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Damn, if the ravine off the decking of the elder Begala’s homehadn’t looked even steeper and more rocky on second viewing. But surprisinglyhis presence at their door had gone down rather well. So much so they invitedhim to stay for dinner. They’d chatted. Okay, let him chat. They’d listened.And they hadn’t been surprised… like him they had known that Shaw had beensearching for a fresh challenge for a while, but hadn’t appreciated, thanks toher tricky knee, having her hand forced.
Astonishingly, given Christina and Tore’s shared looks and whatthey didn’t say, it appeared they were aware of his feelings for their eldestdaughter and they approved. Or perhaps more accurately - he didn’t discoverwhat the bottom of the ravine looked like up close and personal - so he goingto consider that approval.
Much to his own surprise it appeared Kaleb had parental blessingwhen it came to his pursuit of Shaw. Phew, that was a relief. Although stillfive days later his gut knotted when he remembered that intent silent look Torehad given him as he left. It was easy to translate, treat my daughter like aGoddess or you’ll be the target of my next hunt. Gulp.
Fighting back a yawn, Kaleb pulled his laptop closer, making adisinterested attempt to read his emails. His exclusive pre-schools werelocated in several cities throughout Northern America, there was always acrisis going on somewhere. Luckily he hired competent managers. Only choosingto get involved if he sensed potential for some seriously fun conflict. A Demondid have to feed after all.
Except he just couldn’t bring himself to care about mundanematters right now.
Which was not good. He couldn’t seem to feed. He wasn’t sleeping.Every thought he had was Shaw-centric. Every day without Shaw by his side,Kaleb was finding it harder and harder to dredge up a carefree smile for thecamera; in his campaign to selfie bomb her.
Every time his watch, containing the Shaw location app buzzed, hehad to fight his inner Demon, who desperately wanted to stay. See Shaw. Talk toher. Smell her. Make her laugh. Lucifer, make her snarl. Damn, he missed hersnarl.
Absently Kaleb tapped his watch, bloody thing was buzzing likecrazy. Absently hitting the Shaw app to silence it. Perhaps he was paying therocket scientist too much if he couldn’t even cobble together a vaguelyaccurate Shaw tracking app.
***
That rat bastard. Shaw swung a leg over the window sill, flowingto her feet. Just look at him. Lounging away in his office chair without a carein the world. The pale blue linen shirt, cream trousers and matching canvasshoes he was wearing more appropriate for a tropical island, but somehow, hemade it work.
His hair had grown since she’d last seen him in the flesh. Angeliccurls hitting his shoulders, a delightfully untidy mess that made Shaw’sfingers itch to run her fingers through them. He wasn’t smiling. The dimpleabsent. But his face in repose, as he studied his laptop screen, was all hardangles and beauty personified. Renaissance statues would have been jealous ofhis perfect profile.
Double finking rat fink bastard, so damn pretty it made Shaw’s gutache and her heart rate speed up alarmingly. And seriously, she could have beenanyone slinking in here like this. An assassin. A peeved parent with mountainclimbing skills carrying a grudge and a pick axe. Where was security? Wherewere Kaleb’s survival instincts?
Grrr. Stomping across the lush carpet that annoyingly muffled herapproach, Shaw slammed the document she was carrying down onto his desk.Following it through with a dagger, sinking it four inches into the wood,pinning the paper in place. “You forgot to date it!”
“Shaw?” Kaleb blinked, and then blinked some more. No, he wasn’tdreaming. Shaw Bengala was currently looming over him, a gorgeous sneeringsnarl on her face. Praise Lucifer. He took a big calming breath. Which provedto be a mistake, as her scent enveloped him; vanilla and metal cleaning oil.Heady stuff.
“You haven’t fixed your glaring infiltration problem.” She waved ahand towards the window.
“What can I say. I’ve been busy.”
“Yes. Non-stop partying. I’ve seen the selfies. Stop sending themto me.”
“Oh, are you on my distribution list?”
“No! And no matter how many times I block you, they keep oncoming.”
Okay, maybe the rocket scientist good with computers deserved araise. “Oh, really? That’s strange.”
“Forget it. Just date the bloody document so I can get out ofhere.”
Kaleb eyed the piece of paper with the big honking knife pinningit to the table. “I think we’ll need a fresh one. I’ll just text Denise and askher to bring one in.”
“Just use this one.” Shaw retrieved her knife.
“I would. But you kind of obliterated my signature.” He held it upso Shaw could see, poking his finger through the hole and wriggling it about.“Don’t worry, Denise will hunt one down. Though she’s not particularly speedy,you might be in for a bit of a wait. Why don’t you take a seat?”
Actually, distance from the Demon sounded like a good idea.Stalking over Shaw plonked herself down in one of the chairs located on theother side of the desk. Much better, she so didn’t want to give in to thetemptation of tidying those curls of his.
“While we wait, how about we catch up?”
“No.” Shaw did not want to hear about the parties, the drinking,the dancing… the women.
“Great. I’ll go first. I should probably tell you work has startedon refitting Stodgy-ass’s Pocket Realm Estate into a holiday getaway suitablefor the ex-Berserkers. Though Bartius did come out of this whole kill me inorder to grab the throne attempted coup in a way more altruistic light than Ithink he deserved. But better to paint him as the hero – who gave up his life tosave mine - than put ideas in anyone else’s thick skull, right? Everythinggoing according to plan, the place should be ready in time for that Christmasmixer we promised we’d host.”
“We, didn’t promise anything.You, were the onegoing around telling everyone about it.”
Kaleb grimaced. “Okay, well, when you tell Helgastein the party iscancelled, please do so gently. I know she had her heart set on going. It’s agiven my guys will act all stoic… bordering on catatonic, but I know deep, deepdown inside they’ll be devastated too.”
