by Starla Night
Of course, once she finished work and stowed her gear to clock out, everything went wrong.
Elle blocked her in with her cart. “Hey, the toilet wand is broken.”
“Give it here.” Rose gripped the long handle and banged the top against the wall. She clicked the power. Broad-spectrum light sterilized her coverall. “The battery gets loose. Tap it into place.”
“Thanks.” Elle peered down the hall toward Jasper’s office. “You’ve been here a long time, right? What do you think of the new boss?”
“I don’t know. I’m sure he’s fine. They wouldn’t promote just anybody.”
“Yeah, all right.” Elle bobbed to the elevators. A couple of times a week, she came in late and worked into the night.
Patty slid into the closet beside Rose. “It’s five minutes to leave and the floor cleaner isn’t charging again.”
“Oh, I just used that this morning.”
“Jasper asked me to show Peridot. But now I can’t get it to charge.”
“Did you fiddle the power cable?”
“Yes.”
“Turn it off and on again?”
“Did that.”
“At the station base?”
“Is that what you have to do? I was turning the cleaner itself on and off.”
“There’s a second power switch on the base. Sometimes that sticks in power off mode.”
“Right.” Patty patted Rose’s forearm. “Thank you, my dear.”
“No problem.”
Patty slipped out the door and Shawn stuck his head in. “Oh, Rose. I did the windows, but the security screen isn’t coming on again.”
“I’ll be right there.”
She hung up her bulky utility belt, unzipped and stepped out of her hazard suit, and hung it in the decontamination closet. Working the bigger jobs, anything that required operating heavy machinery, touching the sewage filtration system, or the HVAC, meant she got to suit up, which was fun.
Rose followed Shawn to the building security panel that extended from floor to ceiling with unlabeled blinking lights.
Shawn tapped the darkened light where the window security screen was supposed to be on. “I put in the code. It’s not code-change Wednesday, and it worked to power off the security screen so I could wash the windows, so I don’t know why it’s not powering back up again.”
“Mm. What’s last week’s code?”
He gave it to her.
She mentally calculated the algorithm for the next code and input it. The lights flashed and the building’s laser defenses reactivated.
Shawn shook his head. “How’d you do that?”
“I saw the security guy today. He’s been out of town for a while, so I thought maybe he changed days and forgot to tell us.”
“Right in the middle of my window washing.” Shawn shook the dripping squeegee over the drain and moseyed back to the supply closet.
Rose checked the time on her cell phone, pocketed the worn device, and finished up with washing her hands.
Jasper knew what time she got off, but he must have a lot to go over with the new guy. She tried to wait outside his office. The urge to take off running hit her again. She battled it, then gave in and dashed outside.
Heavy August heat socked the pep right out of her.
She sat on the steps closest to the shipment doors in the shade. Heat radiated from the concrete. After a few minutes, she jumped to her feet and paced the side of the parking lot.
Rose couldn’t let Jasper marry an abusive stranger.
She just couldn’t.
Without risking herself, she had to…
A dinged up black car pulled into the private lot and rolled to a stop in front of her. The passenger door opened.
Rose halted and crossed her arms.
A mirror image of herself in baggier clothes exited. “Hey, ‘good’ me.”
Rose glanced back at the emptying office building. “Briar, what are you doing here?”
“Just came to see my hard-working twin.” Briar smiled. The motion pulled at the four-inch scar above her left brow where she’d argued with the shallow end of a swimming pool and lost. “And here you are! Working hard, earning a paycheck.”
“You should try it.”
“Ha ha. You’re a comedian now.”
“Not really.” Rose needed to cut this short. The last thing she needed was to have to explain to her coworkers about Briar, and vice versa. Separation, compartmentalization, and keeping things tidy. “There’s only one funny thing about you being here. Where’s my car?”
“Around.” As if Briar knew Rose was trying to get rid of her, she swaggered a bit. She’d gained weight again and had gone up a size in jeans; a chain connected two belt loops because it didn’t go to a wallet. “I needed it.”
“Did you get your license back?”
“So, my friends and me are going to start a business. It’s in a hot new market.” Briar ignored her question and instead framed her chipped acrylics around a fake product idea. “Oily Legs.”
Rose’s heart sank. “Oily Legs? You’re getting into lotions now?”
“Essential oils are hot. And so are those leggings. Combine the two and you’ve got…”
“Essential Leggings?”
“Oily Legs.” She waited for a beat.
The fact that Briar still came to Rose with this hopeful look on her face, seeking approval for what was either a scam or a terrible idea—or a fine idea, but which Briar would abandon the first day she realized it required consistent work—gave Rose the first twinge of a stress headache.
She’d been trying to help Briar their entire lives, and it broke her heart to break Briar’s heart, but she also still needed her car back.
Rose tried to tread a middle ground. “Is that what you call the business? Oily Legs?”
Briar’s face fell. She waved her hand, trying to act casual, while upset that Rose wasn’t plunged into raptures by the mere idea. “Oh, I don’t know. It’s registered with my friend’s friend. It doesn’t have a name yet. But we need to buy leggings and oils and business cards, and that’s where you come in.”
