Page 40 of Monsters in the Museum

Adam settled back in his chair and considered her. “Well, we do have thirty minutes until our flight boards. Why don’t I get to know you a little better?”

“I have to go over my presentation one last time,” Nora lamented, even as the corner of her mouth pulled up. She had told herself repetitively before this trip that she would keep Adam at arm’s length, but the more he smiled at her, the more she forgot why it wasn’t a good idea to let herself be drawn in by his charms. Even if he wasn’t just a sexy professor, that was still a part of him.

“You’ve gone over that presentation three times since we’ve gotten here,” Adam insisted. “And I took a day and a half off from work to fly with you to a conference where you will be presenting details about weaponry that I am already familiar with. Humor me.”

Nora snapped her laptop closed and turned to face him. She crossed her legs and asked, “What do you want to know?”

Adam took a sip of his tea as he debated where to start.

“Pet peeve?” he asked.

“Slow pedestrians who don’t stay to the right side of the sidewalk.”

He nodded as if adding this to a mental catalog.

“Favorite food?”

“Hot sauce.”

“That’s not a—”

“Just go with it,” Nora warned.

To his credit, Adam let the issue drop and moved on to his next question.

“Best friend?”

“Easy. My sister.”

Adam tilted his head. “That doesn’t count. She’s family.”

“It counts to me,” Nora argued. “I spend more of my free time with her than with anybody else.”

“You have to have other friends, though,” Adam insisted.

Nora shrugged. “Some, but I’ve never really done the inseparable group of besties thing. I would almost always rather be alone than be around stupid people.”

“You think most people are stupid?” Adam asked with one corner of his mouth twisting up. Nora could tell that he was baiting her, but she refused to give him satisfaction.

“Well, less interesting than Odelle, at least,” she shot back.

Adam took a long sip of his drink as he hummed. “Well then it’s a good thing I’m well studied, or this might be a very long trip for you.”

Nora rolled her eyes and searched around in her bag until she found what she was looking for as she said, “Now if you are done with the twenty questions act, I’m going to try to get some reading done.”

When she pulled the thick tome onto her lap, Adam’s breath hitched, and she peered at him out of the corner of her eye.

“Should I not have taken this out of the library?” she asked.

“No, it’s not that,” he hedged. “That’s just… very heavy reading for a plane ride.”

“Well, I figured I might as well learn about the creatures that are going to try to kill me.”

Adam shook his head and ran his long fingers through his hair.

“That book is about more than just the creatures. It describes the nature of the Shadow itself and it can get quite… graphic. I would not recommend it. I had to read it in my training to become a Defender and I still have nightmares.”

Nora chewed her lip thoughtfully. “What do you mean by ‘nature of the Shadow’?” Adam hesitated and Nora pressed him, “If you don’t tell me, then I’m just going to read the book myself.”