Page 111 of Elven Crown

Almost the entire task force was already here this morning. Odd.

Maxwell stopped beside her with a snort, though she didn’t know if it was in amusement or the result of something else he found to be an utter disappointment.

She didn’t want to look at him to find out, either, because she wasn’t sure she’d be able to look away again.

“I’ll be sure to work on my icebreakers, then,” he muttered.

Wait, was hestilljoking?

Rebecca couldn’t help it any longer. She glanced at him from the corner of her eye, and yes, that looked a lot like a little smirk on the shifter’s lips as he stared straight ahead.

Would wonders never cease?

Then his amusement disappeared as a shadow passed in front of them.

Rebecca caught the tail end of an operative walking past them in the entryway.

“Morning,” Maxwell murmured, his usual alert tension restored.

Clearly, the shifter wasn’t comfortable enough to make jokes with the boss in public, where anyone could see. But when he thought they were alone…

At least their odd moment was over now, and Rebecca could stop thinking about how much she’dlikedthe look of that tiny smile on her Head of Security.

But this was still all professionalism, wasn’t it?

“Great,” she said, trying to break the silence. “There better be coffee left.”

“Is that your excuse for being so prickly first thing in the morning?”

She almost snapped back with something terse and off-putting until she realized his smirk had returned. This time, he was looking at her.

“What do you mean?” She mimicked his poorly concealed amusement. “I’m always this prickly.”

Then she forced herself to enter the crowded common room, because the mystery of not knowing what Maxwell was up to held too great of a pull. If that was the shifter’s best version of flirting, he had no idea what he was doing.

Then again, if it was his idea of loosening up around his commander because fighting had gotten him nowhere, she wasn’t sure she appreciated him gettingthatcomfortable.

Or maybe she really was too prickly and overthinking things way too much. She just hadn’t had her coffee yet.

Then she made the mistake of looking across the room to see Rowan among the rest of the task force.

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He sat at a table with another group of operatives—apparently a different one every time—and had now turned toward her with an eager smile when he finished focusing on whoever had been talking. Of course he saw her instantly and raised a hand in a little wave she couldn’t ignore, no matter how much she wanted to turn away.

But she could still pretend she didn’t see him, which was the only strategy she had to fall back on.

Rebecca could practically feel all the unexpected lightheartedness seeping out of Maxwell when he also saw Rowan trying to get her attention. Then he fell right back into his usual defensive bodyguard mode.

She wasn’t sure she preferredthat, either.

“Should I bring that coffee up to your office, then?” he grumbled.

“No, I got it. Thanks,” she said and took off across the common room.

She’d almost said yes, but that would’ve required her to go right up to her office to wait. The idea of leaving Maxwell and Rowan alone in the same room, without her there to intervene if necessary, felt a lot like playing with fire.

So far, she’d managed to keep that fire from spreading, but once it got out, something told her it would be especially difficult to get back under control.

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