Page 19 of Don't Bite The Boss
“Of course,” I growl.
“Pru,” Charlotte says, ignoring the elephant in the room, which any normal person would consider to be the recent attack upon my person, “have you tried to bite Tristan again?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Tristan says, raising an eyebrow at me as I continue to stare at him. “We have bigger fish to fry. Anyway, I expect you had to deal with a fair bit of that too, Nick, when you first met Charlotte.”
“Char has never bitten me, or tried to,” Nick shakes his head.
“Never ever,” Charlotte says, giving me a stern look.
“Well, I guess I smell especially great,” he sighs, turning and beckoning Nick to follow, presumably to get down to business – business that, since I was now a target, should obviously, I would have thought, also include Charlotte and I.
But Tristan makes it clear he wants to talk to Nick alone.
Nick casts us a worried glance as he follows his boss over to the bodies, and I know, without being told, that he is equally as worried about me biting Tristan as Charlotte is, which strangely seems more important to them than the fact the mafia want us all dead.
Charlotte waits until they are out of earshot before rounding on me.
‘Oh, here we go.’
“You haven’t told him?”
“Told him what?” I ask innocently, knowing full well what she means.
“That you find him irresistible!” she hisses.
“Now, why would I do that?” I jump up in one quick motion to stand beside her. “It’s not like he and I are going to fall in love and marry, as you and Serena have with yours. He’s engaged, and OK, I have no self-control, but he is aware of that and protects himself. We’ve come to an understanding.”
“He has a right to know,” she says quietly, “so he can protect himself properly – so he understands the risks and why you keep trying to bite him, which,” she shakes her finger at me, “is bad, very bad.”
“What about the risks he never told me about?” I hiss, “the fucking mafia? Shit, Charlotte, why didn’t you say anything?”
“I honestly thought you knew.”
I frown at her and shake my head. “Well, don’t worry. When I finish with Mr Bear he won’t be holding any more secrets from me,” I growl ominously.
“You mustn’t bite him, Pru. If you want Serena to ever come round and accept you back into the fold, you can’t kill Christopher’s twin.”
“You’ve heard from Serena?” I ask, momentarily distracted.
“I, ah,” she avoids my gaze.
“Charlotte,” I lower my voice, ominously.
“She’s having problems… with Valerie,” she adds, “and, uh, I think that is taking precedence over everything else.”
“What’s the little toad done now?” I frown.
“Run off,” Charlotte says, chewing her lip.
“Charlotte is there something else you aren’t telling me?”
“No. The most important thing you need to know is to behave yourself and look after Tristan. No. More. Biting!”
I stare at her for a full minute. There is something else going on. Still, I know Charlotte, she is best to trick information out of, rather than trying to pressure it out – she can be bloody annoyingly recalcitrant when it suits her.
“This job will be over in a few more months, Char,” I sigh. “If I can just get through that, and not get murdered by unknown foes,” I give her a sharp look, “he will be married, I will be living in another country, it will all be forgotten, and you won’t need to worry at all.”
“Another country? You plan to return to the States when the contract is finished?”
