Crown of Moonlight (Court of Midnight and Deception #2) - K.M. Shea Page 0,17

where I can. And don’t think I won’t impose budget cuts on you, too. Even if you are pretty!” It was when I finished my ramble that I realized I might have gone a little too far in my teasing.

I hunched my shoulders and watched Rigel for any signs of murderous thoughts. But he just tapped the keycode for the garage door into the keypad and waited for the door to rise.

When the door was only half open, he ducked under. “Are you coming?”

“Yes! Yep! I’m coming.” I slipped under the door, Steve and Muffin following me. “We’re taking my truck, if that’s okay? I told Azure she could have the morning off since she had to drop off a few guests after last night’s party.”

The rising door shed sunlight on the cars tucked inside the massive garage, and the Porsche Azure had taken out in the early morning was parked, a sure sign my chauffeur had returned.

I should set my accountants on selling some of these cars.

“Your truck is fine.” Rigel’s voice shook me from my money schemes.

“Great. Hop in—though it’s going to be tight. Steve and Muffin sit in the back bench seat, but whenever I park they like to crawl into the front seats.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

“Just watch out for Steve—she likes to lick people.”

“Of course.”

My trip to the Curia Cloisters was stress-free—particularly after Rigel got bored waiting for me in the hallway and entered the office area I’d gone into to get my paperwork processed.

The aide I was working with had turned sheet white—which is saying something because she’d been pretty scared of Muffin and Steve who had come in with me—and suddenly there were four people working on getting my paperwork worked out. I was out of there in record time!

Rigel had stayed in the truck with Muffin and Steve—I left the truck on with the air conditioning blasting for them—when I stopped at the library, and I assumed he’d stay in the truck again once I parked at my favorite café, King’s Court.

“I’ll only be a minute.” I slipped some sunglasses on and hopped out of the truck, leaving it on.

“Chase said King’s Court Café has a drive through,” Rigel said.

“Chase says all kinds of interesting things to people who are not me,” I complained. “But yeah, he’s right. I just don’t want to take it right now. Rhonda, the owner, should be working the front. I want to stop in and say hello.”

I swung my door shut and checked my pockets for my wallet, when the thump of the passenger door shutting rocked my truck.

Curious, I peered around the front of my vehicle as Rigel strolled up. “I’m coming in,” he said.

“Oh.” I stopped, my hand half tucked in my butt pocket. “Are you sure? This is a human café. There won’t be any other supernaturals.”

“What is it you are always saying at inappropriate times?” Rigel asked.

“It’s fine?”

“Yes.” Rigel swept toward the café, his stride long and smooth.

Chapter Five

Leila

I trotted a little to catch up with him and twisted around to wave at Steve and Muffin in the still running truck. I wasn’t worried anyone was going to steal the truck—not with Muffin licking her enormous claws off and Steve flashing her teeth at anyone on the street—but I wanted to reassure my pets.

I jogged the last few steps to get to the café door before Rigel and pull it open.

The inside of King’s Court—which was named after the little side street it sat on—was cozy and bright with brick walls accented with planters of ferns and tendrils of crawling ivy. Strings of tiny lights hung from the ceiling, which had been painted a dark blue color, and one of the three rustic wooden fans squeaked quietly like a familiar friend as the wonderful, amazing, and perfect scent of coffee swept around me like a hug.

I closed my eyes in delight. “Coffee, baby, I have missed you.”

“You are inexplicably strange,” Rigel said.

I popped my eyes open to give Rigel the necessary look of disapproval. “We’ll get you set up with a good coffee drink, and then I’ll challenge you to say that again.”

“Your great love of coffee is possibly the least odd thing about you.”

“You are such a supportive husband.”

“Night Queen—where are your demon horses?”

I jerked my gaze to the tall, gangly teenager standing behind the counter, wiping it down with a rag. His blond hair sprung straight up, half covering the drive-through headset he was wearing. His freckles seemed extra prominent