Deryn took a few steps into the spacious, brightly lit office and placed a kiss on the corner of a very tense mouth. One that she had tasted before. One that had moaned and sighed underneath hers. A mouth belonging to her girlfriend, apparently, who was playing along by laying a hand on her cheek. They might be out of earshot, but not out of sight. Not yet.
Well…
Deryn knew a game was afoot and was only too happy to do her part. She decidedly didn’t like the swaggering, mouthy asshat who had postured in front of her. She also didn’t like how said asshat had spoken to Paloma.
Paloma.
Even the name was hot. Everything about her was…hot. Really, so very hot. Deryn wanted to hit herself over the head because she could swear she knew other words, but those deep, dark amber eyes watched her with something akin to gratitude, and she really had no words at all.
Who needed words anyway?
Deryn had clearly needed them that night weeks ago, since she almost made the most beautiful woman in the world come byusing them alone. And yet, right now, as she inhaled the perfume filled with high, burnt sugary notes, Deryn thought that nothing she could say was really worth saying. It was a perfect moment, with enough petty deception and mysterious obfuscation atop a layer of lust, that she should simply enjoy herself.
She turned back around and watched as the loudmouth, now in the hallway beyond the office, almost gagged and was then quickly ushered away by the massive golden retriever, probably mixed with a polar bear, who closed the door. For a second, she wondered if, in danger, he’d behave more like the former or the latter, and then she ordered herself to focus.
A few more steps farther into the elegantly decorated space, and she plopped herself in a cushy, white leather chair. Only then did she finally face Paloma in the light of day, without witnesses.
“So, girlfriend.” Deryn stretched the word for many more syllables than it contained. She regretted nothing because the tempestuous eyes narrowed immediately. Deryn smiled. Paloma frowned. Deryn smiled wider and settled even more in the chair. She could get used to it all. The frowns, the perfume, the presence of this woman that filled the room. Deryn didn’t mind the cold, already sensing her magic revving up to counter. She crossed her ankle at her knee and allowed herself to relax for the first time since she had stepped on Dragons.
“Yes.” The voice was the same. Deryn could pretend that the scent and the taste and the sight were amusing and relaxing, but the voice… With one word, her insides were a ball of nerves and anxiety.
Relaxed? Damn. This was a roller-coaster ride she was not strapped in for. Plus, was Paloma joking? Surely she was? Because if this was not a joke… Deryn suddenly was unsure how she felt about any of this.
“Um… Really? I mean, sure, we had quite a night and all, and if you want to tell people… I just assumed that you’d, I dunno…ask me first?”
Paloma raised an eyebrow and got up from behind the desk. Deryn followed her every move, a different pair of four-inch heels making her legs go for miles. For days. Deryn knew what they felt like under her fingers, under her tongue?—
“Don’t be ridiculous, Ms. Crowhart.”
Deryn’s mind screeched to a halt. Not at the dismissal, but at how the dismissal hurt. No, she hadn’t really believed the girlfriend thing was real and yet… And yet. Deryn had nothing to say, her mind refusing to cooperate.
“Huh?”
“Eloquent.” Paloma did not turn to look at her. Instead, she kept staring out the windows into a darkening horizon. The lights were coming on in town, the local folks going home from their jobs, returning to loved ones. Deryn bit her lip, her heart heavy. She had jumped to a foolish conclusion… not that she actually wanted any of this to be true, but…
The room was cold, Deryn suddenly realized. When Paloma spoke, Deryn expected vapor to emerge alongside with her words.
“I want to apologize for my secretary and his…taking initiative.” There was no vapor, and Deryn wanted to smack herself for fancifulness. The power in her made her skin feel a bit too tight, working overtime to keep her warm.
Paloma finally turned around, and Deryn focused on the raven-black hair framing the face. Chiseled cheekbones, sculpted jawline. Perfect, really. And calculating. Deryn chewed on her lower lip and watched that jawline tense. Well, maybe not entirely calculating. Still, there was the matter at hand.
“Is that what you’re calling it? Initiative?”
And now the eyes flashed with annoyance, and Deryn almost grinned. Almost. Her hands felt warmer. She pushed the earlier confusion and surely-not-hurt down to think about later, and focused on this new turn of events. The banter was doing things to her.
“Before I call it anything at all, would you care to tell me what you’re doing in my office? I know you had no idea who I was before crossing the threshold. I could tell that much, even if you are pulling this farce off convincingly.”
“For someone who has never shared her name with me, Ms. Allende, you sure presume to know me.” Deryn saw Paloma’s eyes darken, registering the hit. She didn’t mean to sound mean-spirited, but people kept ascribing descriptors that didn’t fit her. “As for the rest, you didn’t think I’d ask my sisters or my aunt or Ionie about the woman from the bar?”
The smile that greeted her was so reminiscent of the one she had received when she entered room 1326 that Deryn blinked.
“No, I didn’t. In fact, I know you told no one you spent a night here. Your sister might’ve guessed who the woman in Jimmy Choos was, but Ionie didn’t see me in the darkness of the Rooster. She’d have been of no help to you at all. And I doubt very much you’d have asked her. That you’d have risked exposing yourself or me. People like you don’t do that.”
Deryn curled her fingers into fists, stopping herself from recoiling. People like her…
Paloma was seemingly not finished.
“What did I call you? Ah, a weather vane. Don’t pout. It’s not attractive. The resort’s business account follows your social media. You are very generous with sharing your…exploits. Yet, you are very, very discreet, despite being…adventurous. Respectful. I drew my conclusions.”
