Page 9 of Her Purr-fect Christmas Mate

They took the elevator—which was working, thank goodness—and got out on her floor.

“I’m just down here,” she said, pointing.

“Your apartment.” Mordecai’s voice was flat. “You live here.”

“Oh, you didn’t hear me tell the whole party before? Yes. Since I got my first paycheck after graduation.”

He cursed. Not even under his breath. Then he stopped walking, which meant Peony had to stop walking, too, or he would probably fall over or something. His eyes searched hers, quick and assessing. She resisted the urge to hide.

What are you looking at me like that for? You’re the one who came in here to ruin everything!

“Don’t go to meet the others for drinks tonight.” There was a note of urgency in his voice that made her hackles rise.

“Why not?”

“It’ll only make things worse.”

“What things?” She threw up her hands, releasing him, and he stumbled and caught his balance against the wall. “Will I get double-fired? Double-thrown-out-of-my-apartment?”

“I don’t want you to be hurt.”

He took her hand. She froze. What was going on? Why was she so affected by him? He was hot, yes, but he was an asshole. He was destroying her life. And now he was looking at her like he felt bad for her?

That was even worse.

I have to stop this.

“You don’t want me to be hurt? So, you’re going to, what,nottear down the Hypatia?”

A tinny Christmas carol chimed from her pocket.Not Mom again. Please…She declined the call without taking her eyes off Mordecai’s face.

“No.”

“Then why keep bringing it up?” She wasn’t sure what had her more on edge: the expression on Mordecai’s face or waiting to find out if her mother was going to keep calling and calling until she finally picked up.

Her phone stayed silent. She still felt like she was standing on the edge of a cliff. Great. That answeredthatquestion.

She raised her hands in surrender. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why you’d care, anyway. Let’s just… Look. I’ve got ice in here for your ankle.” They were outside her apartment. She unlocked the door and barged in without waiting for him to respond.

Not that there was much space to barge around in. Once upon a time, the Hypatia’s apartments had been elegant suites of rooms. Cue a half-hearted development twenty or so years ago, and the elegant suites had been chopped up into bedsits that barely fit a bed, let alone anywhere to sit.

“You live here,” Mordecai said again, and she bristled.

“Again.Yes.Are you sure you didn’t hit your head as well as fall on your ass?”

Who are you?she squeaked internally.Where did all this attitude come from?She felt like a maiden aunt staring in horror at her scandalous young charge, who was also her.

Maybe she’d hit her head, too.

“Excuse me,” she said primly. “Take a seat. I’ll grab the ice.”

She squeezed into what her landlord—one of Blanderley’s friends—insisted was a kitchenette and grabbed a bag of frozen vegetables from the tiny fridge-freezer. When she turned around, Mordecai had just realized that his only seating option was her bed.

She took exquisite delight in the uncomfortable look on his face. “Make yourself at home,” she said breezily. He sat, stiff-legged and straight-shouldered, like he was about to face a firing squad as she knelt in front of him. “Which ankle was it?”

“You don’t need to— Yes, it’s that one.”

Frog,she reminded herself as she folded up the leg of his pants to bare his shin.Necromancer. Evil wizard. Every villainous count from every Gothic horror novel.

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