Page 8 of Here Be Dragons

“My lunch break is basically over, so I can get started right away.”

I handed her my spare laptop. “Perfect. You can use the printer to scan the documents.” I grimaced at the thick layer of dust collecting on the multifunctional machine. “I don’t use it often, but I’m sure it still works.”

“Thanks.” Laptop in hand, she looked around. “Is there somewhere I could set up?”

Shit. I hadn’t thought it out past getting her to spend time with me in my office.

I cleared off a corner of my desk for her. “My desk is plenty big for the both of us,” I said. It truly was. It was massive. And considering I didn’t really do much on it, we’d have plenty of space.

Andthathad me thinking of Carly all spread out on my desk, a feast for my eyes and my tongue.

Yes! Lay her out and feast.

I mentally shushed my dragon. The last thing I wanted was to scare her away. He was so loud I worried she’d hear him right through my skull. But Carly was getting organized across from me, settling her scrumptious ass into the chair meant for guests to my office, none the wiser. She’d taken a folder from the top drawer of the old filing cabinet and was already rifling through it.

As she got to work, I sent a note out to Janice telling her to put out job postings again to hire proper front desk concierge and educator teams, so she could go back to managing the museum rather than doing the grunt work. Darlington was growing, and we needed to grow too if we wanted to keep up.

Since I was here, I decided to clean out my desk, something I hadn’t done in a while. I was sorely tempted to open the envelope right here and now, but I wasn’t sure that was a good idea. I could feel the magic thrumming off of it, and I didn’t want Carly to be in danger if the key inside was spelled to set off something magical upon touching a dragon.

I focused on my desk instead, opening the top drawer and pulling out pile of takeout menus. I noticed a few from places that weren’t even in business anymore and tossed those out. I really hadn’t cleaned in a while.

Carly eyed the flyer closest to her. “The Starving Aardvark?” she said. “Cute name.”

“I love that place. Makes the best chicken and waffles in town. They even named a drink after me.”

“Really?”

“Yup. The Fire Breather.”

She raised a brow but didn’t ask.

Ask her out!my dragon hissed.

I sighed internally. My dragon got extremely obsessive when he believed he’d found a treasure, but sometimes, once we actually got our hands on it, he lost interest. Maybe spending some time with her was the perfect way to kick my dragon out of this delusion. I could wine, dine, and bed her a few times until my dragon realized he was mistaken and that she wasn’t our mate after all. What was the saying? Get her out of my system?

Fine, Dragon, you win. I’ll ask her out.

“Have you been?” I asked her, willing my dragon to sit down and be quiet.

“Not yet, but it sounds right up my alley.”

“You are new to Darlington, yes? Your resume says you worked in New York last.” I’d looked her up after yesterday.

“Yeah, I just moved to town the day before I started working here. I haven’t had much time to explore the city.”

“Well, then let me show you around. We can go to The Starving Aardvark tomorrow for lunch.” When she hesitated, I turned to my computer and pulled up the staff schedule. “It says here your only tour tomorrow is a fifth grade class at one, which means you’re helping me out in the morning. If we leave a bit early for lunch, we’ll be back with time to spare to wrangle those fifth graders into submission.”

She blinked in confusion. “You wantmeto come out to lunch withyou?“ She was so cute when she was flustered.

I looked around the room. “I don’t see anyone else here,” I said teasingly.

I glanced down at her hand. No ring. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t currently dating someone seriously. She didn’t smell like anyone, though, and if she was living with anyone, their scent would be all over her. Did she have someone back in New York?

The thought of her being with anyone else had my dragon seething.

Then we get rid of him,my dragon hissed.Burn him to a crisp!

Calm down. We don’t even know if there is a him.

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