“When we have an opening for running a giant hamster wheel-powered crane, you’ll be the first to know about it.”
“Well, thank you very much for that,” Diana laughed. “But I wouldn’t want to get you into any trouble – I’m sure there must be some other more qualified candidates. I wouldn’t want anyone thinking I’d only got the job because of my connections.”
“Oh, I don’t see how anyone would think that,” Calvin said, with yet another heart-melting smile.
“All right, well, is there any other insider knowledge you’d like to share with me, while I’ve got you here?” Diana asked, helplessly returning his smile – now that she’d loosened up a bit, she found her nerves were melting away.Hey, I’m even having fun!“Any other secrets you think I should know about you?”
At her mention of the wordsecrets,Calvin blinked, and, Diana couldn’t help but notice, swallowed rather heavily.
“Secrets?”
“Oh… you know.” Diana waved a hand breezily, but on the inside she was a little intrigued. “Skeletons in the closet, that kind of thing. I’m sure you must have about a million.”
“Oh… not so many as that,” Calvin said, laughing again, though this time it seemed a little subdued. “And I was kind of hoping you might already be able to guess at least one of them.”
…Guess his secrets? What does he mean by that?
She opened her mouth to ask him to elaborate – though what exactly she was going to say, she didn’t know – but before the words could come out, Brandon interrupted, having apparently materialized out of nowhere.
“Here’s your waffles – that’s chicken for you, right, Miss Ramos?”
“Thanks, Brandon,” Diana said – but kept her eyes firmly on Calvin, who appeared to be squirming in his seat. She wouldn’t have thought him capable of such things, but he was definitely fidgeting and looking guilty as all hell.
Her eyes narrowed. If she’d been curious before, now she was downright fascinated.
She stabbed into a piece of chicken and put it into her mouth, her eyes fixed on Calvin the whole time.
I’m watching you, Calvin. And I’m going to find out what your secret is, no matter how much you try to hide it!
Chapter 7
Calvin silently cursed as he stared down at his meal.
He wasn’t cursing at the food. The food looked incredible.
He was just cursing himself, really.
As well you should,the wyvern said.That display just now was deplorable, even by your admittedly low standards.
And don’t I know it,Calvin thought glumly.
The wyvern reared back a little, clearly not used to Calvin agreeing with it. But it was correct. That hadnotbeen Calvin’s finest hour.
He could somewhat forgive the way he’d been behaving like a lovestruck teenager, if only because Diana had clearly also been blushing and stammering – the effect of the mate bond, of course, since Calvin hadn’t given her any reason to be especially impressed with him. But now he was pretty sure that she thought he was hiding some sort of enormous secret.
Which I am, of course.
Several enormous secrets, if he wanted to be precise about it.
And he’d had the perfect opportunity to get them out in the open and clear the air – and what had he done?
He’d clammed up. And then Brandon had appeared with the food, and the moment had passed.
Diana had looked downright suspicious, and he couldn’t blame her one bit. Even now, she was still giving him the hairy eyeball – though the skepticism written across her pretty facewasstarting to fade somewhat as she got stuck into her meal.
Guess I’d better eat it before it goes cold, otherwise I’ll just look even more suspicious than I already do,he thought.Then I’ll tell her everything. I can’t keep going on like this – it’s ridiculous.
Reluctantly, he stabbed his fork into the omelet and cut a piece off, before taking a bite.
