Rhys very muchwaslistening, and he didnotapprove, but the moment he tried to open his mouth to object his griffin came rampaging back into his consciousness.
You will not impede our mate in this! Or do you not believe she is deserving of every material object we can bestow upon her?! You are unworthy to call yourself a griffin!
Rhys knew it was pointless to tell it thathewasn’t bestowing anything at all, and anybestowingthat was going on was entirely down to Michael and his ill-gotten credit limits.
He sighed. “No, I’m not listening.”
“Great!” Michael said. “Now, let me get down to business.”
Michael hunched back over his keyboard, goblin-like, and started tapping furiously at the keys. Rhys knew that when he was like this, nothing would get his attention except the promise of material goods, or something that could be exchanged for material goods. Which was fine, because Rhys had about hit his limit for today as far as Michael was concerned.
As far as Maisie was concerned, however…
He lifted his gaze up above Michael’s head, and found Maisie staring back at him, beautiful, wide-eyed, and apparently veryflustered. Rhys was unable to look away, entranced by the nervous way she licked her lips.
“Uh…” she began.
Tell her she’s your mate!bellowed the griffin.Do it now, imbecile!
Rhys thought that maybe it was right. Not that this was exactly the ideal location for it, but maybe the kitchen wouldn’t be a completely disgusting place to let her know that the cosmos had decided they were fated to be together?
He opened his mouth, but so did Maisie – to emit an incredibly long, loud yawn.
“Oh my God,” she said, her eyelids drooping. “I am so tired. Oh, God.”
“Sounds like you could do with a bit of shut-eye,” Shaz said, raising an eyebrow. “I have a feeling this has been a long day for both of you.”
“Oh, no, I’m – I’m fi—” Maisie started to say, before she was cut off by her mouth opening again for another huge yawn.
“C’mon, I’ll show you to the spare room – thecleanspare room,” Shaz said. She glanced at Rhys, her eyes piercing. “You’ll be right on the couch, yeah?”
No! No we will not! Tell her we shall not be parted from our mate!his griffin immediately bellowed.
That’s not going to happen,Rhys told it firmly – however muchhepersonally also was having trouble resisting the idea of being in a bed next to Maisie, he thought Maisie herself might take a different view of the subject. Even if shehadjust agreed to go on an impromptu luxury holiday with him.
“Yeah,” he finally managed to get out, even as his griffin screeched and cavorted and told him he was a foul, disgusting coward, a disgrace to griffins everywhere.
He directed a longing gaze at Maisie’s back as Shaz shepherded her out the door – and he couldn’t help but noticethe way she glanced back over her shoulder at him before she disappeared behind Shaz’s broad shoulders.
He swallowed. Shaz had said Maisie was clearlygagafor him, or whatever word she’d used, but right now, she pretty much just looked exhausted.
I’ll tell her tomorrow,he promised both himself and his griffin.She just found out shifters even exist in the first place, and she’s dead on her feet right now. No need to hit her with anything else.
You make excuses for your obvious cowardice however you want,his griffin sniffed.
Rhys glanced at Michael, who was obviously off in his own little hacker world, lines of code streaming across the screen in time with his machine-gun-fast typing. It reminded him of when he’d seen Trent’s mate Zina at work – he supposed all computer nerds were kind of the same in the end, though Trent would probably smack him one for comparing his mate to Michael, who didn’t look like he’d seen natural light in about three years.
With a sigh, he started clearing junk off the couch, just in time for Shaz to arrive back in the room.
“Don’t let that one go, eh?” Shaz said with a smile. It was even a friendly smile, mostly. It felt more like she was warning him than teasing him, and he wasn’t sure which was least annoying.
Rhys felt his face twisting into a grimace. “I have no idea what you mean.”
“Sure you don’t,” Shaz said, tapping her nose knowingly.
Rhys huffed and lay down on the sofa, not even bothering to take his shoes off. Knowing this place, a horde of cockroaches would probably make their nest in them overnight.
I’ll just have a quick doze for a few minutes.