“I’d be happier about ‘coming in’ after you return my car.”
Briar didn’t even glance at the stranger’s car behind her. “Don’t be so narrow-minded. We just need a thousand dollars to buy in.”
“A thousand!”
“Rose, it’s for our future. Liam’s future. You don’t want to be working for The Man your whole life, do you? This is how you break free, become your own boss, get that independence. And get appreciated for what you do.”
Jasper emerged from the main exit and oriented on her and Briar.
Briar shaded her eyes. “Who’s that?”
“The Man.”
She pursed her lips. “He’s pretty hot.”
Rose’s defensive hackles went up. Uncouple, separate, defend. “He’s engaged.”
Briar grinned. “Maybe he wants to invest.”
“No, Briar.” Rose shooed her to the black sedan. “Get out of here.”
Her tone went to teasing. “What? Are you too embarrassed to have a twin who’s not successful like you? Do I embarrass you?”
“Shut up.” Rose avoided looking at the others in the car. The less she knew, the better she had plausible deniability. “Just go.”
Briar hung in the door. “What about my money?”
“What about my car?”
The people inside tittered. They were all, to a one, wearing sunglasses. The driver looked bored.
Briar stiffened and lowered her voice. “Be careful. You don’t want to get on my bad side. I’ll take Liam.”
Rose’s chest tightened.
She forced herself to wave her hands in mock exasperation. “Take him, then. Don’t tell me about it. My life will be easier, to be honest. It’s easier to date without a kid. And I’d save so much money. Grandma, too.”
“You’ll make so much money you’ll never have to work a day again.”
“Yeah? You’ll regret not getting in on this. When I’m in a mansion driving a pink Ferrari, you’ll regret it.” Briar settled into her seat and slammed the door. “You’ll regret it, Rose!”
The car peeled away.
“I regret not having my car!” Rose shouted after her.
Briar’s arm shot out the window and she flipped the bird.
The sedan sped away.
Jasper arrived, looking gorgeous like a tall glass of water, and she was way too thirsty. “Who was that?”
“Nobody.”
“She upset you.”
“Yeah, it’s a long story.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, she’s like an old friend but I don’t know her anymore.” She had to stop her nervous jabbering response. “Forget it. I want to help you with your problem. The engagement.”
He rested on his heels. “Thank you, truly. What you said in the office was kind.” His tone held the but…
She hazarded a guess at his problem. “But you can’t pretend to be engaged.”
“No.”
“So, well, then, what about actually getting engaged?”
He squinted at her.
She waited for him to say something, but he didn’t. He just squinted.
Maybe he hadn’t heard.
The sun beat down boiling her whole body hotter than the pavement. Her stomach bounced in her abdomen. She swallowed and pushed through. “You don’t want to live dishonestly, and I respect that, but you also can’t sacrifice yourself just to make your family happy, because that would be wrong.”
“I’m fully reconciled to performing my duty—”
“So that’s why we should make it real.”
He dropped silent. The confused squint returned.
She spelled it out. “You propose, I accept, you tell the other dragons no, and then we…”
His brows lifted. “We?”
She waved her hand. “We just see. See how it works out. If you even like me after you know what—because you’ll probably take one look at my life, my family, how I’m living, and nope right out. You’ll go running, so I can’t get too excited, and you shouldn’t either. But if it’s saving you, if dating or anything actually saves you, then I’ll try.”
“Dating or ‘anything’? What’s ‘anything’?”
“I don’t know.” She felt blistering hot. “We’ll be engaged, so whatever we feel like.”
“Engaged,” he repeated. “Pretend engaged?”
“For real engaged.”
He blinked. “Rose, are you proposing marriage? Actual marriage? Me and you? Not pretend, as you described in my office?”
“Um…”
This was a bad idea. Such a bad idea.
And here she was anyway, making bad choices. It wasn’t her first bad choice. When she’d received the call from the social worker to take Liam from the hospital for a few days while they located his absent mother, she’d agreed to take him even knowing that he wasn’t hers, even knowing a few days might turn into a few years. Now, she had the same premonition with Jasper.
If she made this offer, she’d never go back on it, no matter what.
He might get taken away, he might leave her, but she’d never stop trying to help him. She’d open herself to him, bare everything, and he could leave at any second, or trash the gifts she offered. He could do anything. Because once she committed, she never turned back.
“…Yeah. I kind of am,” she finished.
There. It was said. Done. She couldn’t unsay it. Jasper knew the truth.
He shook his head. “Why? You told me the night of my arrest that you would never marry me. What changed?”
She shrugged. “It’s not right. Being forced into this. You’re a good person, and we’re already friends, and—”
“Work friends.”
“Well, maybe a little more.”
His mouth twisted, and he glanced back at the office where he’d given up his position. A frown closed his face. Pain radiated from his brown eyes and he shook his head. “It’s too late. I pledged myself to Adviser Wrathmoda. I’ve never gone back on my word. I can’t start now.”
