Spell-Weaver
Page 10
Fortunately, the man had two brain cells to rub together and kept his face neutral. “I see.”
An awkward beat of silence passed before Adrian spoke. “Uh, Tori…there was a conference call on my calendar—”
“Already handled. I rescheduled to Monday afternoon, with an apology.” Tori slipped behind her desk and resumed her seat. She looked at Jason. “There’s also a cougar-shifter who’s been trying to get through to you for days—a border dispute between two groups of mountain lions—but I’m fending her off. You’re welcome.”
He nodded. “We’ll probably have to do some mediating there, but not today.”
“I’ll pencil them in for late next week. You’ll want to speak to both sides, of course.” She tapped a few notes into her computer, ignoring everyone as they exchanged greetings and congregated around the espresso machine. There was a tension in the air that she pretended didn’t exist. Important things could happen today, and that was one of the reasons she liked this job. She could help make a difference in the shifter world, but this wasn’t what she planned on doing forever.
Maybe that was why she’d suddenly decided to give up the cigarettes. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t known they were bad for her before she’d ever touched one. Some instinct that demanded change had twitched to life within her a few weeks back. Even the healthy routine she’d started hadn’t made that instinct quit nagging at the back of her mind. It had eased, but hadn’t stopped. Something else needed to change. Maybe her career? She’d come to Refuge Resort on a vacation after she’d graduated college five years ago and had just…never left. She wasn’t exactly using her degree in industrial design as a secretary. But other than working on her classic cars, she didn’t have a particular direction she wanted to pursue. She didn’t have a real passion for anything except hotrods. Probably not a good idea to make any sudden changes there, but she would look into her options. At the moment, anything could hit the chopping block until this instinct stopped prodding. It was beyond irritating and it just made the jonesing for cigarettes even worse.
“Tori?”
She looked up, meeting Lyra’s gaze. “Yeah?”
The she-wolf set a hand on Tori’s desk, leaning in a bit. “You okay? My cousin didn’t—”
“He’s fine.” She picked up a pencil and twirled it between her fingers. “I’m having the resort’s restaurant deliver lunch for you guys. Should be here shortly.”
“You’ll be having some too.” It wasn’t a question.
Tori grinned. “Of course. Though I think it’s best I not actually join you. I’ll eat at my desk.” She got up and made shooing motions with her hands, herding them all into the conference room. “Go on, get some good politicking in.”
The Leonidas family was used to both her managing them and generally displaying nothing like the submissive personality one would expect of a woman of her species and with her job title.
Everyone but Bastian went where she told them with a minimum of grumbling. He stared at her as if he had no idea what to make of her. Good. She hated fitting neatly into anyone’s pigeonhole.
She arched an eyebrow. “You’re going to miss your own meeting if you don’t get a move on.”
Something devilish flickered to life in his gray gaze, as if he wanted to call her on bossing people around, but he refrained from commenting. Anticipation shimmered within her, and she would have loved to hear whatever he was thinking. He sauntered slowly into the conference room. “I’ll see you later, Ms. Haida.”
The heavy promise in his voice made her insides clench with a need she couldn’t decide if she wanted to ignore or pursue. Not that she was going to tell him she was considering tracking him down after work tonight. Arrogant alpha male or not, attraction like this could be explosively fun. For a night or two, anyway. He definitely wasn’t the type she’d keep around long. And he was headed home soon, which made pursuing the attraction even more appealing. He couldn’t expect more than she wanted to give if he was gone.
“Later? You wish.” She grasped the handle to close the door in his face, noting the way his eyes narrowed. After there was a solid slab of oak between them, she let herself chuckle.
Tweaking that wolf’s tail was the most fun she’d had since she quit smoking.
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Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Spell-Weaver
Copyright © 2015 by Angela Addams
ISBN: 978-1-61922-447-6
Edited by Holly Atkinson
Cover by Angela Waters
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: April 2015
www.samhainpublishing.com
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
About the Author
Look for these titles by Angela Addams