*Yeah, cos I was drowning in guys who wanted to sleep their way to an internship with dear old daddy.*Eloise rolled her eyes and stretched, cat-like. “Oh, wow, look who else is up bright and early. Francine, tell him to go away. I need my beauty sleep.”
Francine exchanged a look with Nikolaidis. He shrugged, as though to say,What can you do?
“You spent all nightnotgetting your beauty sleep?” she asked, eyebrow raised. She flicked a glance at Nikolaidis, then back at Eloise.
“Iwish.” Eloise pouted. “But Niki wants to talk business. Tell him I don’t want to talk business, Frankie.”
“Tell him yourself.” Francine made her way to the breakfast bar, where Eloise’s PA had already prepared her an option of coffee or a green smoothie. There was a hint of something in the air that suggested a bloody steak might also be on the menu, if her lioness insisted.
Her lioness was pressing beneath her skin, and that gave her an idea.
“Don’t lie in bed all day, Elly. Let’s go for a run.”
Eloise propped her chin on one hand. “What sort of a run?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Francine let herself smile, long and slow and with a hint of fang. “The fun sort?”
It was a risk. But Eloise wanted to push Nikolaidis off, and if Francine had judged the man right, then this was exactly the way to do it. She flashed him a blinding grin. “There’s an enrichment gym on board. Would you like to join us?”
“An—excuse me. Enrichment?”
“Like they do in zoos, to stop the animals gnawing their own legs off. A chance to let our inner animals breathe fresh air.”
He gestured vaguely. “I am afraid I will not join you. I have other matters to take care of.”
“That’s too bad.”I knew it,she thought silently. Nikolaidis was keeping his inner animal hidden.
The same as Julian.
“But perhaps I will see you later? Dinner?” he suggested, and took her smile as a yes. Francine watched him go. Something about him…
“You sure turned up fast once I said Niki was in here,” Eloise purred from the sofa. “Jealous? Don’t be. I’m off the market.”
Francine perched on a bar stool. “What? Since when?”
“Oh, it’s still in the works. But you’ll be the first to know, I promise.”
“Is it someone on the ship?”
“God, no. Anyway, what are you doing sitting down? Come on. Let’s go stretch our legs.”
The gym stretched almost the full length of the ship, an excess of space and light. There was no traditional gym equipment, just space to run, places to hide and ambush, and ledges and ropes at different levels for climbing and jumping.
She hadn’t been joking when she compared it to a zoo enclosure.
“Sure you don’t want to go to theactualgym instead?” Eloise teased.
Francine could already feel her lioness twitching beneath her skin. “Human lungs aren’t big enough for how much I need to run,” she said.
Eloise laughed. “I’ll tell the help to put a leg of lamb in a ball for you,” she said, eyes glinting. And then she was a shimmer of movement, her body transforming, and a lioness that gleamed like brushed gold leaped away.
Francine’s breath stuck in her throat.And now—she thought, and couldn’t get any further.
Her lioness took over for her. It shrugged off her human form like an unwanted coat, and how could she blame it for that? Her lioness was muscle and beauty, animal senses and brilliant simplicity.
She and Eloise chased each other the length of the room. Each leaping stride was a delight, muscles singing as they bunched and released, senses aflame, breath sweet in her lungs. The way she was meant to be.
How had Elly got caught up in all this? It had to be a mistake. She was a useful pawn—the way Francine had been for Harper. If she could talk to her…
