Page 74 of Once Upon a Curse for True Love
Riley sensed her smile.“But?”
“Buuuut… I’m about to ambush you, my love.”
Riley frowned.“Ambush?” He glanced around his office warily.“Should I be jumping out the window?Teleporting to safety?”
Mila’s melodious laugh rippled through their connection, warm and rich.“It’s too late for that.”
As if on cue, the window behind his desk clicked shut.Had Mila locked it?Where was she?
“Mila…”
“Yes, love?” she replied cheerfully as a knock sounded on his door.
Riley smoothed his expression into the neutral mask he’d perfected over years of police work.“Come in,” he called, his voice betraying none of the wariness in his lungs.
The door swung open, and Mila strode in first, a vision that knocked the wind out of him no matter how many mornings he woke up beside her.Today, she wore that damnable black-and-purple striped knit dress that clung to her curves in ways that made it difficult for him to maintain his professional demeanor.Her russet-brown hair cascaded past her shoulders in loose waves, and those piercing green eyes sparkled with mischief as they met his.
“You’re wearing The Dress,” he accused silently.
She smirked.“What?This old thing?”
“You know it drives me insane.”
“Really?I hadnoidea.” She sauntered toward his desk.
Riley swallowed hard, understanding with crystal clarity that he was in serious trouble.The “dread” worsened as two more witches filed in behind his wife: Andromeda Swan and Sarah Michelle Callidora.He was outnumbered three to one, and they weren’t playing fair.
“As pleasant as the surprise is, why are you here?” he asked Mila telepathically, keeping his face professionally stoic.
Mila crossed the room to plant a kiss on his mouth that mollified him, melting the scowl he was trying to hold on to.“I came to make sure you consider their proposal without rejecting it outright.”
Riley maintained eye contact.“You’ll owe me for this later.”
A wicked smile spread across Mila’s face as she sent him a mental image that made his collar feel two sizes too small.The vision of his wife half-naked on his desk in a very compromising position burned into his brain, making him grip the arms of his chair hard enough to leave indentations.
“I’ll make it worth your while,Chief,” she promised silently.
Riley clenched his jaw, fighting the impulse to throw the other two witches out of his office to have a private moment with his wife.The image she’d planted in his mind was making it difficult to focus on whatever business they’d come to discuss.
Andromeda Swan blinked, glancing between them.“What’s going on?”she asked, sensing the unspoken exchange.
Sarah Michelle waved a dismissive hand.“Chief King and his wife share a soulmate bond,” she explained flippantly.“And I’m guessing Mrs.King has already told the Chief to play nice.”
Riley scowled deeper at the accurate assessment.He gestured to the chairs across from his desk.“Please, take a seat and tell me what’s so important that my wife had to be dragged into it.”
The two witches settled into the chairs while Mila perched on the windowsill behind him, her hand resting on his shoulder.
Sarah Michelle cleared her throat and launched into a well-rehearsed argument about why the proposed cybersecurity division would be better placed under the broader Department of Magical Justice umbrella rather than keeping it within SMPD.She stressed how Riley would still be in charge, given how as Chief Inquisitor he was also in the DMJ organizational chart.He caught what she wasn’t saying.This wasn’t about org charts.
Riley’s gaze shifted to Miss Swan, who was sitting unusually quiet and straight-backed.The witch was regarding him with an expression that hovered between hope and defiance.
The chief fought the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose.Of course.Andromeda Swan wanted the jobandthe detective, and this was how her best friend meant for her to have both.And his wife, the witch he’d arrested and fell in love with while they were magically sentenced to solve a case together, was in the room so that he couldn’t dismiss the proposal on the spot.Or tell them it wasn’t professional.As entrapments went, this was damn near perfect.
His eyes flicked to his wife, who gave him the barest hint of a nod.
“They’re in love,” Mila’s voice confirmed in his head.“They want to bypass the non-fraternization policy.”
In love?He’d gleaned something was going on between Swan and Malatesta, but he hadn’t imagined it’d gotten that serious already.
