Say something,his panther rumbled.Say something, and for God’s sake, make it good.
“No, you don’t need to call anyone,” he said in a blessedly steady voice. “In fact, someone called me. I’m here to take care of your problem.”
If he had thought she was lovely before, he hadn’t anticipated what would happen when she smiled. It was wide and honest and bright, the kind of warmth that was hard to imagine unless you were standing in it like he was. Even AJ seemed startled, looking up at her with a dazzled expression on his little face. Luca knew how he felt.
“Well, I do love it when people show up to solve my problems. It’s just about my favorite thing,” she said. “I’m Macy Lang, mayor of Clearwater. Rikki told me to expect you and that you were going to need some childcare while you worked. I guess she meant this little guy, huh?”
She nodded with professional formality at AJ and offered him her hand.
“Pleased to meet you,” she said gravely. “I’m so happy to have your expertise on hand.”
“Guh,” AJ said enthusiastically, and she grinned before turning back to Luca.
Come up with something right now, or I will,his panther threatened, and the image that he got from that was so vivid that he could feel a dull heat coming up on his cheeks. No, absolutely not.
“Thank you for thinking to call it over to the Madsens before calling animal control. I take it you didn’t share the size of the cerastes with them?”
She blinked, holding up the shed skin again.
“Is that what it’s called? I guess I didn’t. I just told them it had curly horns.”
“Right, and then we thought– Okay. We had assumed that given how rare these animals are that you had found ahatchling or a juvenile. What you have there is the skin of a full-grown adult.”
“Oh, and you were worried about–”
She glanced down at AJ with alarm. AJ, for his part, had found an ant hill on the steps that was fascinating and didn’t look up.
“They’re docile, we’ve never even heard of a report of one hurting an adult or a child. But with snakes that big you don’t really like to take chances. I wouldn’t have brought him in if I had known it was an adult.”
He hesitated.
“I could tell you more about it. Over dinner? Neither AJ nor I have gotten a real meal yet, and—”
Her smile turned soft, sweet as blueberry pie.
“That sounds like a fantastic idea.”
He had met his true mate. She thought that having dinner was a fantastic idea. It was only a little heart-wrenching losing sight of her as he got in his car to follow her in hers.
Luca was still so thrilled by discovering his true mate that it took him several blocks to realize that he hadn’t informed her of his discovery yet.
CHAPTER THREE
∞∞∞
Macy liked to think that she worked really hard. She was at work first thing in the morning, and sometimes she didn’t call it a day until it was just her and Amy, the custodian. Amy sometimes jingled her keys at Macy to tell her it was time to get a move on and go home. Macy had always thought that if she put up too much of a fuss, Amy might get her big broom and sweep her out. She cared about her job, she cared about her community, she definitely cared about the oh-god huge snake that was running (er, slithering?) around her city hall.
All of that meant that she shouldn’t feel too guilty about a man inviting her out for dinner, right?
Right?
If she was being perfectly honest with herself, she thought as she pulled into the parking lot at the Lucky Tater, she wasn’t entirely sure how it had happened. All she knew was that the most gorgeous man she’d ever set eyes on was looking at her so hard it felt like he was touching her, and oh how she wanted to be touched and do some touching in return. Her hands twitchedlike they wanted to run across his broad shoulders and through his sleek black hair, and she wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d bitten her lip raw when their eyes locked.
Macy, get a damn hold of yourself. This man is a professional who is here to do a job, and you are going to let him do it.
It all sounded very good, or at least it did until Luca Reyes pulled up in the spot next to hers. It wasn’t like he was posing or flexing or doing any of the other things she’d seen men do to get attention. He was just getting his nephew out of the car, saying a few quiet words to him, and then the pair came up to her, hand in hand.
“This is the Lucky Tater, one of the best places to get a hearty dinner in town,” she said.
