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CONSTRUCTION ACCIDENT
When they reached the main floor of the Dragon’s Den Casino—where wreckage littered the floor and was heaped on the furniture—Math spread his arms, encompassing the enormity of the problem.
Frustration felt like it was leaking out of his skin. “You can see it’s a mess. I just took over this operation. I flew in this morning, and when I walked in, I foundthis.I can’t believe it got so bad before my dragon clan discovered the chaos that has been happening here.”
The witch danced along beside him, skipping in her little, high-heeled shoes to keep up. “I know that it seems like an enormous job, but this is exactly the kind of thing that I like to do. I take chaos and make it into order.”
“I like the sound of that, but this is a catastrophe.” The main floor of the casino was supposed to be entirely finished, but it wasn’t. Not even close. Some of the furnishings and machines had been installed. Long banks of slot machines stood silent and dark, waiting for the soft opening in two months and then the gala opening, three months hence. Horseshoe-shaped blackjack tables stood in rows.
But the order ended there. Broken bits of lumber and carpeting scraps covered the floor. Sawdust piled half an inch thick around the chair legs and by the walls. Chairs lay on their sides or had been shoved away from their appointed places at the tables.
He said, “This place is over budget and behind schedule. And every day, it’s like the contractors are trying to leave things a bigger mess than when they got here.”
As the little witch looked over the mess, her dark eyes widened.
That was a bad sign. “If this is going to be too much for you, you need to tell me now. If you tell me, I can hire other people to work with you or for you, but this job has to get done.”
The little witch, Bethany Aura, drew herself up to her full height, which amused Math too much. Even when she was standing as tall as she could, and even wearing those glittery purple witch boots, the top of her head still didn’t quite reach Math’s shoulder. She said, “This is the job that I said I would do, and I can do it. Yes, I can.”
“That’s the spirit,” he said, worried about how much she was having to psych herself up. “Can you show me how you would clean up this sort of area?”
“Sure?” she said, taking out that pad of paper again.
He really didn’t like the sound of the indecision in her voice, there. Math didn’t like things that weren’t rock-solid precise and accurate. He liked columns of numbers that added up and lists of checkboxes with appropriately sized checkmarks in them.
Bethany’s paint pots zoomed out of her bag and into the air, hovering.
Again, she went to work on the paper, inscribing delicate swirls on the drawing pad. The paints must have been scented because Math could smell fresh apples and flowers as she drew.
Or maybe he was smelling her shampoo because he had drifted so near her that he was close enough to nuzzle her ear.
His dragon soul was awake and watching the witch through his eyes.
She turned and looked up at him, her dark eyes as wide as a cat’s. That golden glow shimmered on her face. “Can I help you with something?”
Math jumped back. “No!No.I’ve just never seen a witch work before.”
“Really?” she asked absently while she added curlicues and paisleys to the diagram. “You can’t swing a black cat without hitting a witch around Las Vegas. How have you not seen someone perform spellcraft?”
“I’ve stayed down in the dragons dens outside of LA most of my life. I mean, I went to a natural college. Everyone goes to college, right?”
The little witch muttered, “Some of us didn’t go to college.”
Dammit, he’d said the wrong thing. “I mean, I had to get my MBA. That’s why I’m the Chief Financial Officer of Dragons Dens, Inc.”
Bethany lifted a slim eyebrow at him. “You’re the CFO of the company that owns this casino? Why are you personally hiring housekeeping contractors?”
Math sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m taking over operations because it’s such a damned mess. Are you sure you’re okay with a project of this magnitude?” It had been impetuous of him to hire her on the spot.
“Yes,” Bethany replied. He was pretty sure she was gritting her teeth. “It’s ready.”
The little witch held the paper out and sucked in a deep breath.
Well, she was probably going to blow on the paper to activate the spell like the last time, so maybe she needed that much air. Maybe she wasn’t just sucking wind, trying to fortify herself.
Math tried not to notice the way that her deep inhale stretched her white blouse over the soft swells of her breasts, but he did.
Bethany blew on the paper, and it lifted off her hands.
