Page 13 of Imperial: The Corvidae Family
I leaned back against the seat. “Would’ve been rude not to. I didn’t just wanna sit here and watch you eat”
Her lips pressed together, but the way her eyes lingered told me she wasn’t as annoyed as she wanted me to believe she was. The waitress returned a minute later with my beer and set it in front of me.
“That’s on his tab not mine.” She glanced at the woman who smiled and nodded before she left. Baylyn’s eyes were on me again with her face tight as hell, still holding the spoon but not eating.
“Something on your mind?”
She studied me. “You’re a contradiction.”
“How?”
She slid the spoon into her bowl before meeting my eyes. “You—” She hesitated, then lifted two fingers, forming them into the shape of a gun before tilting them in my direction. A clear reference to what she saw.
Then, she gestured around the table, at me. “And now you’re here. Flirting with me like it’s natural.”
“It is natural. You’re pretty as hell.”
She laughed arrogantly. “That’s all you got from that?”
I grinned. “You’re looking at it the wrong way.”
“Am I?”
“I’m not a contradiction. Me checking for you is normal as hell. I’m interested, you’re interested and that doesn’t have shit to do with…” I imitated the gun motion she just made. “It’s a job, Baylyn. Not who I am. No different than event planning being your job.”
“Yeah.Exactlythe same,” she said sarcastically.
“Your job is controlling chaos, managing people, making sure things go according to plan.”
Her eyes narrowed in annoyance.
“So is mine,” I added.
She gave me a flat look before reaching for her drink. “You kill people, not the same.”
It wasn’t…
“And you deal with entitled rich people. Arguably worse.”
She almost choked on her sake, barely controlling the laugh that escaped. She set her glass down, smiling as her eyes rolled.
“That’s not funny.”
“Yeah it is.”
Them pretty ass eyes rolled again and she smiled. I kept my gaze on her watching the way she tried to make sense of me andthis…
“You should be different.”
“Different how?”
“I don’t know, cold.Scary.”
I grinned because I knew exactly what she was doing. Testing where she stood with me and how I was going to deal with her. I lowered my voice just enough that she had to focus. “Do you want me to be?”
She stilled.
My eyes moved over her, watching the way her breathing shifted and she flinched.
