Eloquent as always,his griffin sneered.No wonder you are always being pursued so relentlessly by human women. And sometimes men.
Shut up!Rhys told it, as he stared into Maisie’s wide, crystal-blue eyes.
The moment seemed to stretch out forever, and he was intensely aware of the heat of her body against his, as well as the pulsating, electrical buzz of the mate bond. He wondered dazedly if she could feel it too, not being a shifter.
He also wondered, suddenly, what had happened earlier today when they’d met. Things had moved so quickly that he’d almost forgotten that a big chunk of his memory from today was missing. Apparently he’d sucked on her finger, which –
“Are we interrupting something?”
Rhys jerked to attention at the voice, though he knew without looking who it was. There was only one person who could sound that fucking annoying.
Michael.
He looked up, to see Michael bearing both an enormous smirk and two plates piled high with steaming-hot fish and vegetables. Rhys directed a frustrated glare in his direction, but the smirk just got even larger.
Maisie scrambled to untangle herself and sit up straight, clutching at way more of Rhys’s body than was probably strictly necessary, and frantically tried to smooth out her hair.
“Grub’s up,” said Shaz breezily, sweeping a pile of crap off the table in the corner that Rhys hadn’t even noticed. Despite her earlier threats, she had brought in enough food for Michael as well… which was probably more than he deserved, but Rhys wasn’t about to complain when he was getting free food into the bargain.
And, he had to admit, it smeltamazing.
The two of them hurried over to the table, studiously not looking at each other, but not meeting Michael or Shaz’s eyes, either. Better to just pretend none of that ever happened.
“Oh my God,” said Maisie fervently, as she slid into one of the seats. “You have no idea how much I want to cram all of this into my face.” She blinked, her cheeks turning pink. “I mean, this looks delicious. Thank you.”
“Yeah, same,” Rhys said, cutting off a piece of barramundi and shoving it into his mouth. He’d never been the kind of person to wait for other people to start eating out of some misguided sense of politeness – if there was food there to be eaten, he was bloody well going to eat it, rather than wait for everyone else to dance around the issue. Especially when he was this damn hungry.
Maisie smiled at him gratefully and followed his cue, and for the next minute or so the two of them just concentrated on getting enough food into them to avoid passing out from hunger.
After a minute, Rhys was able to slow down enough to actually enjoy the food. And itwasgood – the barramundi was cooked to perfection, flaking apart as his fork touched it, and the lemon butter sauce was rich and perfect.
Probably going to clog my arteries something shocking, but I don’t even care.
Even the veggies were good, and Rhys didn’t say that kind of thing lightly, being more of a carnivorous kind of guy. Perfectly roasted potatoes, crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle, plus roast carrot and garlic, and steamed asparagus – yeah, he could happily eat more of this.
How the hell a loser like Michael had ever gotten a great woman like Shaz, Rhys could not begin to imagine.
She’s a great cook,andshe turns into a fearsome cassowary. Michael is useless, unless your life depends ondistracting a tourist with a cute marsupial. And he’s not even that cute of a quokka.
“Mmph,” Maisie said, wiping her mouth, and Rhys noticed with some surprise that she’d already cleaned her plate, wiping up the remains of the lemon butter sauce with her last piece of potato. “That was absolutely amazing. Thank you so much.”
“No wukkas, love,” Shaz said with a grin. “I love to see people enjoying my food, especially since this one barely eats anything other than instant noodles and sugar.”
“I’m just dedicated to my work,” Michael sniffed, as he picked at his fish. “I don’t have time to cook. Or eat anything that doesn’t come out of a packet. It’seconomical.”
“You’re dedicated to playing Call of Duty until five a.m. and nothing else,” Shaz growled.
Rhys could see this was going downhill fast – and being in the middle of a marital brawl was something hereallywasn’t too interested in right now. He had to remember that he’d actually come here for a reason.
“Well, Call of Duty or not,” Rhys said, putting his plate aside despite thestrongtemptation he was currently experiencing to lick the lemon butter sauce off it, “I did actually come here to ask you a favor.”
Michael looked up, an expression of obvious curiosity on his face. “Yourfavorsare usually pretty interesting work,” he said. “So go on. Hit me.”
Rhys glanced across at Maisie. As yet, she still didn’t know a thing about him or his job – this really wasn’t the way he’d wanted her to find out, and yet, how else was he supposed to break it to her?
“I need you to hack into the Agency’s records and find out about an incident that took place today,” he said.
Michael sat back, whistling through his teeth. “That’s a pretty tough job.”
