Page 7 of Her Purr-fect Christmas Mate

Peonyhadbeensobusy glaring at Mordecai and telling herself how super not attracted to him she was that it took her a moment to realize what she was seeing. He stalked off—not sexily, she told herself.There’s nothing sexy about the back of his head or his shoulders or the ass he’s hiding under his stupid coat.

Then his feet went out from under him.

He landed heavily.

And didn’t get back up.

Shit.

If that prick Poor-Little-Matchgirls himself on Christmas Eve outside my shop…She didn’t know what would happen to the sale of the Hypatia if the new owner froze to death in the snow, but the narrow chance that it would mean happy-ever-after for the bookstore wasn’t worth the bad publicity. She threw on her coat and hurried over.

The look on his face when he saw her leaning over him was almost enough to make her head straight back inside. He met her eyes as though she were the last person on the planet he wanted to see.

“I should leave you here to freeze,” she said.

“Very likely,” he gritted out.

“Lucky for you, I have a better plan.”

His eyebrows went up. She tried not to show that she was surprised, too.

But this was her one chance to do something about the disaster her life had become. She couldn’t let it slip through her fingers.

“Come on,” she said, holding out a gloved hand to him. “Let me help you up. And then, you’re going to take me out for drinks.”

A flash of something—Interest? Suspicion?—glinted in his eyes. It was intoxicating. She wanted to keep doing this: wrong-foot him, surprise him, take him off his guard.

Then he reached for her hand, and she was the one taken off-guard.

She leaned forward at the same moment he reached up, and instead of taking her hand, he grasped her around her bare wrist. His touch was suddenly, shockingly intimate. His hand disappearing into the sleeve of her coat. Skin to skin.

He leapt up like the icy sidewalk had burned him, and snatched his hand away.

Peony swayed as he released her. Swayedtowardshim, as though he were an ocean current drawing her in. “I…”

“Excuse me.” He grabbed his own hand as though it was burning, too, and hunted out a pair of leather gloves from his pockets. She should have been outraged. Yes. Outrage was the feeling she should have been feeling. It was there, waiting in the wings for its big moment. But it would have to keep waiting.

He looked as shocked as she felt. His black, broken-glass eyes were wide under their necromancer eyebrows. As though touching herhadbeen something intimate. Something shocking. Something…

Her heart flipped over.

Frog,she reminded herself.And he looks like he’s about to find a handy lily pad to hide under.

She grabbed his arm before he could scuttle away.

He stared at her, dazed. “Drinks? You followed me out here to ask me on a date?”

The vague expression left his eyes. The expression that replaced it was hideously familiar. She’d seen it at the end of every date she’d ever been on. As if she’d needed to hear them reject her to know things weren’t going to work. One kiss was all she needed to figure that out.

“Ask you out? No. You’re my ticket to whatever old boys’ club party Blanderley and his friends are having.” She drew herself up. “I should have received an invitation. I’m a manager, too.Anda resident. I—I should be involved in any decision-making.”

Her voice did not wobble on the last bit. Not at all. Well. Maybe a tiny bit. She forced her eyes away from Mordecai before she saw whether he noticed.

“I see.” Mordecai straightened his shoulders. His biceps flexed under her fingers. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“That’s none of your concern. You’re just my ticket inside.” His eyebrows shot up. “Don’t look so shocked. And don’t worry. I’ll let go of you as soon as you take me to wherever you’re all meeting up.”

Her throat tightened.Blanderley is going to hate this. But what’s the worst that can happen? I lose my job and my apartment in one fell swoop? Double-fired and double-homeless?

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