by Starla Night
Peridot frowned, and it was obvious that he didn’t.
“Have fun training our replacements,” Patty said, sing-song to herself, almost vibrating with rage.
Elle followed them out of the office, grooving with an aggressive bob of her head.
Rose stopped in the doorway. “You’re making a mistake.”
Peridot lifted his hands from the keyboard. “Why do you mind being fired, Rose? You will take a high position in Jasper’s new company now that you two are engaged.”
Uh oh.
Her coworkers pooled in the doorway jolted with surprise.
She clamped her shaking hands under her arms. “It’s not—it’s really—it’s sudden and weird and not settled or anything.”
“Yes, it’s all settled. He has announced your engagement. And now the question is how you will defeat Adviser Wrathmoda in mortal combat.”
“Defeat? What?”
“Jasper doesn’t think you will fight. Is that true? You will get engaged to a dragon male but leave him helpless to defend himself from an enraged female bent on ripping his hands off?”
“I thought if I…ah… it’s not something we’ve discussed yet.” She backed out of the office and shut the door on Peridot’s inquiring face.
Her coworkers clustered around her. Agitation mixed with shock.
She edged away. “That was nuts. Well, I’m going to head to my usual—”
“Wait just a darn minute.” Patty fisted her hands on her hips. “There’s something you’re not telling us.”
Elle blurted out what they were all thinking. “You’re sleeping with Jasper?
“Well, uh…I haven’t.”
“Then why did Peridot say you’re engaged?”
“Because, well, it’s complicated.”
“So you are engaged?”
“Not exactly.”
Everyone stared at her.
“I am, but it’s nothing like he said. Jasper’s in trouble and I offered to help. Not to fight anyone, though. I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
“Help? Like, in bed, help?”
“Nothing has happened, in bed, or otherwise.” She reddened and shooed them to move. “So, we had better get to our stations before we give Peridot something to get mad about.”
“Forget that guy.” Shawn glared at the closed door, clearly unconcerned whether Peridot could hear them. “He wants a reason to fire me, he can have it.”
“I can’t believe it.” Elle meandered after Rose. “I thought you hated him.”
“Hate? I never hated Jasper.”
“But you didn’t share his feelings. Or did you?” Patty squeezed her forearm, an incredulous smile on her face. “You never said anything. He’s been in love with you for years. Years. And we had it wrong all this time.”
Elle put up her hand. “Didn’t he go to your house with, like, a knife?”
“That was a misunderstanding.”
“You made him spend a night in jail.”
“The cops did, not me.”
“Because you let them think he was a deranged prowler.”
“Look, I know it’s a little hard to believe, but I keep my work life and my home life separate, and Jasper violated that. Now, he’s not my boss anymore, and so, it’s different.” She heard the lameness in her own voice but she tried to push through. “The less you know about it, the better.”
Elle stopped in the middle of the hallway. “Oh, okay. So, I get not wanting to date in the workplace, but I feel stupid for the times I tried to be supportive in the wrong direction.”
“It’s fine. I didn’t let it affect my work.”
“I know, but I feel bad now. You were so supportive of me changing therapists and medicating for my anxiety. I told you a lot of personal stuff.”
“I never asked you to do that.”
Elle jerked her chin. “You never…Oh. Uh… I mean, I know you never asked me, but I’m trying to say that I always cared. Your support meant a lot to me, and I’m sorry I got things wrong with you and Jasper.”
“Just let’s forget about it, okay? The sooner we forget, the sooner everything can go back to normal. Coworkers aren’t friends, so if you get something wrong, it doesn’t matter.”
“Coworkers aren’t friends?” Elle scratched at her belly piercing where she’d once told Rose the intimate details of her worst breakup, how she’d gotten a piercing to express her inner strength, and how she’d had to re-calibrate when it had gotten infected. “Are you saying we’re not friends?”
“It’s just different.”
“How?”
“Rose is a private person,” Patty pointed out gently.
“Right, that’s why I never minded that you redirect the conversation when we ask about your life. But I still thought we were friends. And she hasn’t told me how it’s different.”
“It just is,” Rose said.
“But—”
“I can’t take on your problems.” Rose had to draw clear lines. “My plate’s full.”
That was definitely the wrong thing to say.
Elle took a step back, hurt stamped on her features. “So, what? You’re only friendly during work hours? Or when you asked me about my anxiety and depression or told me I could always talk, you meant as long as it was inside the building?”
