Samuel dipped his head and stole a kiss.
Heat curled low in my belly. My hands found his shirt and I practically glued myself to him.
He ended the kiss and grinned. “Go get them, tiger.”
I glanced at his desk and reluctantly decided it was too early in the day to jump him, a decision my wolf vehemently vetoed.
Samuel chuckled as he read our minds.
Didi, Gavin, and Bo were at my workstation when I got there.
“I call dibs on being the tracker,” Bo was saying, tail thumping the floor.
“You’re a Husky, not a bloodhound,” Didi said coldly.
“I have hidden depths,” my dog stated confidently.
Movement in the corridor caught our eyes.
Nigel was hovering near the IT closet. He was clutching something in his hands and two tentacles and flickering with nervous energy.
Hugh joined us as we stood and stared at the boogeyman. “Is that a bouquet?”
It was indeed a small bouquet of flowers.
“Freshly picked from the smell of it,” Barney contributed. The vampire had stopped typing and was watching the proceedings with vague interest.
“Uh-oh,” Gavin said with a sickly expression. “It’s happening.”
We shushed the dragon newt.
Janet came out of her office, caughtsight of the boogeyman and the bouquet, and hastily retreated so she could lurk behind her door and spy on the unfolding office drama.
We all froze when Mindy drifted past, her translucent form occupied with a stack of color-coded files. She hadn’t seen the boogeyman yet.
Nigel’s mouth opened. He waved a tentacle hesitantly.
“Er, Min—Mindy?” he managed.
She stopped and turned toward him. “Yes?”
Nigel walked toward the ghost and thrust the flowers with the desperate energy of a boogeyman leaping off a cliff.
“These are for you. I thought—I mean, I know ghosts can’t smell things, but I thought they were pretty. And I read that flowers are a traditional?—”
“He’s losing it,” Barney muttered as Nigel began sprouting tentacles.
“He’s doing fine,” I protested.
“Abby’s done much worse,” Bo said.
Hugh snickered.
I eyeballed the Husky hard. “No bacon for you for a week.”
“How about everyone shut up so we can follow the disastrous spectacle unfolding over there?!” Didi hissed while Bo protested.
“—I mean, that is to say,” Nigel was mumbling, a tiny tentacle wiping the sweat from his brow, “I—I was wondering if you might want to, hmm, go out for dinner some time?” His final words came out a squeak.
