His Feverish Embrace - Celia Kyle Page 0,3

education. It was to get under the principal’s professionally tailored and very modest skirt, which she never really understood. She worked with children all day, every day, so it wasn’t as though she wore a lot of makeup and dressed in an eye-catching manner.

Kids didn’t give a damn if she scraped her long auburn hair into a no-nonsense ponytail instead of styling it into sexy waves or sleek straight locks. Kids didn’t notice a difference whether she put effort into her makeup and her clothing or not. All that mattered for them was that she maintain a calm, problem-solving presence.

That was her job, anyway—problem-solver.

Although at the moment, she was facing the especially annoying problem of how to get Mr. Ratzenberger the hell out of her office. Her position was delicate, though. She couldn’t exactly tell him to take a long walk off a short cliff, and not just because he was a dragon shifter who could blast her to ashes if he sneezed funny. Her job as principal of a very ritzy prep school required her to use more than a little finesse and diplomacy when declining his advances.

“Come on, you work too hard,” he wheedled, flashing what he probably thought was a winning smile. “Principals deserve to let loose every once in a while too, Ms. Wilson. May I call you Rylan?”

She deftly sidestepped his question. “I appreciate the sentiment, Mr. Ratzenberger, but not only is my schedule jam-packed, but I’m afraid socializing would be inappropriate. As I’ve mentioned before.”

Hint hint, buddy!

“At least give me your number.”

God, this guy was unreal. Rylan smiled tersely and folded her hands on the desk in front of her. “Sir, you already have my office extension.”

“I mean your personal number. You have a cell phone. Right?”

“I do live in the twenty-first century, yes,” she said, tiring of the game. “But I cannot give out my personal cell number to parents. It’s just not—”

“Appropriate. Got it.”

Rylan glanced at the clock on the wall and let out a fake gasp. “My goodness, look at the time! I have another appointment scheduled any second now. My apologies, Mr. Ratzenberger, but I’m afraid I have to call an end to our meeting. Thank you for being so dedicated to your son’s education.”

She stood to get her point across, which forced him to stand. Clearly his mother had taught him some manners. Rylan walked around her desk, careful to give him a wide berth, and held the door open for him with a polite smile. The guy hesitated and then heaved a disappointed sigh as he plodded out.

The school secretary, a she-wolf named Ginette Garbord, watched the man leave. As soon as the outer door snicked shut, she whirled around to raise an eyebrow at Rylan. As Rylan’s best friend, Ginette felt no compunction in telling her boss exactly what she thought of her personal choices, and Rylan already knew what she was about to say.

“I don’t want to hear it, Ginette,” she groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“I didn’t say anything,” she said with a grin, holding up her hands in surrender. Then she snorted and pointed out the big window overlooking the parking lot. “Oh my god. Look!”

Mr. Ratzenberger was walking across the parking lot, smiling and waving at them—at her.

“He’s insufferable.” Rylan sighed with a shake of her head.

“He’s hotter than a habanero pepper in a volcano is what he is. When are you finally going to give in and have a little fun with him?”

“Uh, never.”

Ginette frowned at her. “Girl, you know he’s not wrong. You do work too hard. A gal needs to let her hair down every now and again. I mean, you haven’t gone on a date in…how long has it been?”

So long your brain would melt, Rylan thought but refused to say. Instead she shrugged as she leaned a hip against Ginette’s desk.

“You know I don’t have time for nonsense, Ginette. But more than that, I don’t even have the bandwidth to deal with an arrogant, too-good-for-a-mere-human dragon shifter.”

“He doesn’t think that about you or he wouldn’t keep pursuing you,” Ginette pointed out. “He, like everyone else except you, knows you’re a catch.”

“Oh my god. Nope. We are not discussing this right now,” Rylan hissed, pushing off the desk and crossing her arms to show her bestie how serious she was. Didn’t work.

“You know as well as I do that humans and dragons can mate. Sure, it’s not the most common pairing in the world, but it’s not unheard