Page 4 of Her Purr-fect Christmas Mate

Scales rippled over his arms. He clenched his jaw, forcing them back. “You can take your drinks and—”

“What’s this I hear about a managers’ outing?I’ma manager. Why is this—?”

He turned.

She was there. His nostrils flared, and his tongue pressed against the back of his teeth, all his senses trying to drink her in at once.

It was her eyes that caught him. They were fierce and glittering. And desperate. His chest wrenched. He wanted to see desperation intheireyes. Not hers.

Her throat bobbed as she came to a stop in front of him and Blanderley. God save him, she was facing him like he was a one-man firing squad. Spine rigid. Shoulders squared off. Chin thrust out. Only the repeated catch in her throat betrayed her. “Why is this the first I’m hearing about it?”

Blanderley gestured placatingly. “I’m afraid, Miss Fisher, this isn’t that sort of—”

“Great!” Her voice was brittle. “I’ll join you.”

Her boss inclined his head.Playing the kindly patriarch.Mordecai’s hackles rose. “My dear… Someone needs to clean up from the party.”

Anger flared behind the desperation in her eyes. He could almost imagine her saying,Clean up? When the whole building’s condemned?But out loud, her voice was perfectly chirpy and professional. “I haven’t forgotten. Let me know where you’re headed, and I’ll meet you there.”

Her whole body was radiating brittleness. And she hadn’t so much as glanced at him since she stepped up to them.

Blanderley sighed. “All right, all right. But it’s at Club Inferno. You’ll need to—” He waved at her outfit. “They expect people to make an effort.”

“There’s nothing wrong with how Miss Fisher looks,” Mordecai growled. Not for Club Inferno of all places.

She glanced at him—sudden, electric. Wings threatened to unfurl from his shoulders.

And what? Wrap around her? So I can carry her off to my lair? Hissing at Blanderley like an angry cat as I whisk her away?

He wouldn’t do any of that. Because that would require breaking eye contact with her, and he couldn’t bear to lose her gaze for even a second.

She tried to look away, and her eyes widened as she realized she couldn’t.She’s as stuck as I am.

Which meant she must recognize the bond between them.

Is she a shifter?he asked his dragon. He couldn’t see anything other behind her eyes, the usual cue that someone was hiding an inner animal, but his dragon was more attuned than he was.

Almost,his dragon said.

What do you mean, almost?

It didn’t matter. Because the next moment, shewrenchedher gaze away and plastered on a smile. “Great! I’ll tidy up and see you there.”

Her spine was too rigid as she walked away. She could not have rejected him more clearly if she’d spat the words in his face.

Blanderley and his cronies offered him curt nods as they left. They had cars waiting outside—but no offers of a lift were forthcoming. Not from this lot. They would wait to confront him in private.

Not one of them bothered to farewell his mate.

“Miss Fisher—”

“Do I need to order you a taxi?” Her smile was still in place. But the brittle edge of her self-control was crumbling.

He cursed himself and tried a placating smile of his own. It rested unfamiliarly on his lips. “Miss Fisher. We weren’t properly introduced.” He held out his hand to her, and she stared at it like it was a knife. “Mordecai Leith.”

“Yes, Iheardyour name, when Mr. Bl—” She cut herself off with a frustrated noise. He strongly suspected that the smile she was wearing was one she saved for particularly irritating customers. “Peony. Peony Fisher.”

“Penny?”

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