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“You…” Shaw letKaleb go, taking a step back.
“Me?” The Demonabsently rubbing at his ear.
“Quit with thesneaking around trying to get dirt on me.”
“There was nosneaking. All I did when someone asked who I was there with was mention yourname and the floodgates opened. I would have been happy talking about theweather. But instead, I was inundated with tales of heroic deeds, your mostgory kills, and a vivid recounting of that time you were so drunk you tried toride a Haxion.”
“Oh, Freyja, no.In my defence, they do look a little like horses.”
“In what universedoes an eight foot long bright orange reptile look like a horse?”
“Not important. Comeon, let’s go.”
“Where to now?”
Funny, she’d beenintending to spend the night with the Demon bar hopping, trying to pin down asuitable candidate to recommend as Head of Valkyrie Resource Management, butsuddenly, Shaw was just plain weary. Between to-do lists, assassinationattempts, Court functions and meeting Kaleb’s mother, Shaw was running onempty. She needed to recharge, refocus and start afresh tomorrow. In themeantime, she was going to have to do something that filled her with dread.“Home.”
“Your home?”
“Yes. Why are yougrinning like that?” Although she knew why. The sneaky smirking Demon couldn’twait to start poking around in Shaw’s private life. Probably hoping to findsome sort of blackmail material or leverage to hold over her to get out ofsigning the second pre-school admission form.
“This is just mynormal happy go lucky grin. Nothing special about it. I’m just enjoying thenight air and the company of my lovely companion.”
“Ah, go wagglethose eyebrows at someone else. Come on. Get in the car, and on the way I’llexplain the rules.”
“Rules?”
“Which you willfollow on pain of death, unless you wish to spend the night sleeping in thegutter.”
“No thank you, Ican’t wait to hear about these rules… and of course the punishments you will meteout if I break any of them.”
“Why are youwaggling your eyebrows again like that? Stop it.” Shaw had an awful feeling shewas making a major mistake here, but what choice did she have? She was about toinvite a Demon into her private sanctuary, and the only upside she could see inthe whole equation was that if he crossed any of the lines she was about to laydown, then he wouldn’t live to see the sunrise.
Ah, see, there wasa silver lining in this whole debacle that was currently her life.
Chapter Ten
“Are you listeningto me, Demon? I need to go over the rules for this morning.”
“More rules?”Kaleb gifted Shaw with a big grin as she drove them to Valkyrie CorporateHeadquarters. He’d slept deeply on high thread count sheets in a luxury guestroom with a view of Los Angeles when the sun rose that could only be describedas spectacular.
Shaw’s home hadnot been anything like he’d been expecting. Given she’d driven them higher andhigher up steep mountain roads he had, momentarily, wondered if she was takinghim somewhere secluded to dump his body. But no, eventually they’d pulled intothe driveway of a stunningly modern house, all angles and windows. The house’sinterior nothing but clean lines, uncluttered, but not cold, this was a home,with pale wood floors and a mix of comfortable leather and plush seating.
Shaw had beendetermined to give him no time to explore. Instead, all but perp walking himdown a dark corridor, opening a door and basically physically shoving Kalebinside the guest suite.
When he’d emergedin the morning, after a sinfully long shower in the attached spacious bathroom,she’d been waiting for him in the corridor. Dressed in brown tight trousers, awhite blouse and knee high brown boots. Her wonderful confection of spiral curlsonce more knotted high on the crown of her head, although one had alreadymanaged to free itself, brushing against her temple.
Kaleb would havepreferred to enjoy a leisurely breakfast on the wide terraced balcony he caughta brief glimpse of, before Shaw hustled him once more through the house atspeed. But it was not to be. Though she did provide him with sustenance once hewas in the car, in the form of an egg and bacon roll and a small carton oforange juice. Even including a napkin with which to wipe his mouth and handswith upon completion. Someone, somewhere, had installed strict ideas of what itmeant to be a hostess into Shaw.
Damn, he wasenjoying every quirk and snarl when it came to this Valkyrie.
And now here they were,almost at Valkyrie Headquarters and Shaw was determined to lay down the lawonce more.
“I thoughtValkyries were all about storming the castle, chopping off heads left andright, and bugger the rule book. But now I find you lot are positively fiends forthem. Okay, lay these rules on me.”
Shaw turned lefton to the street where Valkyrie Headquarters was located. It was a soaring greybuilding, mostly reflective glass. The only thing that made it different fromseveral other buildings nearby was the stream of tall women heading towards it,dressed in everything from casual wear to business suits.
There were ahandful of males included in the mix, easily picked out of the crowd since themajority were wearing janitorial boiler suits or chef’s whites. Employmentopportunities at Valkyrie Headquarters were a little limited for thesupernatural males of the species.
