Page 18 of Her Purr-fect Christmas Mate

The only danger I’m in is shifting during this meeting and winding up naked in front of my boss and all his horrible friends.

Maybe she should just stop breathing altogether.

“Peony? What was that about shifting in front of your boss?”

Why wouldn’t he speak telepathically to her? Did the idea of reaching for her with his mind disgust him so much he was willing to risk the humans thinking he was talking nonsense to himself?

*Nothing. Just an intrusive thought. Nothing’s going to happen.*On cue, her cat extended all of its claws and dug them into Mordecai’s hipbone. He hissed in a breath. *Except you taking back what you said you’d do to the Hypatia.*

Mordecai drew a slow breath. Even in cat form, bombarded by sensations on all sides, she could tell how forbearing and patient a breath it was. Her stomach dipped. “Peony, you need to understand that—”

“There you are. The hell you all waiting around for out here? What, the room isn’t ready yet?”

She would recognize her boss’s voice anywhere. It was like a bucket of ice water on the thoughts that were threatening to make her shift.

“We were waiting to see if we’d have to send someone to haul you off that driver, haw haw.”

“Bastard overcharged me. Thought he could get away with putting extra on the meter just because we parked in the congestion zone. Pah!”

“If you’re all quite done?” Mordecai’s voice was cold as ice. His displeasure was clear, and Peony sighed in relief. If he’d turned out to be the sort of asshole who bonded over fighting service workers for pennies… “I’d prefer to get this over with as fast as possible.”

The roar of the club lessened as Mordecai walked through a pair of heavy double doors into what Peony assumed was the VIP lounge. She peeked out over the top of his pocket and glimpsed dark red leather couches and rancid-looking yellow lighting.

*Yuck. I can’t believe I always saw Blanderley and the rest of the board as more… classy.*

Mordecai snorted. A shiver of pleasure went through her. “At least it shouldn’t smell as bad back here.”

*You clearly can’t smell your drinking buddies very well in human form. I’m going to need you to order one of those peppermint spice cocktails as a medicinal measure,*she reminded him.

“I will not, and your sinuses may thank me for it.”

She giggled, and he went stiff with surprise.

It took a few minutes for the board members to settle around what, by the smell and squeaky sound of it, was a leather-upholstered booth. A server came in to take their orders. Champagne popped, and the men sneered over the food options the same way they’d sneered over her catering.

Maybe it’s a good thing I’m in cat form. I don’t think I could stand this in human form.She knew she couldn’t. Faced with the combined assholery of her boss and his friends, she would have wilted like week-old lettuce.

But Mordecai wouldn’t. One look from his broken-glass eyes would quell them more effectively than any of her carefully written requests or spreadsheet-backed recommendations. And… surely they didn’twanthim to take over the building?

She just had to convince him to take her side and agree with the others that the Hypatia was fine the way it was, and everything would be fine.

We’re going to convince him with our claws, right?her cat suggested.

Notwith her claws.

Well, only as a last resort.

Mordecai sat, careful not to crush her, and she waited for the tension in the room to rise. Berwick would start it off, she guessed, spitting something about young upstarts thinking they ruled the world. Hebbings would say something that on the face of it was trying to calm him down, but really added fuel to the fire. Blanderley would—

“You’ve sure put the cat among the pigeons, haven’t you, Leith? Hah! The looks on their faces!”

Peony went still. If her cat-face could frown, she would have frowned. Blanderley sounded genuinely amused.

“Where’s that bottle? Here. You deserve a drink after that.” Glass clinked and bubbles popped as someone poured champagne for Mordecai.

What is happening?

She’d expected the board to be irate about Mordecai’s trick. Not celebrating it.

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