“No. But I am busy outside of work, so…”
“So, you mean, Yes. You only care about me during work hours, at work, and nowhere else.”
Patty and Shawn stood in silence behind Elle.
“Okay, this is getting unprofessional.” Rose clapped her hands. “Let’s get back on task.”
Elle shoved her earbuds in her ears and turned on her heel. “Excuse me for thinking we were friends.”
Patty watched her storm off sadly, then patted her own utility belt, and headed to her next task without glancing at Rose.
The silence echoed.
Shawn took out his phone—which he never did on work time—and strolled to the staff room.
“Where are you going?” The wobble in Rose’s voice made her clear her throat. “I thought you were on field duty?”
“Nah, I think I have two years of contractually agreed breaks to make up.”
“Hey.” She strove for her normal tone. “There was a period of adjustment when we first started, too.”
“Did Jasper tell you how he planned to fire you on his first day?”
“No.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve got Jasper’s ear, so tell him. I’ve gotta spruce my resume, and I might as well steal the Wi-Fi. It’s faster.” He moseyed to the break room, angrier than she’d ever seen the big man.
Rose entered the environmental tech closet and studied the rota.
If Shawn did nothing today, then she and the other women could each pick up an area and still complete most of the building. Tomorrow, they’d have to reassign his work. Pipe cleaning duty waited for no one.
Rose went to the delivery floor to grab the sweeper and get working. But she’d waited too long. The daily shipment hovered, and Jasper’s inventory dragons were checking off orders. Shortly, the orders would be parted out, and then she could return and sweep.
Jasper’s inventory assistants waved at her. They knew the drill. One assistant lofted three claws to estimate how many hours it would take to unload so she knew when to come back.
Perfect.
She changed out of her suit and packed her cart.
Patty and Elle lingered outside the elevator talking behind their hands. They saw her. Elle turned away abruptly. Patty rolled her lips, sympathetic, but also turned away.
A cold weight settled in Rose’s stomach.
She parked the cart and waited.
Her coworkers strolled to the break room, clearly avoiding their tasks, just like Shawn. It complicated her idea about parting out the rota, but she also couldn’t approach them right now to ask. She waited until the break room door closed, then rolled to the elevator and hit the button.
Peridot exited the hallway and stopped her from entering the elevator. “You’re supposed to sweep the shop floor today.”
Her heart raced a hundred times a minute. She babbled, nervous. “Oh, I know, but there’s a shipment getting unloaded now, so it makes more sense for me to clean the upper floors and come back when it’s clear.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
She blinked. “What?”
“Wait for the shipment to clear, then clean those floors as assigned.”
“But unloading takes hours.”
He stared at her as though the consideration didn’t matter.
“If I’m stuck waiting for hours, I’m wasting my time, and also the other floors aren’t getting cleaned.”
He frowned. “Jasper made the schedule. You suggested not changing the schedule.”
“Jasper always let us move around the tasks to get more work done.”
His eyes narrowed. “I can’t change the schedule to have a meeting without informing everyone, but you can change the schedule any time you wish?”
“If it makes sense. Based on the building.”
“Fine.” He flicked his finger at her cart. “Go to the top floor.”
“The top?” She checked the time. “Is there an emergency?”
“I’m changing the schedule based on what makes sense.”
“Oh, usually we go during a lunch break when—”
“Are you refusing?”
“No, but everyone’s up there now, so we can’t run the big cleaning machines. It’s where everyone’s busy.”
“I do not tolerate insubordination.”
“I’m not trying to sass, I’m trying to tell you how we clean. Dodging around people takes longer, so on a day like today, it makes sense to—”
“No excuses.”
“Okay, but I’m not going to get all of my areas cleaned to the usual standard,” she warned, rolling the rest of the way onto the elevator.
“That’s your problem.” He stepped back from the elevator. “Although as stated, it doesn’t matter if you are the first who is fired.”
Her stomach sank.
Behind him, her trio of coworkers came out of the break room. They watched silently.
Nobody stuck up for her.
He turned on his heel and walked away.
The door closed on their silent gazes.
She leaned hard on the cart. Her hands shook. She struggled not to cry.
