“Hey, I’m not that bad a kisser,” he said, catching up to her with an amused smile on his face. “Who knows, you might even like it.”
“I don’t want to even think about it,” she said. “I’m your boss, kissing you would be highly inappropriate. I can’t afford to mess up right now, so just forget about it. Don’t think about it, don’t think about me.”
She did the only thing she could think of and sprinted away from him toward the rest of the staff gathered a few yards away.Cooper let her go, but she could feel his eyes on her the entire way. When she finally felt brave enough to look over at him, he was watching her, a mixture of surprise and desire in his eyes. Then he slowly strolled over to the group, but kept his distance from her. Not sure if she was disappointed or not, she took a deep breath and reminded herself she couldn’t have him, he was her intern. She’d be risking her job and nothing was worth that, not even a great kiss.
Forcing herself to stop thinking about Cooper, she turned away so she couldn’t see him. Taking a deep breath, she told herself she could get through the rest of the night; she just had to avoid him. Looking at her crew all talking and laughing, she decided it wouldn’t be that hard. She’d spend some time with each of them during dinner. That would keep her busy and away from Cooper.
What she’d do the next day, she wasn’t sure, but hoped the longing deep inside her would be gone by then. “I hope everyone had fun,” she said. “I hear you’ve worked up an appetite.”
“I feel like I could eat an entire pizza all by myself,” one of the interns said. “Where are we going?”
“I reserved the back room over at Maurice’s on Main Street, everyone said they have the best pizza in town,” she said. “They’re going to put together a buffet for us, so you can eat as much as you can hold, just don’t eat so much you can’t make it to the dig tomorrow. The room is ours for two hours. Does anyone need a ride?”
“I think we’re all good,” Kendra said, then looked behind her. “Oh, except Cooper, I think he walked here.”
She turned to find him standing a few feet away, a sad look on his face. “I could use a ride, but I don’t want it to count as my favor. Maybe I’ll just walk,” he said, then sighed dramatically. “It won’t take that long; I should still have some time to eat when I get there.”
Kendra gave her a questioning look. “Never mind,” she said, then looked over at Cooper. “You can ride with me.”
He perked up instantly. “Great, thanks for asking,” he said, closing the distance between them with only a couple of strides of his long legs, a big smile on his face. “Lead the way.”
“Behave yourself,” she said, glaring at him. “I’m just giving you a ride, that’s it.”
CHAPTER 6
***COOPER***
Cooper had no idea what had gotten into him, but all he could think about was kissing the beautiful doctor, even though he knew it was a no-no, completely unprofessional, and possibly a huge mistake. He hadn’t meant to start flirting with her, hadn’t meant to let his attraction to her overrule his sense of caution, and didn’t plan to let the dragon inside him guide his actions, no matter how right it felt. If they’d been anywhere besides inside the ruins, it might never have happened; he might have been able to resist the temptation, but something about being amid the old houses sparked his magic, keeping the beast inside him awake.
Sitting beside her in the car wasn’t helping either; he could smell her perfume and her own unique scent under it, slightly sweet with a spicy note that intrigued him, and it was all he could do to keep his hands off her. He was sure that she’d be shocked if she knew what he was thinking, surprised to discover just how deeply his crush on her had become. It didn’t help that he knew she wouldn’t mind if he kissed her, that just made it all that much more alluring, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to make it through six weeks without acting on his feelings.
“Well, here we are,” Dr. Warner said, then let out a sigh of relief. “That wasn’t so bad.”
He looked over at her and grinned. “We’re not out of the car yet,” he said, leaning toward her. “I could still misbehave.”
Her eyes widened, then filled with desire. “I don’t think so,” she said, quickly scrambling out of the car. “You promised to behave.”
“I did,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Don’t blame me if you’re a little jumpy.”
She gave him a dirty look. “You’re horrible,” she said. “I’m going inside.”
He followed her into the restaurant, a smile on his face, enjoying himself way more than he should be, but when they joined the rest of the group, he let her go, deciding that he’d pushed her enough. Taking a seat at the other end of the table, he joined in the conversation around him, but he watched the doctor out of the corner of his eye as she flitted from one person to the next while he ate his pizza. Now that he’d admitted to himself and to her what he wanted, it was impossible not to think about kissing her, and he hoped he wasn’t the only one who couldn’t get it out of his mind.
They had plowed through far more pizza than he thought possible, and their server was boxing up the last few pieces for someone to take home as the conversation died down around the table. There were quite a few yawns and some glances at the time, and he knew the party was about to break up, making his stomach lurch at the thought of going through with his threat to ask Dr. Warner for a kiss.
Before anyone could get up to leave, Julien, their historian, cleared his throat. “Now seems like a good time for a ghost story,” he said, instantly catching everyone’s attention. “Well, it’s not so much about ghosts as it is about…magical creatures, I guess you would say.”
“You mean like unicorns and fairies?” one of the interns asked, making everyone laugh. “Or are we talking about witches and vampires?”
“None of the above,” Julien said, shaking his head. “Try shape shifters, you know, people who can turn into animals.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” another intern said. “What have you been smoking?”
“I didn’t say that I believe the stories; I’m just saying that the woods around the dig site are supposed to be filled with these creatures,” Julien said. “I’ve found stories going back all the way to the Native Americans about sightings of men turning into wolves or bears, and there are even a few claiming to have seen dragons roaming around.”
“Dragons, now you’re really out there,” the first intern said, shaking his head. “Julien, we need to stick to facts, not legends, you’re just wasting your time.”
“Not necessarily, I agree it’s unlikely shifters really exist, but there’s usually a grain of truth in every legend,” Julien said. “The thing that got me about these stories was that in many of them after the shifters were discovered the local people went after them, but they always vanished with their entire families, sometimes with more than one family.”
