"ButSaturday?" Despite the complaint, Benny followed Rick up into the half-wrecked gazebo, both of them pointing out breakage and muttering about wood quality and getting on with the job andSaturday?and so on.
By that time, the unpleasant Mr. West had made his way across the square to the mess Tiffany's team had made. His mouth, pursed in disapproval, also had a slightly smug twist to it, as if he'd justknowna construction company run by a woman couldn't handle the job. He drew breath to speak, and Tiffany cut him off with the ease of long practice.
"Mr. West,great. We'll need the original blueprints for the gazebo, if they're available, and, well, if there are any improvements or upgrades the town wants done to the gazebo while we repair it, we might as well make hay while the sun shines."
"The city willnotbe paying for these repairs. What happened?"
Tiffany bit back sayingno shit, Sherlock, to the first part, but before she could answer the second, Ollie stepped in with that amazing Australian accent and the implacable calm that seemed to be his thing. "One of Ms. Wright's employees was stung by a bee and went into anaphylactic shock. The quick thinking and actions of her other employees prevented the damage to the gazebo from being any worse, and we are of course all primarily concerned with his health and recovery. I'm sure you're glad to hear his prognosis is good."
West's jaw flapped, but Ollie kept going like this was the kind of verbal fight he prepared for every day of his life. "Wright Constructionof courseunderstands that the company will be footing the bill for the repairs, and hopes the generous offer ofincluding any other necessary repairs or upgrades will help the town through this brief inconvenient period when the gazebo is unavailable."
Tiffany could see West visibly struggling with Ollie's accent, although she had no trouble understanding him at all. But the fact it took the town clerk longer to process what Ollie was saying than normal was clearly to her advantage: before West had even worked his way through it all, Ollie was smiling. "I can see you're overwhelmed with Ms. Wright's generosity. The town planner's name, please?"
"Nick Coulter," Steve said when West's jaw kept flapping. "He's only in a couple times a week at most, but Sandra will have his number. Why don't you come with me, Mr. West?" He lumbered by and West, perhaps for no other reason than he could understand everything Steve said, walked after him like he wasn't sure why that was happening.
Tiffany, awed and rather pleased, said, "You're reallygoodat that. It's like verbal aikido. Use their own momentum against them."
Relief swept Ollie's face. "Oh, good. I was afraid you'd think I was stepping on your toes."
"No, no, the way you do it…it just feels like you've got my back. It's great. Thanks."
Ollie, with great sincerity, said, "I have any part of you that you want me to," and then to Tiffany's delight, blushed scarlet.
CHAPTER 8
Why's all your blood in your face? It makes my head hurt.The koala, which had been blissfully disengaged for entire minutes there, came back to attention in a way that Ollie felt he was alarmingly close to himself.
Well, no, in a completely different way, but 'standing at attention' had such a specific connotation when he'd just promised an incredibly beautiful woman that he'd have her any way she wanted him to…
No. God, no. He hadn't been quite that blatant. He didn't think he had. He'd beenalmostthat bad, but not quite.
Because "I'll have any part of you that you want me to"was ever so much better than “I'll have you any way you want me to."
Ollie's head was actually going to explode from swelling.
Hislargerhead.
The koala was actually staring at him, as if it had never considered the possibility that Ollie had dirty thoughts of his own, independent of the koala's own enthusiastic libido. Not that the koala had him chasing after girl koalas. No. It wassimply supportive of his own, very human, desires. And had opinions about which women he should pursue. Although never ever as strong an opinion as it did about Tiffany, which made sense. She was, after all, his mate.
Looking at the petite, solidly built, strong-armed woman in front of him, Ollie thought he couldn't possibly tell her that he was a koala shifter. She would laugh at him. Other people had…well.Magnificentshifter animals. Bears. Tigers. Wolves. Lots of wolves. Koalas were small, cute and surly. They did not inspire lustful thoughts, although Ollie sort of assumed it wasn't really anybody else's shifter animal that inspired the lustful thoughts in their mates. It would be the man, not the beast, who appealed to their mates' hearts and souls.
Which was bad enough. Tiffany was the kind of woman who threw annoying men over her shoulder onto the ground, and probably stomped on them with her steel-toed boots if they got out of hand again. Ollie…was an accountant. Mild-mannered. Calm. Boring.
But shehadsaid verbal aikido. That seemed positive.
He was suddenly sure he'd been standing there, blushing silently, for areallylong time. Tiffany was sucking her cheeks in like she was trying not to laugh.
Ollie wilted. Everywhere. At least most of the blood left his face, but all hope of standing at attention slipped away, too. He was just so…ordinary.
So what? She's our mate. Drag her into the trees and KISS HER.
Ollie, weakly, said, "There are no trees."
Tiffany's eyebrows went up. She glanced around the square, eyeing the small number of trees therewere,scattered at both its ends, then shrugged and nodded. "Not worth mentioning, no. Why, were you hoping I'd drag you into the trees and let you have any part of me I wanted you to?"
It turned out the blush had only retreated. It was there again, fully willing to re-engage. Ollie thought his hair might catch on fire, in fact, from the heat of the blush.
It also turned out that other wilting parts of his anatomy were fully prepared to return to duty.
