Page 9 of Dragon Bodyguard
“What? It’s just an observation. Ten years isn’t that long of a time, right?”
“Twelve,” he corrected.
She smiled mildly, continuing, “But now you’ve really done it. Proven yourself loyal. You’ll have a position here for life, just like you always wanted.”
“Yes, just like I always wanted,” he said, annoyed with himself for how emotionally he was reacting to her prodding.
She should understand that he’d thought she might have viewed this choice of career as a worthwhile endeavor, something to be proud of. He was protecting her kin, after all. But all she’d really thought of it was how it was beneath her. That he could somehow do better, no doubt seated in an office chair crunching numbers and finding ways to make her father more money. It made him look away from her with a soft huff. She’d never known him; she’d never really wanted to know him.
“Do you like living here?” The question sounded surprisingly earnest. His gaze drifted back to her face. Her expression had changed, the hard edges melting into something not far from curiosity.
She looked more herself again.
It was kind of irresistible.
“Yeah, I like living here,” he said. “It’s a decent place, you know?”
“Decent how?”
“Dmitri is a fair boss. He’s never unreasonable or petulant.”
“Oh, like my father, you mean?”
“No,” he protested, but he couldn’t keep the smile down. “That’s not what I said,” he added, a touch of a warning there for her not to twist his words. Especially not if she was going to repeat them into her father’s ear.
She merely smiled as well, softer this time.
He really didn’t need this mindfuck, did he? It was like a car wreck, and he’d been part of buying the car, so now here he sat, unable to look away as it kept on burning. Perhaps it was even warming him a little. Embers of old flames making themselves known. He’d thought they’d died out years ago. It was strangely enchanting to sense them in the air again.
“What about you?” he ventured.
“What about me?”
“Are you happy?”
The query was much too straightforward. He didn’t know why he’d phrased it like that. He hadn’t meant to, but it cut to the chase, didn’t it? Was she happy in this new role she was playing? Whatever it was. Whatwasshe playing at? Why was she suddenly trailing her father around as if that was ever anything she had wanted to do? Had it been what she wanted, and she simply hadn’t divulged it for those months they spent together? Had he misread her? Could it be no more complicated than that?
“Why do you make it sound like it will surprise you if I say yes?” she asked.
“It won’t,” he said. “You’re looking very… comfortable.”
She leaned back on her chair, crossing her legs, resting her hands on her lap.
“Thank you, I am comfortable,” she stated. “Very much so, in fact.”
He hummed an agreement. He could see how very much so she was.
“You’re invited along often, then?”
“I am, actually,” she said.
He got the feeling she was lying, narrowing his eyes at her briefly. She didn’t flinch, she didn’t look away, but there was something there. Something quiet just beneath the surface. Like she was daring him to poke a little harder.
“What is it you do, exactly?” he asked.
“I’m just here to make small talk,” she said.
“That’s it?”
