“So I’ve been called here to satisfy some bizarre requirement within your relationship?” He addressed Abel now rather than Roxy, though those true-blues flickered between them. He felt he had some right to the annoyance, but after the initial flicker of it, he physically shrugged in a display of dismissing it. “To prove what, Abel? That she will be good when you’re sitting there looking right at her, a block from Aegis HQ with at least fifteen agents plus whoever drew the short straws among the coven today? Well, if you’re both satisfied, I’ll be on my way. I’ve got an attack dog to keep fed, you know, so I can’t be out socializing all the time.”
His hand lifted from the table to reach for his sunglasses, opening them meticulously and dropping his gaze to that minor task.
“Thank you, Miss Hill, for the inspiring lecture on love.” He flashed that winning smile of his, which to Roxy must have just been begging for some sort of physical retaliation. There was an excruciatingly fine line between confident and cocky. A lot of it came down to perspective. What was charming to Mel was smugly self-indulgent to someone else. With Roxy, he figured he’d always be holding his spoon the wrong way, so to speak.
“I hope your visit with Kaylee goes just as well. I’m assuming you blame her for influencing you into the whole situation. Because why wouldn’t you blame everyone else for getting yourself into a shitty spot, right?” With a slight shift of that gaze he offered Abel some mild sympathy, and it was anyone’s guess if it was sincere. “You’ll have to give some real consideration to which one you plan to trip if that one goes downhill. For all the trouble we’ve both gone to, I don’t think she’s learned anything either.”