In a Dragon’s Dream by Riley Storm Page 0,39

used to working with this sort of setup. It’s incredibly inefficient. Damn those bastards for ruining my office.”

Truthfully it had been Rak who had destroyed her office, starting with hurling the female shifter through a glass wall and then almost through the external wall. Then he’d done some more damage while fighting her.

But in Laura’s mind it was the Cado’s fault for showing up in the first place. They could have just left her alone. It’s not like she had been involved with Rakell in any sort of romantic way at that point.

Now though, who cares, right? If they already assume it, I may as well have some fun with it.

She purposefully avoided dwelling on that thought any more. It was just fun, she reiterated, as she’d been doing to herself all night. Anything more was a discussion for another time.

A time when she was ready—and also when murderous paranormal creatures weren’t dead-set on tracking her down and abducting her. Or killing her. Or whatever it was they truly wanted with her. Laura felt it best not to think on it overmuch.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Rak offered in a distracted tone.

Would you even notice if I left, if I didn’t say anything? she wondered with a grin.

“Not unless you can magically make this a real setup,” she joked, waving him off. “No, it’s fine. Just needed to vent.”

“Okay,” he said in an even more off-kilter tone.

He was back into the book already.

“Oh look, the Cado are at the back door,” she joked.

Rak was up from the couch in an instant. Fire blazed in his eyes and light as bright as the sun coalesced in both palms as he surveyed.

“Shit!” she yelped, standing up. “Sorry! Sorry! Rak, I’m sorry, oh damn, that was so bad, I should never have done that. It was a joke.”

The flames disappeared after a moment more surveying the back door and Rak turned a disapproving glare on her.

“Yeah, that was stupid,” she said, nodding in agreement with his unspoken words.

“I take my job seriously,” he rumbled, his voice like two boulders clashing.

Yup, he was really mad.

“I know, I’m sorry,” she said. “You just sounded so distracted and I…I thought it would be a funny joke, but I didn’t think it through much.”

“Mmmmm,” he said, settling back down.

Laura grimaced, forcing herself to focus on the work in front of her again.

What were you thinking with that stupid stunt?

She didn’t know. Avoiding the work, perhaps? It made her less uncomfortable than what she was doing on the screen.

I’ve never done something so unprofessional as this before. Am I really acting out because I don’t like it?

Kristin had made it clear though. She’d said to get the shop sold, no matter what. Forge her signature, but don’t call her again until it was a done deal. Laura had almost balked at it, but in the end, she’d decided that, after everything Kristin was going through, just this one time, she would help the woman out.

After all, they were more than just client-realtor now. Maybe not friends but…it was different. The attempted kidnapping made it more, and so Laura was putting aside her professional pride, and doing what needed to be done.

Just this once. Anybody else could get lost.

There, she said when the last number, signature and date was inputted an hour later. She sent the signed bill of sale back to the buyer, and leaned back, giving herself a moment to relax before she went on to the next task on her list.

Glancing over the edge of her laptop screen she watched Rak for a bit. His cheeks dimpled adorably as he smiled at something in the book. His feet hung off the end of the couch, which apparently wasn’t made for men as large as he was.

Not much is, I bet.

Even her bed had been a tight fit.

She’d not given much thought to sharing it with Rak the night before. Not after they’d ended up naked for the second time an hour or so later. It had just seemed…natural to fall asleep in his arms.

Come the morning though, she’d been up and out of the bed early, wondering desperately just how to avoid the awkwardness of the day, of addressing what had happened between them. She didn’t want it to change anything else, but it was almost unavoidable that it would.

Except Rak hadn’t allowed that. He’d emerged from the bedroom with his clothes on and status set back to bodyguard. Except for the comfortable