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“We will keep it within your comfort level. My publicist, Ebony, is bringing over some suitable outfits for you to choose from. And please, if my mom ever takes you shopping—which she will no doubt insist on—don’t feel you have to succumb to her taste.”
Min nodded. Walking over to the window, she gazed out over Motham Hill, the palace, the sprawling city, its twinkling lights stretching out until they became hazy with the smog cloud that hung over the industrial east side. “What a view. How long have you lived here?”
“We grew up here. The house is built on the footings of the original Blade cave. It’s the wine cellar now, but Dad was always adding on and building bigger and better. He’d just about finished when he died, so he never got to enjoy it fully.”
“That’s sad.”
“It is what it is.”
He stood next to her, chewing with a sharp fang on his lower lip. He looked boyish suddenly as he rubbed at the back of his neck with one hand. “You have complete privacy. The only thing that adjoins your room to mine is our balconies. I promise to make sure I am decent if I wander out there.”
She was tempted—her wicked Westwind humor bubbling up again— to make a joke about naked cavorting dragons on balconies being fine with her. But she didn’t want to embarrass him further. She’d already caught a few fleeting expressions that showed his discomfort. She wasn’t sure how she could tell so easily. His facial set, with his high angled cheekbones and long jaw, that wide mouth full of fangs and his side-set pale blue eyes were not human at all… And yet, his expressions were so readable. There was a vulnerability to him; the way his scales ruffled on his head, and down his neck sometimes. The sudden softening in his eyes. Even the twitch of his tail gave little clues to his emotions. Her eyes lingered on it now and she saw the tip twitch.
She wondered what it would feel like to have that tail coil around her waist, folding her into his big, strong body.
Goddess, what was up with her?
This was strictly a business arrangement. She couldn’t go focusing on what his tail would feel like. Hot all over now, she snapped her eyes back up to Ethan’s face. The expression on his lean features was raw, almost hungry as he gazed down at her.
Then he blinked, and her little tail fantasy evaporated as he turned to go.
“I’ll leave you to settle in. I have arranged a pre-dinner meeting at 7 pm with two of my staff, my publicist and my business manager. It will give us a chance to go over the diary, if that’s okay with you?”
Min dragged her focus away from the heat in her cheeks and the even more disturbing warmth between her legs.
“I’ll be ready,” she said briskly.
At 7 pm on the dot, there was a sharp rap on her door. Min stopped unpacking her meager belongings and practically ran to open it.
Ethan stood in front of her, smiling. He’d changed into more casual clothes, and the look suited him. Polo shirt and light slacks in a green that complemented his skin. His head scales and those along his snout flicked up and he blinked. She was getting used to his blink by now—she actually liked it.
The way his clothing was adapted fascinated her; the slits in his polo shirt from which his wings sprang, and another neat slit in the back of his pants for his tail to exit, which now flicked out to the side of his lean hips. “If you’re ready, we’ll go to my home office. My staff are there waiting.”
“Of course,” Min said. “Should I bring a notepad?”
“No need. Everything will be documented, and we can add any amendments we feel are necessary.”
“Okay.” She trotted after him, watching that tail swish from side to side, enjoying the view of his back, the breadth of his shoulders narrowing into his waist. His butt was… mmm, nice. That swishing tail… even nicer.
Stop it, Min.
She’d been very attracted to a young griffin once who’d come to the shop looking for books on stone carvings. He’d had amazing wings and the same kind of pert butt/tail thing happening. He’d asked her out on the third visit, but she was so flustered, she’d refused. He’d never come back after that. Other than that, and of course the occasional buffed minotaur who walked past (they never entered the shop—minotaurs were not into reading), she had only ever daydreamed over illustrations.
She was so busy daydreaming now, in fact, that she nearly barreled into Ethan as he stopped abruptly and opened a door. He stood aside to let her enter and two species she’d never come face to face with before stood to greet her.
One was a raven, the other a frill-necked lizard.
And clearly neither of them were shifters. Or at least, they weren’t inclined to shift in her presence, which some species did when they were presented with a human. Well, good on them. Staying in their original form was a sign of their comfort around their identity.
Unless, of course, like Ethan, they couldn’t shift.
That, Min reminded herself, was just as commonplace as shifters. Monsters being purely monsters.
As Ethan introduced her, the raven stood and extended her wing, softly brushing it against the back of Min’s hand in greeting. When she sat, she used the same wing to deftly bring out a laptop and her claws, tipped with red shellac, started to tap on the keyboard.
The frill-necked lizard, Troy, shook her hand with a cold claw and took out a thick file of notes.
“Let’s begin, shall we?”
