The Boy Who Has No Hope (Soulless #6) - Victoria Quinn Page 0,76

me for a while because she’s afraid she’ll get attached to me.”

He nodded. “I understand. We can always make a different day work if that’s easier for her. Your mother and I are really excited about her, Derek.”

I closed my eyes and released a long sigh. “Shit…”

“What?”

“She doesn’t know Mom is Cleo…” Up until this point, Cleo was just the woman who trained Emerson to work for me. I had to tell her Cleo was actually my mom before we all had dinner together. Otherwise, it would completely catch her off guard and ruin the night.

“Forgot about that.”

“Let me talk to her, and I’ll let you know.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, Derek.”

I felt guilty for lying to her when I’d made a big scene about Lizzie. But my mom had wanted to protect my privacy, to make the whole situation easier for everyone. Neither one of us expected Emerson and me to be together at some point down the road. “Yeah…”

The situation with Pierre never improved.

He didn’t speak to me again.

We collaborated when necessary, but there was never eye contact, and it was always tense.

I’d assumed the discomfort would die down in a week or so, but it seemed to get worse and worse. There was no way in hell I was going to apologize, so that wasn’t an option. But I didn’t know what to do because I didn’t want to work with a colleague who hated me, and I didn’t want to fire him either.

I’d been so focused on the parts in my hand that I hadn’t noticed Emerson standing across from me at the table.

“Derek?”

I lifted my gaze, my thoughts destroyed by the beautiful sound of her voice. My eyes immediately went to her bright-blue eyes, the eyes that turned watery when she hit her threshold and writhed underneath me, leaving this earth and traveling somewhere I couldn’t follow. “Yes, baby?”

She flinched slightly at the nickname since we were in the lab. “Call me Emerson.”

I set down the parts on the table. “No.”

Her eyes narrowed.

“I’m not being defiant. I just can’t control the spontaneity. That’s what your name is to me.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone so I could show her the name in my phone book. I’d changed it from Emerson to Baby.

Her eyes softened at my actions, but she retained her professional look since Jerome and Pierre were nearby. “Can we talk in private?”

I left my things behind and joined her in the office. The windows were nice because I could see the activities of the lab from my desk, but now I wished there were no windows at all. I faced her, my hands sliding into my front pockets as I stared at her, seeing her in the loose sweater dress and black tights with booties underneath.

“Pierre just put in a transfer. He wants to work in a different lab.” She extended the papers to me so I could see the request myself.

I dropped my gaze and read through the paperwork, offended that he wanted to walk away after we’d been working together for years—because of a woman. I closed the folder and handed it back to her.

Emerson studied my gaze. “What do you want me to do?”

“The whole thing is fucking stupid.”

“What happened, Derek?”

I looked out the window and watched him work beside Jerome, clear glasses on his nose to protect his eyes from flying shards. “He’s made a lot of inappropriate comments about you, and I lost my temper…basically. Then I told him we were together, so he needed to keep his mouth shut.”

Emerson had no reaction, like a man’s obsession was something she was used to.

“So, I’m not going to apologize. But I don’t want to fire him either.”

She looked out the window to stare at him for a moment before she turned back to me. “Do you want to relocate him?”

Another engineer would have to step in, and we’d have to get them up to speed on what we were working on. It would be much easier to keep Pierre, but with this tense relationship, it would affect our work. “Not particularly.”

“Then let me talk to him.”

“Why? This isn’t your problem.”

“Sometimes, a woman’s touch is required. Let me have a one-on-one with him.”

I still didn’t need someone else to fight my battles.

She studied my unease. “Derek, we both know you aren’t the most diplomatic person. You say what you don’t mean sometimes, and when you do say what you mean, it can be harsh…and a