I thanked her and headed over to reception. Declan was scowling at the computer screen, and I could hear the faint strains of music coming out of his earbuds. Since he was so focused, I took a few minutes to drink him in. Declan’s shoulders bunched under his shirt as he hunched closer to the screen, the material clinging to him like a second skin. His usually soft mouth was pinched, his jaw tight, and his brow furrowed. Whatever highlighted mess he was looking at didn’t make him happy. Add in the bruising under his eyes and you had someone that was tired, stressed, and frustrated.

The instinct to wrap my arms around him and bury my face into the back of his neck was strong. I bet he smelled delicious. I bet he tasted delicious—

Aaaannnd I wasn’t going there. I handed him the last drink, which was actually chamomile tea. “It’s not poison, I promise.”

He blinked up at me in surprise, but didn’t startle or tense up. Victory! We’d been making good progress in being comfortable around each other. “Thank you. I wasn’t concerned about poison.” He sniffed it and smiled before frowning back at the screen. “Not your style,” he said absently. “If you wanted to murder me, you’d come at me directly to make sure I knew it was you. Sneaky isn’t your way.”

“It concerns me that you’ve apparently put this much thought into it.” I’d been joking, but considering our rocky start, had he put actual thought into it? “Just to be clear, you know I was kidding, right? I have not now or in the past had any sort of murder plans involving you.”

That earned me a small smile. “I wasn’t quite that paranoid, but thank you for making sure.”

“Okay, good.” I tossed the drink holder into the recycling and leaned my hip against the desk. “Now, want to tell me what the computer has done to anger you?”

Declan huffed and sat back, running his hands through his hair. I spent a moment indulging myself by watching what the movements did to his muscles. I set my own coffee down and put my hands on my cheeks, hoping that would cool them off before he noticed. Luckily, he was still staring at the screen.

“Whoever did this before was either terrible or didn’t understand the scheduling program. I’ve had to straighten out several double bookings.”

I winced. Bay had spent a long time developing his client base and was sometimes booked out anywhere from six months to a year ahead. Double booking left a lot of angry clients.

“You’re right to make that face.”

Declan hadn’t looked over at me, which meant he had to be watching me out of the corner of his eye. Did that mean he’d caught me staring at him? My cheeks were practically on fire now. Damn.

Declan tapped his fingers along the desktop. “Your brother’s been working long days to fit everyone in, and he’s exhausted. It’s going to take him another week or so to catch up. And apparently they never scheduled any sort of break in for Will. He works open to close some days and he’s booked solid. When’s he supposed to eat? No one wants a piercer with low blood sugar.”