Page 33 of Dancing for the Minotaur

“With a gentleman named Taurex. He’s a Minotaur Monstrum. Maybe you know him?”

For the first time, the woman's expression changed–not much, but enough. Instead of looking snooty, she now looked surprised.

“Mr. Taurex?” she repeated. “You know him?”

“Yes. I'm his new office manager,” Terra told him. “So you’ll probably be seeing me around quite a bit.”

She gave the other woman a knowing smile and then turned back to the elevator and pressed the call button.

To her relief, the gold doors opened immediately so she didn’t have to stand there with the snooty attendant staring at her in disbelief.

She stepped inside at once, but Marissa stepped in after her, a determined look on her face.

“I'm sorry, but you'll need authorization before⁠—”

Terra opened the small keypad panel beside the elevator controls. Then, very deliberately, she punched in the code Taurex had given her.

The display flashed green, and letters appeared on the electronic panel.

ACCESS GRANTED. PENTHOUSE LEVEL.

For one delicious second, Terra simply looked at Marissa.

There–take that! she thought but didn’t say.

The other woman stared at the display in apparent disbelief, then she cleared her throat.

“Well, I suppose since you have the code…”

“Have a nice day,” Terra said sweetly. “I’m sure I’ll see you later when the boss and I go to lunch.”

Of course, she didn’t know any such thing, but she couldn’t help rubbing it in some. She liked surprising people and disrupting their expectations–especially when they had already made a judgment about her.

Reluctantly, Marissa stepped back out, leaving her alone in the golden elevator and the doors slid closed.

Terra waited until they were completely shut before muttering,

“Big mistake. Huge,” and grinning to herself.

Then she pressed the button for the penthouse and the golden elevator took her up to her new life.

12

TERRA

The elevator rose so smoothly Terra barely felt it moving.

There were no buttons inside except for emergency controls and the penthouse access panel. Apparently once the proper code was entered, there was only one place the elevator could go.

Up. And up. And up.

In fact, it went up so high, Terra's ears actually popped like she was in a freaking airplane! Not that she’d ever actually gotten to fly in one, but still.

When the doors finally opened, she expected to step into another hallway. Instead, she stepped directly into what looked like a private foyer.

The floor here was black marble veined with gold and a massive abstract sculpture stood against one wall beneath recessed lighting. Tall windows at the far end showed the city of Tampa spread out below, the buildings suddenly looking much smaller from this height.

Terra stood perfectly still.