Page 3 of Her Lion Lover

Leo stopped dead. "Who?"

"The name of the woman who put that dopey grin on your face. Was it a reporter at theTimes? Is that why you made the front cover?"

"I'm on the cover of today's newspaper?" Leo couldn't imagine why. He hadn't done anything particularly noteworthy lately.

Cat handed him the folded newspaper. "You're up to five thousand messages this morning already, and your personal inbox has crashed the office email spam filter twice. You can't imagine all the things I've seen, and it's only eight in the morning. So please tell me her name, so I can send her the bill for a lifetime supply of brain bleach." She coughed. "Oh, and congratulations on being namedTimesBachelor of the Year, I suppose."

Leo unfolded theTimes. At least it was a good shot of him. He dropped the paper back on Cat's desk. "My good mood is entirely because of you, and the best Christmas present any personal assistant ever got their boss in the history of...well, everything. I am officially in love with the Felix 5000."

Cat laughed. "It took you this long to try it out? I told you it was the best. My teenage sons can't get enough of it, and I've even caught my husband playing with it. Much more convenient when you can work out in your own backyard instead of venturing out in the woods where some conservationist might try to catch you for breeding purposes." She shuddered.

Leo shook his head. "That's what you get for being an endangered species. At least when someone sees you in the forest, they don't come at you with tranquiliser guns. Those things seriously sting, and even if you can shift and take the dart out in time, you're still out there, naked in the woods, which takes some explaining."

"Well, after this morning's cover story, I'm sure there are at least five...no, now it's six thousand single women who'd be happy to camp out in the woods near your place in the hope of catching a glimpse of you naked, so I'm sure it's best for everyone that you can work out at home." Cat glanced at the screen again, shuddered, and raised her head to meet Leo's eyes. "And if you like that, wait until you see what I've got you for your birthday." She winked.

"Any chance you'll give it to me early? Or maybe even just a hint? I have a board meeting today. I could do with a distraction." Leo turned his best persuasive kitty eyes on Cat.

Of course, being a Scottish wildcat shifter herself, she was immune. "Not a chance. Your birthday's not long to wait. Besides, you'll need something to look forward to after the board meeting. I've already ordered all your favourites for lunch, so you'll be raring to go when the meeting starts at one. Jeremy's had Shenzi asking me for daily updates on the Hea Sanctuary project, and I haven't had any news to give her. If you ask me, I think Jeremy knows something we don't, and he'll surprise you with it at the meeting. If you want to make some phone calls this morning, I've cleared your schedule. Just don't tell me what you find out until after I see Shenzi tomorrow. That way I'll have plausible deniability when she tells me everything she heard at the board meeting."

Leo bowed low. "You are the epitome of assistants, the world over. What did I ever do to deserve you?"

"Yeah, just as long as you remember that, come Christmas bonus time. My kids saw there's a mouse plague in Australia right now, and they're begging to go there for our next family holiday. Flights to Australia are not cheap."

"Don't they have kangaroos there, too? I heard they're a challenge to hunt, and good eating, too."

Cat grinned. "You've been talking to my husband, haven't you? Ever since he was a boy, he's wanted to catch and kill a kangaroo, because apparently they taste like venison."

He had not heard that before. Maybe he should take a holiday in Australia. After Cat and her family got back, of course, so she could book him into all the best places to go.

"Phone calls first. You can think about holidays after the board meeting," Cat reminded him.

The woman was a mind reader. One who definitely deserved a big Christmas bonus.

"On it," Leo promised as he headed into his office and closed the door.

He ignored his emails and went straight to his contact list.

"Council Planning Office, this is Ed."

"Ed, my favourite planning officer," Leo began smoothly. "How are planning approvals going for you these days?"

Ed grunted. "King. I've been expecting a call from you, wishing I had good news so I could call you first. But if wishes were fishes..."

Leo laughed. "Yeah, we'd all be dining like kings on fresh sashimi, every night of the week. What's the hold up? Your office is the most efficient in the country. I could set my clock on how quickly you process development applications, your system has been such a smoothly run machine. At least until now." Leo paused. "What's gumming up the works?"

"Not what, but who," Ed gritted out.

"Ahhh." Leo knew the problem couldn't be Ed and his team. "Who have I pissed off this time?"

Ed laughed. "Oh, I doubt it's anything you've done. Councillor Clyde doesn't even know you exist. Or anyone who isn't Craig Tremotino. For years, he's mostly slept through council meetings, happily voting for anything that crosses his desk. Until this new Tremotino village project appeared. Now, he can't shut up about it. Every tiny detail he disagrees with, even when the plan's been revised a dozen times, it's still not good enough. He says if the heritage assessment is dodgy, then there's no telling what else might be wrong with it, so we have to check everything, then ask the project manager for a new plan, before taking a fine tooth comb to that, too, until the next council meeting, when he picks the new plan apart all over again..." Ed coughed. "It's driving everyone mad, but he's argued so loud and so long, now he's got some of the other councillors on his side, or at least willing to sit back and see how long he can keep this up, and he refuses to let the meeting discuss any other project until this one is either approved or dead in the water."

Interesting. If Tremotino could provoke such a strong reaction in a man who normally didn't care about anything, he was definitely someone to watch. The real question was whether he was someone to go into business with, or avoid entirely. Much like Blaze Argyros. The man was a glorified gardener, but what he didn't know about archaeobotany wasn't worth knowing. Not to mention his family had records dating back to before the conquest, so Leo had learned that bringing him in on potential heritage sites as a consultant was well worth his substantial fee.

A fee he'd reduced significantly to work on Hea Sanctuary, because he believed in the project as ardently as Leo.

"Any idea when he'll get bored and let the councillors discuss other projects again?" Leo asked.

He could almost hear Ed shrug. "When I know, you'll know. That I can promise you." He sighed. "If Councillor Clyde would just break his leg or something and be stuck in hospital or even just an elevator for the next council meeting, life would be so much easier. He'd only have to miss one meeting, and we could get rid of the entire backlog of projects. Not that I wish anything bad to happen to Councillor Clyde. He's always made sure we have the best food at the council staff Christmas party. Other councillors have tried to cut costs, but he won't hear of it."

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