She cleared her throat.
“Whoever they are might be trying to further turn you against me. Or—no, that doesn’t make sense. Against Hideaway Cove in general? They might think you’d see Apollo as harboring a thief, and that would be enough to make him your enemy. Or—sir?”
She couldn’t read the expression on his face. Which was concerning, because she had a great deal of experience reading Corin Blackburn’s features.
His throat bobbed. “You don’t need to call me ‘sir’ anymore, Miss Flores.”
“And my name isMaya.Sir.”
His eyes flashed. “Maya.”
Oh, god.
That had been a mistake. She didnotneed the memory of him saying her name like that, floating around in her brain.
She swallowed. “Corin.” Nope. Sayinghisfirst name did not make things any better. Why had she thought it would?
Why was she like this?Why?She’d behaved like a normal person around him the whole time she was his assistant—and now he couldn’tbreathewithout her losing seconds to imagining what his mouth would feel like on her neck?
Her heart thudded. He wasn’t here for her, she reminded herself. He was here because someone had stolen from him and implicated her. She was someone else’s pawn in whatever stupid dragon game was being played here.
But he was so…
Magnificent.
He took her breath away.
And she would let him take everything else away, too.
And … she had been sitting here creepily staring for too long, and he was watching her with eyes that saw too much.
He stood slowly. Caught in the deep-sea shadow of his gaze, she almost lost hold of herself.
“We’ll leave at once,” he declared. “I’ll make the arrangements. You can stay at—”
“Excuse me?We?I’m not going anywhere with you.”
She’d almost let his sea-glass eyes fool her. She’d slipped into problem-solving mode as though they were still in the same place they were a year ago. Employer and employee. The boss who makes the problems, and the assistant who solves them.
He looked at her in surprise, as though he’d never imagined her disagreeing with him. Well, too bad. If she let him take charge now, she’d never be free of him. She wasn’t his assistant anymore. She didn’t have to arrange her words to suit him.
She didn’t have to doanythingfor him.
“Tomás and I are staying right here. We’ve barely got settled in Hideaway Cove. I’m not going to turn his life on end again. Besides, we’re protected here. Apollo and Felicity’s magic means no one can come near me if I don’t want them to.”
“You trust them to protect you?”
“Who else should I trust?” she shot back.
His expression locked down.
The door opened. “Did I hear the dulcet tones of disagreement?” Apollo asked, his voice deceptively light. Maya’sshoulders relaxed. But something inside her tensed, too. She appreciated Felicity’s mate running to her defense, but part of her resented the intrusion.
Adumbpart, she told herself. Whatever Corin and her were, now that he wasn’t her boss, and she knew his secrets, they weren’t … they weren’t…
They were fighting in her best friend’s kitchen, that’s what they were doing. Apollo had every reason to interrupt.
Apollo put his hand on the back of her chair. “Shall I ready the catapult?” he asked.
