13
Maya
“If you’re not going to check the hoard yourself, then what is your plan?” she asked as she laid out the picnic and tried to think of anything except Corin’s naked body.
Her brain wasn’t playing along. She focused on the food, and her mind served up an image of her licking raspberries off his bare chest. She tried to think about Corin going big bad dragon at whatever poor bastard was looking into the vault, and all she saw was him brooding nakedly at his desk while she slid to her knees underneath it.
Oh god oh god.She pressed her thighs together. They’d come out here totalk, not that.
“I’m expecting a full report tomorrow,” he said behind her.
“A full report from every member of staff, all of whom you’ve set to investigate all the others?”
“From a trusted advisor,” he replied, deadpan.
She laughed. Only a small laugh, but it made her heart hurt. Where had this Corin been all the time they spent together?
How different would her life have been if either of them had been honest about … anything?
Then he’d have seen you for who you really are much earlier. And he’d be just as disgusted.The memory of how he’d looked at her when she came down from the window was like a bucket of ice water.
She knew who he thought she was. Miss Flores, always professional, always punctual, always in control of the situation and herself.
What a lie.
“If you need help deciphering it, let me know,” she said, as though her heart wasn’t crumbling to pieces in her chest. “Or a strengthening drink before you face it. We could schedule in one of those dinners at Caro’s.”
His eyes flashed, but beneath the veneer of interest he looked distracted. Exhausted. The way he always looked when he set his own work aside to clean up the Dans’ latest mess, or disappeared for weeks on end to deal with ‘family business’. And it wasn’t as though he enjoyed his family obligations—which, now she thought about it, must be to do with him being leader of his clan. He always came back extra irritated and grumpy.
Huh. All that ‘family business’ was dragon stuff, wasn’t it? He always put dragon stuff above everything else. Even his own comfort.
She eyed him warily. Speaking of putting dragon stuff over his own comfort—she’d never seen him look sobedraggled.Shifter clothing didn’t generally survive its wearer transforming, especially when the transformation was from human-sized to something as massive as a dragon. Corin had managed to salvage enough that he wasn’t clothed completely in rags—over the past few months she’d come to terms with the fact that a lot of her neighbors were by necessity naturists—but he was far from the highly polished man of business she was used to.
Maybe that was what was worrying him.
Or maybe it wasn’t. That was worse, somehow. All that stolen treasure, weighing down on his dragon’s big scaly shoulders so heavily he didn’t care he was wearing a torn shirt and pants that—pants that…
Anyway.
She kept a careful eye on him as they each filled their plates with crisp salad and Caro’s delicious hot sandwiches. Corin poured drinks—a non-alcoholic, pink sparkling wine that had appeared on the Hook and Sinker menu recently. She waited for him to comment on it being an insult to beverages everywhere, but he just frowned down at his fish sandwich and said nothing.
“The fish came off a boat yesterday,” she said. “The Menzies, probably. They sell into the next town over, but Caro always gets first pick.”
“No one who makes their living on the water says no to an orca shifter,” Corin mused.
“No one in this wholetownsays no to her.” Maya’s fingers twitched. “I don’t know why. Apart from the obvious. I mean, I’m not a shifter, I can’t sense anyone’s inner animal, and even I feel like I’m going to get chomped if I get in her way. The way she stalks around when she’s in a mood is very … teeth.” She shot him a mischievous look. The sort she never would have dared back when he was her boss. “It’s a familiar feeling, actually.”
“I walk around all teeth?”
“Frequently.” She laughed at the expression on his face, then blinked. She’dlaughedat him. And he was … fine with it?
He still looked distracted. That must be it. He was thinking about something else, and hadn’t noticed her giggling.
Not that she cared if he did notice her laughing at him. In fact, heshouldnotice. Now she was thinking about it, she was kind of annoyed hehadn’treacted.
“You haven’t wasted your time here.” Corin’s voice cut through her internal monologue. “Figuring out supply routes.”
“You’re making me sound very mercenary.”
