Page 14 of Into the Lion's Den (Secrets of the Northland Shifters)

“Uncle Joe’s leaving so soon?” Toby asked, stopping on the porch and looking down at me.

The answer to that seemed obvious so I responded with my own question. “Where are you two going?”

First Sam, now Toby. Even if they were my brothers, my cat was piqued at the sight of Sarah with another male.

“Sarah mentioned at breakfast that no one had given her a proper tour of the property.”

I turned my attention to Sarah. Was that supposed to be a criticism of me? “Maybe someonewould havegiven her a tour if she hadn’t slept all afternoon and straight into morning.”

She frowned down at me.

“Well, she’s awake now,” Toby said brightly. “So I’m remedying the situation.”

“Great,” I said flatly.

“Glad to help,” Toby said.

I jogged up the steps and headed for the door, but as I passed Sarah on the porch, she turned and touched my arm.

It immediately stopped me in my tracks.

I looked down at the small hand on my bicep. Her touch shot a tingling awareness straight to my shoulder, and it exploded across my chest, rattling the cage that barely contained the beast within.

I raised my gaze and met her wide gray eyes. “Yes, Sarah? Was there something you wanted?”

7

SARAH

Isucked in a breath as the intensity of Reese’s gaze settled over my body. He’d asked if there was something I wanted. Uh…yeah. Starting with those clear green eyes and working my way down to…

Fortunately, I wasn’t a complete idiot. I caught myself before I actually looked down. And I certainly wasn’t going to answer his question honestly. I had some self-restraint, after all. Not to mention a job I needed to keep.

I summoned all the professionalism I could muster. “I wanted to talk to you about creating a company website.”

His brow furrowed under the brim of his baseball cap. “We already have a website.”

“You have a one-page site with your name and phone number.”

Reese glanced at his brother, then back to me.

I wanted to fidget under the heavy weight of his stare, but I didn’t dare move. “I’m just saying you’d have an easier time getting bookings if you had a better website.”

Reese expelled a patronizing breath through his nose. “Don’t worry, kitten. We’ve been in business for fifteen years. Our clients know we’re here. Word of mouth works fine.”

He took a step away, but I stopped him, grabbing his armyetagain. I was making a terrible habit of that. “Excuse me, but I’m your employee. Not your kitten.”

I immediately regretted my reaction. Yes, he deserved it. But my normal assertiveness might not go well with John Riordan’s direction for me to lie low.

My worry was quickly eased when Toby rasped out a laugh and Reese—though still surly—looked at least somewhat contrite.

“You’re right,” he said. “You’re definitely not.”

I narrowed my eyes, not sure how to take that. “Was that supposed to be an apology?”

“Sure,” he said.

I shook my head and forced myself to continue with the reason I’d stopped him in the first place. “Word of mouth does work, but you’d have even better results if there were moremouthsworking.”

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