of his Nordic good looks, he was dark and brooding, edgy and male.
A sexy beast.
Though she’d already decided his face wouldn’t be gracing the cover of GQ anytime soon, he oozed sex. Overtly. Effortlessly. Like if you pricked him with a pin, he wouldn’t bleed red, he’d bleed orgasm.
Her heart thumped wildly. Her hand was still warm from his touch. The effect he had on her was altogether . . . breathtaking.
“Ver’ty?” murmured Ryan, his deep voice uncertain. “We gettin’ jobs now?”
She cleared her throat and blinked, turning to look up at her brother. Ryan was eight years her senior, and at thirty-two years old, traces of silver had just started appearing at his temples. His eyes were the same sky-blue as hers, but his nose was bulbous and his lips were shiny. Shiny, because he was nervous and kept licking them.
“I hope so, Ryan.” She reached out and patted him on the arm. “You remember what I told you?”
He held up three beefy fingers with scrubbed-clean nails. “Use my pleases and thank-yous. Look people in the eyes. No mumblin’.”
“That’s right,” she said, taking a deep breath and letting her hand slide from his forearm. “That’s right.”
She turned to follow the dark, sexy knight with her eyes, watching as he threaded his way through the job applicants jamming the far aisle, his tall, broad Viking body unexpectedly graceful as he wove around the people in his path until he reached a table toward the back of the room.
He placed his hands on his hips, and a gray-haired lady at the table looked up at him, straightening her glasses as she listened to whatever he was saying. Verity stared, her stomach in knots as the woman pursed her lips and shook her head dismissively. But Colton leaned forward, placing his palms flat on the table and drawing closer to the woman. Not immune to his masculine body so close to hers, the woman’s eyes lost some of their pinch, softening as she glanced over at the doorway where Verity and Ryan waited. After a moment she rolled her eyes and sighed, giving Colton a reluctant nod.
Verity gulped, wondering what had just transpired between the two and why he’d just advocated on their behalf. He didn’t even know her, and she was fairly certain that she’d annoyed him during their short exchange, since he’d cursed when he walked away. He owed her nothing, and yet he’d gone out of his way to help them. It made sentimental tears prick her eyes as she watched him turn around and face them. He held up one hand and beckoned them over.
Blinking her eyes and straightening her spine, Verity turned to her brother, reaching out to smooth his shirt.
“Ryan, you listening to me?”
“Yeah. Okay.”
She leaned up on tiptoes and smoothed down his cowlick. “We gotta make this happen. You hear?”
“Make it happen.”
“Look at me in the eyes, Ryan.”
He looked at her, his lips tilting up into a ready smile that she couldn’t resist returning. “You look real professional. Real nice. You answer any questions politely. No mumbling. Only speak when you’re spoken to, okay?”
“I know, Ver’ty.”
“I know you know,” she said. “I’m just nervous. We need these jobs, Ryan. We need them, or else . . .”
His eyes, which had been unguarded and cheerful, filled with dread. He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he searched her face with a childlike dismay.
“I don’t like ‘or else,’” he said softly.
“Me neither, Ryan. Me neither. So you follow all my instructions, okay?”
He nodded, and she grinned at him, but he still looked fearful.
“Show me your best smile, huh? My favorite one.”
He smiled back at her on command, the dismay fleeing as quickly as it had arrived, his shiny teeth sparkling and white, and she thanked the Lord that her parents had taken such good care of Ryan’s teeth while they’d been alive.
“That’s my guy,” she said. “Now follow me.”
As she walked slowly toward the table where Colton waited, she said a quiet prayer in her head: Dear God, please help me and Ryan both get jobs at The Legend of Camelot, where I can look out for him and we can still make some good money. I’ve done my best since Momma and Daddy passed on, but as you know, sweet Jesus, my luck has never been any good. Help. Please help. Amen.
Goats leaped in her tummy as she drew closer to the knight, her hands sweating like she’d drenched them under a spigot, but she fixed