Page 34 of Decadence

No… no way.

Well, he wouldn’t know that Emmett was gay now, would he?

“You know one another, don’t you?” And then Cleo stepped into the danger zone, her brown eyes wide with feigned innocence. “And you’re not just someone who’s looking to get a job as a kitchenhand or something, are you?”

“I am here to work. I will carry out whatever task I am assigned.” Abruptly, he turned to face Sienna again. His hand snaked out, and before she realized it, he was holding her hand between strong, warm fingers, pressing a neatly folded piece of paper into her palm. “My curriculum vitae, as you humans call it. For application purposes.” His expression softened, and his lips curved into a slight smile, but he was careful not to show his fangs. “So you can get to know me.”

“P-paper?” Dumbfounded, Sienna took Ikriss’s so-called CV between her fingers. Who the fuck used paper these days? Where had he even gotten this? And how had he known about the human process of applying for a job, which hadn’t really changed for the last few hundred years?

Only these days, it was all done digitally, and when you hired someone, you automatically got everything through the Network. Morality Quotient, biodata, past work record, criminal convictions, qualifications…

Nobody used paper anymore.

Was this alien actually mad?

“Paper,” said Cleo dryly, shaking her head in disbelief.

“Paper.” echoed Emmett.

Ikriss folded his arms impatiently. “So. Are you not going to interview me? That is the next step in this process, is it not?”

Sienna stared at him in disbelief. For someone who was trying to get hired, he sure liked to give out orders. “You know what? Actually, I’m going to interview you right now. Let’s go out back to the office and talk.”

“You sure about this, Sienna?” Emmett’s voice was filled with concern. “I mean, this guy just decked me with one ar—”

“Oh, I’ll be fine,” she said with a lot more confidence than she felt. “Thanks for holding the fort, Emmett.” Sienna gently disentangled from his heavy arm and gave Ikriss a sharp nod. “You. Inside, now. Quickly. I’ll have customers in a few minutes.” She took secret delight in the fact that right now, she could issue him—the dark, scary, alien commander-or-whatever-he-was—with orders.

Who the heck was he, anyway? Maybe it was right there in her hand, printed on that stiff piece of paper.

Maybe she didn’t really want to know.

Cleo and Emmett just stared at her as if she’d gone mad.

“Everything’s fine,” she said gently as she passed them. “Don’t worry about this guy. I’ll handle him. Just make sure everything’s ready for us to open up. Oh, look. There’s already a line forming.” She recognized a couple of the regulars, who were standing patiently on the sidewalk, just a little way off from the entrance. Hands in pockets, faces tucked into scarves, they braced against the cold.

Curious eyes couldn’t help but stare at the three of them, but mostly at strikingly handsome Ikriss, who could have been a freaking male model if not for the fact that his features were a little too hard.

“Let’s go inside,” she said softly, suddenly desperate to escape all the attention. She hastily folded the piece of paper and slipped it into the back pocket of her pants.

To her surprise, he followed her without another word.

That was how Sienna Adamo, proprietor of the much-loved Whisk and Pin restaurant, found herself leading a weirdly disguised, hot-but-dangerous alien into the heart of her little empire.

And as he walked behind her, she could feel his molten gaze on the back of her neck. She hoped he couldn’t see the faint flush of heat that had seeped into her cheeks and down her neck and across the tips of her ears. She was probably red again. She always went red when she was embarrassed… or aroused.

Shit.

This was crazy.

Really fucking crazy.

It had only been three days since she’d returned to Earth, and now this?

Was her life ever going to be normal again?

Or was normal just an illusion?

Chapter Ten

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