“N-no, no! I wasn’t, I didn’t do that on purpose. I’m not doing anything.”
“Except trying to get your way.”
“Yeah, but not like that.” He coughed and I wondered if he’d ever look me in the eye again, so I believed him. Then he frowned. “Actually, that’s a good idea. Why didn’t I think of flirting?”
There was no time to worry about all the reasons putting Lucas and flirting too close together was a terrible idea. Lucas began withdrawing into his own head, judging himself for not putting together the obvious sooner.
"Hey." I clapped my hands to get his attention. “Cookies or Lifesavers?” He just stared blankly. “Fine, I’ll get both.”
Moving as fast as my shifter reflexes allowed, I had both sweets in Lucas’s hands seconds later.
“If it makes you feel better,” I added for good measure. “You’re a certified freakin’ Einstein compared to Temple.”
He laughed. “No, Agent Temple seems pretty intelligent.”
"Nah, foxes are known for being crafty, that’s all. Between you and me, the guy’s dumber than a box of rocks."
Lucas bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling. "And he’s protecting me with you."
"Oh, shit.” I forgot about that for a moment. “You’re right. See, look how clever you are."
"No, no.”
"Come on, don’t be modest. You’re great as you are."
"Stop it." He opened the Lifesavers and rightly decided I wasn’t going to stop, so he threw one at me.
“Hey, I’ll stop when you face the truth.” Snatching the candy from the air, I popped it in my mouth and grinned. “You’re pretty damn awesome.”
"Okay, awesome and intelligent are two totally different concepts.”
"Look, from one secret agent to another—”
“Shut up!” His voice rose but he was laughing and threw another candy at me.
“—I’ve met all kinds of people, human and not, and you’ve got at least 99% of ‘em beat, so that makes you, like, the most awesome person in the worl-"
Holy shit.Holy shit.
Yeah, I had a soft spot for the guy. There were some intense moments between us. It wasn’t fair to give into any of them because I was working and couldn’t offer him anything serious anyway. I didn’t do serious. I wasn’t even tempted to give serious a try. Not normally.
So it did not occur to me how much I might actually like him. Until the truth smacked me across the face.
"In the?" Lucas prompted me, waving a hand in front of my face like he’d been trying to get my attention. “I’m the most awesome person in the…?”
"O-office.” Damn, my throat was dry. “Most awesome guy in this office.”
“Okay?”
Merritt never kept secret how little he thought of the one night stands and meaningless sex that constituted my version of a personal life. Though seeing as the guy basically threw himself into work and thought that meant taking a vow of celibacy, he had no room to judge. I’d always suspected him ignoring his baser needs contributed heavily to him being the grumpiest hardass of all time.
As it turned out, I’d been wrong. He was still a hardass even though I’d (regrettably) witnessed things I’d never unsee that made clear hisneedswere now beingthoroughlyseen to by the man he fell in love with and mated, Aaron Honeywell.
It was Aaron who casually suggested that I switch it up and try dating. If I met somebody great or whatever. I saidsure, why notor something like that.I’ll give something serious a shot if I happen to meet the most awesome person in the world.
Shit. I thought nothing good could come from flirting with Lucas since it wasn’t like I wanted anything serious from him. But if I did… god, that might beeven worse.Things switched from playing with fire to playing with dynamite.
“We should probably get out of here, right?”
