His wolfish smile disappeared, and he stared at me intently with his lovely brown eyes.
Yikes. I needed a fan or a water mister for a look that intense.
“You’re different than I imagined.”
“Oh yeah? How so?”
He took another drink. “When you first emailed me, I knew right then that I wanted to talk to you and feel you out about the job. Here you were, this woman that had no idea that she could see the ad because she was supernatural, and yet you still had the gumption to email me and chew me out for using premium ad space for something farcical. I could tell you were a spit-fire, and to be honest, the job required someone of that bent.”
“Someone tough?”
He nodded. “You’ve seen what the job is like, Miss Durran. It requires someone of courage.” He grinned. “Not to mention someone of patience who will put up with me.”
I laughed. “Putting up with you is the easy part. I love this job, and you’ve been incredibly patient and gone above and beyond teaching me the finer points of your company. You’ve even taught me some engineering principles, which I wasnotexpecting. But I’ve found...I love all of it.” I smirked. “Even the midnight conference calls with Tokyo that you need me alert enough to take notes in.”
He winced. “Sorry about getting you out of bed and dragging you to a meeting.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, it was my first ever conference call in my pajamas!”
He grinned. “And Hiroshuki said that he loved the polar bear on your pajama top.”
I blushed. “I didn’t mean to get in the camera’s range. I just thought it would be fine if I sat behind the camera and took notes.”
Draven slurped from his bottle, and I tried not to shudder. It would take me a little while to get used to that. “As far as I’m concerned,” he said, “you can come to work every day in pajamas.”
I eyed him, trying to see if he was serious. He looked like he was. “Let’s do pajama day on Fridays. Just me?” I asked.
He thought about it. “All the staff?”
I laughed. “Is that a question? You’re the boss.”
“All the staff,” he said definitively.
“Including you?” I grinned a villainous grin, and he eyed my smile with some misgiving.
“I don’t wear pajamas, but to get into the spirit of things, I’ll go inside after this and purchase some so they’re here before Friday.”
I rubbed my hands together in excitement. “Mesmer, did you hear that?”
I heard the longest sigh ever, and I giggled. “Come on, big guy, we can go shopping for some pj’s for you. We’ll make sure they’re martial arts adaptable, so you can still kick butt if you need to.”
“Yes, Mia,” Mesmer said with the same tone of voice that someone would use going to a funeral.
“Aww, it won’t be that bad!”
Draven chuckled. “Poor Mesmer. Before you came, he was a respectable bodyguard. Now all the other bodyguards will laugh at him.”
There was another sigh from behind the planter, and I grinned. What a fun day this was turning out to be!
My tiger made some growly noises, and I looked down and realized he was asleep and dreaming. Huh, do tigers dream? I guess I should research more and see.
I rubbed his head and he quieted down.
“He’s a remarkable animal,” Draven said.
I nodded. I was a very blessed girl. I stood up to grab my cover-up and throw it on. I didn’t know how Draven stood it out here. It must be flaying his skin.
I eyed him. “Are you okay out here? Isn’t the sun stinging?”
