told Laura on her way past where the woman stood speaking with her assistant, Marisol Estes.
Tielle slammed her office door, effectively silencing what Laura was calling out to her just then.
Finding the storyboard mock-ups where she’d expected them was enough to improve Tielle’s mood a bit from Faro’s unexpected call...and the apology that followed. She was giving the presentation a final thumb-through when a single knock sounded on the door.
“Sorry, Laura. I just needed to grab this. I’m already crazy late...” Eyes still focused on the portfolio, Tielle opened the door, waiting for Laura to walk in with conversation.
There was only silence, which eventually drew her gaze. The portfolio slipped from her fingers when she discovered that the knock hadn’t come from her colleague but her husband.
Ex.
Graedon Clegg filled the doorway with shoulders that threatened to brush the frame.
“Spare a little time for me, Tel,” he said.
He didn’t give her the option to accept or decline. Of course he wouldn’t. Any man who had to angle sideways to clear a doorway didn’t wait for permission to enter any room. When he knelt before her instead of entering, though, Tielle jumped as if she’d been scorched.
Grae bent to retrieve the portfolio Tielle had dropped. He offered her the folder, smiling so slightly that it may’ve been missed when she didn’t reach to take it.
Grae hung on to the portfolio, using it as an added excuse to move deeper into the office. There, he set the presentation on the desk and took a seat on its edge.
“Close the door.”
He was asking if she would close the door. Again, there was rarely another answer besides yes when Graedon Clegg asked a question. Tielle had always considered it an annoying habit. That was before time in her husband’s—ex-husband’s—presence had clued her into the fact that it was purposefully done. He asked questions in such a manner that to respond in the negative seemed strange.
Close the door. Spare a little time for me, Tel.
Tielle closed the door, leaning back against it in hopes that her stance would seem easy as opposed to wilting.
“You’re a little early, aren’t you?” She forced herself to speak with the same ease she was hoping to perpetuate in her stance.
“Meaning?” He smiled at her query.
“I haven’t even given an answer yet.”
“Answer.” He frowned. “Answer for what?”
Tielle pushed off the door, not completely closing the distance between them but moving just close enough for her to study his expression.
Good one, Ti, she silently admonished herself.
Studying Grae Clegg’s expression was only a sidebar to the real intent, which was just...studying. Marveling, actually, over the combination of features that created a divinely constructed face. She blinked, having caught the faint smile that he was never quite fast enough to hide from her. He revealed it whenever he knew he had achieved whatever it was that he sought.
“I told your brother I needed time to think on it.” Tielle coolly added distance between them, moving behind her desk. “But I told Faro I didn’t think it was a good idea.” She didn’t sit, merely stood tapping her fingers to the semicluttered surface of the desk.
“Tel.” Grae spread his hands in sync with his grin while pretending to come clean. “I got no idea what you’re talking about.”
“That’s impossible.” Suspicion clouded the clear cognac hue of her eyes. “You know every move he makes.”
“That was only when he tried to make them with you.”
She bristled. “He never tried to make them with me.”
“You never realized it.”
“Which brings us back to why it’s impossible for you not to know what he’s up to.”
“Not exactly.” Grae smoothed the back of his hand across the dark shadow of whiskers on his cheek. “The moves you make are no longer any of my business, are they?”
The outright question put Tielle in her seat, yet she managed to make the move appear graceful enough.
“Faro says he wants to book the estate exclusively for one week. He wants to hold a Clegg family retreat.” She shared the explanation politely enough. Admirably, she subdued the wound his words had opened. She wanted to maintain eye contact. Sadly, all she could focus on, as Grae sat there stroking his jaw, was his sleek beard, which added an intimidation factor and needed no additional emphasis.
Those inky whiskers contrasted so richly against an otherwise flawless palette of light caramel. They felt like mink against her skin when he kissed her...wherever he kissed her—used to kiss her...
“He told you what prompted such a great idea?” he asked.
“Well, I don’t know, Grae. Maybe he thinks he can fix your family.” With a laugh, she stood and left the desk. Silently, she reiterated the conversation she’d just had with Faro. “I’m pretty sure a fast no is the right answer here. Listen, Grae, I have a meeting I’m already late for.” Hastily, she rounded the desk and began collecting her things.
Grae was blocking her way before Tielle even moved from the desk, causing her to swallow around her heart in her throat.
“I’d like for you not to do that, Tel.”
The urgency in the canyon depth of his voice gave Tielle pause. “Tell me why?” It was her chance to mask command in the form of a question.
Grae clenched his jaw, revealing the defeat he felt. “I honestly don’t know, Tel, but going through with this thing might bring it all out.”
Tielle dismissed the voice warning her not to ask and asked anyway. “Can’t Faro want to retreat for exactly what retreats are meant for? To fix things?”
Graedon smiled, but the gesture held no humor and very little softness. “Still blind when it comes to my brother,” he accused.
“So are you.” She smiled and shrugged. “I guess we’re a perfect pair then.”
“We used to be.” A more pronounced element filtered the bronze of his stare.
“Is it refusal or acceptance you want, Grae?”
When he smiled, Tielle wondered if he was confused about what she should have been refusing or accepting.
