Page 9 of Protected By the Wolf

“Thank you.” He took my hand from his arm and gave it a kiss before letting it go.

I felt my cheeks turn a bright red, and I had to look down.

A second later, I felt his hand on my chin, lifting my face up to meet his gaze again. “Can I have your phone number, Millie?”

“Yes,” I whispered. I couldn’t look away until he started chuckling. Looking down, I saw that he was handing me his phone. Blushing, and no doubt turning even redder than I already was, I typed in Millie’s phone number, not realizing what I’d done before it was too late. Ah! Bruno was a client, and I always gave out Millie’s number to clients. I’ll have to casually ask her for it later.

“Thank you.” Smiling, he gestured toward the back entrance and asked, “Want to direct me to Lillian?”

“Yes, of course.” Doing a quick blink, I focused back on the task at hand and walked him to Lillian’s office.

Lillian was hunched over a big book when we walked in, and I had to say her name a few times before she realized we were there.

“Oh! Hi L—Millie. What can I help you with?”

“This is Bruno McCullough, and he’s interested in buying three paintings.”

“Excellent!” Lillian grabbed some papers off her desk and walked around the table to shake Bruno’s hand. “Please come sit over here, and we’ll get all this sorted out.” She paused for a second and then asked, “Is one of the paintings the wolf painting?”

“Yes, that’s my favorite one. I have the perfect brother to gift it to,” he said.

“I’m very sorry.” Lillian turned to me. “I just remembered the wolf painting isn’t for sale. It’s been put on hold by your sister.”

Her face remained professional, but I was desperately trying to not stress out at what I’d just heard. “We don’t put things on hold.” What was Millie playing at? Mom wanted all of the paintings sold, and if this made Bruno not buy any of them, I would look bad in front of him. “Let me call my manager.” Lillian raised an eyebrow at me, knowing full well the manager was Mom.

Heading back into the hallway, I dialed Mom’s number.

“Lira! Did something go wrong?” she asked on picking up.

“No. Well yes, but I think it’s just a misunderstanding.”

“Okay . . .”

I took a deep breath. “Do you remember the customer you called Millie about this morning?”

“Yes, of course I do.”

“Right. He wants to buy the painting with the wolf in it, but Millie has asked for it to be held for her.”

“That’s nonsense. There’s no reason to put it on hold. If he wants it, you should definitely sell it to him.”

“That’s what I thought. I just wanted to make sure.”

“I’ll give Millie a call.”

“No, I’ll talk to her tonight about it. It’s okay.” I could see Mom nodding on the other end of the line and trying very hard not to say anything more. But she couldn’t help it.

“Have you thought more about what we talked about?”

“Oh, Mom, I’m sorry, but I’m being called back to Lillian’s office. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Lira—”

“Bye, Mom. I love you.” I hung up before she could say anything more. This was not the place or time to be talking about me being a witch or not.

I went back to Lillian’s office where she and Bruno were having a lively chat over the leatherbound book Lillian had been reading. It was easily a thousand pages and looked older than any book I had ever seen. I started walking around her desk to see what the book was when Lillian looked up and said, “What did your manager say?”

“She said there’s no holds.”

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