Her heart snapped. He was the same as her. When he committed, his promise was unbreakable. She should have realized that in his office instead of making herself look like an idiot in the summer heat.
Rose backed away, a thousand degrees in her cheeks. “Okay. I just thought it was an option. You don’t want me, suit yourself—”
“Wait.” He grabbed her hand. New desperation tightened his expression. “I want you.”
“Uh, okay.” She tried to tug her hand out of his, and her voice cracked. “So, what are you saying?”
He slid into her space, his dark eyes melting her inside, the wicked fresh scent of his perfect suit intoxicating her. “Yes.”
Her mouth went dry.
He leaned over her, invading her senses with his presence. She didn’t think of him as being that much taller than her, but when her hip pressed against his, he gained inches. His steady coolness tugged her in. His eyes gleamed with interest. Arousal pinged in her belly and she squeezed her thighs on the hungry awakening of her feminine center.
She licked her lips.
He tilted his head to kiss her.
“Woooh!” Briar’s friend’s car drove by on the empty road, loud bass booming from the windows.
Nerves twanged in Rose’s chest like a snapped guitar string. She rested a palm on his chest and backed away. “Whoa, you have to meet my family before any of that.”
The car swerved to the main road and disappeared.
“But we’re dating now, and this is what dating people do.”
“Yes, but—”
He swooped and captured her lips.
She lived in his kiss.
His lips were flatter and wider than she’d imagined and his soapy scent even more addictive. Hot arousal poured into her feminine center. Little fireworks sparkled in her chest, and she clung to his forearms for balance.
The silky soft black suit caught on her rough fingers.
Her nipples brushed his hard chest and tightened, shooting sparklers of need streaking through her body. She wanted to peel off her shirt and bare her bra, wrap her legs around him, savor the wet of his tongue on her nipples and the bite of his fingers gripping her hips, and for the first time in her life, go wild.
He parted his lips and nibbled, teasing her to open to him, inviting her to take a taste. Soak in his bitter coffee and sharp masculine flavors.
It was delicious, wonderful, mind-bending, sexy.
She was always the smart, hard, decisive one. She should stop him, but she just wanted to nestle into his arms and rub against him, drive him wild.
He leaned back, giving her air, with a shimmering glow and hunger thrumming in his chest. “Yes, but?”
She licked her lips and released his expensive suit. “Not every couple follows the same playbook. Don’t lump me in with your ex-girlfriends.”
“I don’t have ex-girlfriends.”
“Because I…you don’t? Why not?”
“Because before I came to Earth, I worked in a factory that had no opportunity to meet with female dragons.” He linked their hands. “And after I came to Earth, I met you.”
Her heart thudded. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that I have studied the documents on human relationships with my mind focused only on you.”
“Documents?”
“Relationship websites, bodice ripper books, daytime television—”
“What?”
“—rom-com movies, the archives of PornHub—”
“No! Oh, no. Get those thoughts right out of your head.” She huffed a sigh, torn between tender feelings and outrage. “Whatever you saw and read, it doesn’t apply. I’m different, okay?”
He nodded. “Of course. I ignored many things that didn’t seem relevant, such as histor
ical documents on relationships with pirates and dinosaurs.”
“Dinosaurs?”
“Yes, females love gigantic dinosaur cock in the—”
“Agh! No.”
“Yes, there is an entire genre of—”
“No, no, no.”
“Rose, I studied very hard so I could learn the intricacies to please—”
“No, I mean, really. That’s, uh, someone else’s fantasy. We have to start over from scratch. Wipe your mind clean.”
He frowned.
“And I, uh, I have to consent to everything.” She lifted their linked hands. “Look, you can’t just take my hand, you have to ask.”
He released her hand, took a deep breath, and turned his big melty gorgeous eyes on her. “Can I hold your hand?”
Her heart squeezed in her chest. She would cry, faint, or melt into a puddle at his feet.
Rose pressed her hand to her chest and strode away before she did something stupid. “No, we’re not like twelve.”
He kept up with her. “But I want to hold your hand.”
“Let’s just get in the car.”
He stopped beside his black Jaguar. He’d gotten it because one day she’d wondered aloud what it was like to drive fancy cars; not two days later he’d test-driven a bunch of different ones and offered to take her home in this one.
She’d declined. Always declined.
Until now.
“I can drive you home?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He clicked the button. The doors slid up and even though it was a million degrees outside and even hotter in her cheeks, the car radiated cool as if it were too expensive to get hot. She slid into the bucket seat, suddenly feeling the grunge of the day on her tattered jeans and threadbare T-shirt, like just sitting in the car might make it dirty. It smelled like money and plastic.
He slid into the driver’s seat. The doors closed and the seat belt slid up the door, locking into place. He turned to her. “Now can I hold your hand?”
She wasn’t against it, even though it made her squirm, but she couldn’t ignore the practicalities. “Then how can you drive?”
“I will use my knees.”
“You will not. I’ll get out of the car.”
“But—”
“It’s not safe. And also, I’m not getting picked up by the cops and arrested when you have an accident.”
