Page 16 of Purple Scales & Coffee Tales

“Hey baby girl.” He gave me a tight hug. “It’s so good to see a friendly face.”

“Were the students mean to you, Mr Lee?”

“Don’t tease me,” Vaughn snorted. “I swear it—this guy in my lecture just now? He has it in for me.”

“Maybe he just thinks you’re gorgeous and so fluffy he’s gonna die.” I flung my arm around his shoulders to walk the few steps with him to his bike before making my way to the bus.

“Lee,” a dark voice snapped, and we both turned.

Ransom Banks, newly appointed professor for Kirkmuir’s AI institute, stood there, a hard look on his face.

“You dropped this.” He held out a piece of paper, which Vaughn took reluctantly.Holy shit.Tiff had mentioned how hot Banks was—he was her doctorate supervisor—bloody fucking hot, but the man looked so stern and forbidding you’d have to have suicidal tendencies to cross him.

“Thank you, Ransom.”

I tried to keep my cool until the professor had left, then turned with an eyebrow raised at Vaughn. “Ransom? You’re on a first name basis with Banks?”

“I studied under him in Broomshire. He offered it one day. Well, I’ll see you at home.”

Staring in bewilderment, I watched Vaughn suit up and drive off.What the fuck is going on with these two?

The closer the bus got to the city centre, the more thoughts of Taran replaced my roommate and his apparent daddy kink.

I ran the whole way from the bus stop to Finnegan Square, sure Taran would already be waiting for me.

All the windows and the door had been taped over with brown paper to make the surprise complete. Breathlessly, I entered, almost skipping when I spotted him.

He wore a purple corset over an all-black outfit and looked like a creature out of my wildest sex dreams with the ever-present gold rings at the base of his horns.

“Hey, Scales.” I bit my lip to somehow dim my giddiness, then caught sight of my surroundings.

“Holy shit,” I gasped, gaping at the room.

“I wanted you to be the first to see the finished cafe.”

“How did you know they were done?” Without looking at him, I turned on the spot.

“Struan emailed me shortly before noon and said they were finished and that he would be sending the final invoice in a couple of days. Do you like it?”

“I love it.” Nodding, I turned on the spot again.

“Does it look like you imagined it would?”

“Is it weird if I say yes? I have no idea how they did it, but it looks exactly like I wanted it to. Oh God, I bet that cost a shit ton of money. I’m so—”

“Maeve, don’t you dare apologise.” Taran stopped me with a hand on my shoulder, squeezing me gently. “You’ve done an amazing job.”

“Right?” I sniffed. “It’s so pretty.”

“It is,” he quietly agreed with me, giving my shoulder another squeeze before letting go.

“That’s not the only reason why I wanted you to meet me here. There’s something I need to ask you.”

Yes, you can have me anywhere but on my shiny new counter, Scales.

“Yeah?” I stopped my spinning to meet his eyes, eyebrows raised expectantly.

“They’ve invited me to a pre-opening party to welcome me as a customer and to thank me for investing in the property. It said on the invitation that the mayor will be there,” he blurted out without preamble.

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