This was why she didn’t want to mix her private and work lives. At work, she wanted to work. She didn’t want to make friends who’d then judge her, and that’s exactly what had happened. She cared about what they thought. Now, they used it against her. And even though Jasper wasn’t her boss anymore, and she’d come to work so excited, she now regretted feeling sorry for him and giving in.
What did Peridot mean, she had to fight the adviser? With what? How?
Everyone was counting on her, and if something happened, more than just herself would go down in a wreck.
Chapter Fourteen
Jasper met Rose in the parking lot after his long, exhausting day.
His siblings had demanded he accept Adviser Wrathmoda’s offer, and because his security had been revoked, he was required to stay in public areas. He couldn’t get a rest. How terrible to be a foreign dragon in the office he’d built!
But, as he walked out into the sunshine and found Rose pacing in front of his Jaguar, a light pierced his chest, and calm returned. All this was worthwhile because he had Rose.
She saw him and stopped short. “Jasper. I’ve got to talk to you.”
“Good.” He drew her into his arms. Her supple skin glowed hot in the sun and perspiration teased her upper lip. “I love talking with you.”
Her brows smoothed. “You do?”
“But I like not talking even more.” He dropped a kiss on her lips.
She melted in his arms. Her fingers wove between the buttons of his gray silk and her lips parted, welcoming him, first with surprise and then with hunger. She needed him as much as he needed her.
He tangled their tongues, absorbing her sweet taste, and then kissed up to her ear and nipped her sensitive lobe. Needy moans sounded in the back of her throat. He fitted her curves to his hard places like matching pieces of a jigsaw. He wanted to lean her over the Jaguar and peel off her jeans, worship her femininity and thrust in his hard cock.
But he leashed his need. “Mm, I do.”
She sucked in a shuddery breath. Then, she stiffened and disentangled. “We shouldn’t do this here.”
He released her.
On the sidewalk behind him, his environmental technicians strolled to their cars.
He waved a cheerful welcome. “Good work today.”
The trio exchanged glances and then Elle waved hard. “Bye, Jasper!”
“We miss you,” Patty called.
Shawn rolled his lips.
They split off to their cars and drove away.
A wave of nostalgia hit. He would never be their boss again, and they were good, dedicated workers in their own ways.
He unlocked Rose’s door. “We should invite them to our wedding.”
“Maybe.”
“Aren’t you friends?”
“Work friends. Not home friends.”
“My work friends are my home friends.”
“Mm. We’re different.”
That was true. Jasper drove to her grandmother’s house, and this time she didn’t stop him from braving the parking lot and even stopping in front of her grandmother’s duplex. He exited and followed Rose to the bottom of the steps. “Can I meet your grandmother this time?”
She rested a hand on his bicep. “You have to return your car.”
“Luis assured me nothing would happen to it.”
“Well…wait here, okay? I’ll check with Grandma.”
“Okay.” Jasper leaned in for a quick kiss.
Rose softened and tipped her head up to meet him.
“Well, well, well.” The female Rose had yelled at outside the office descended the bowed steps. “Look who’s here.”
“Oh! Uh...” Rose jerked back and dropped Jasper’s arm like it burned. “What are you doing here?”
“Visiting Grandma. Like a good person.” The woman eyed Jasper. “So, you’re Rose’s new boy toy. Did she tell you about me?”
“You’re like an old friend that she doesn’t know anymore.”
The woman’s brows rose, and she looked shocked and amused, covering her darkly tinted lips. “Oh, a ‘friend,’ wow.”
Rose put her hand on his arm. “Don’t talk.”
He placed a reassuring hand over hers. She vibrated with stress. Don’t talk? That was an easy request to grant.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Rose told the friend.
“Sure, I did.” Her friend rolled the rest of the way down the steps. “Nice car. Why are you whining about yours when you have this?”
“Because it’s not mine. Anyway, if you’re here, then I’ll go.”
“I’m leaving.” The friend stopped in front of Jasper and looked him up and down. “Who’s your new man?”
Jasper kept his mouth shut.
The friend laughed. “Oh, I see how it is. Rose has absolute control, huh? You must like a cold, hard, b—”
“Don’t!” Rose grabbed the passenger door handle. “Jasper, let’s go—”
“Rose.” The grandmother stood at the top of the stairs looking harassed and stressed. “Rose, I got that test paper you asked for.”
Rose wrinkled her nose and released the door handle just as Jasper clicked to unlock the car. “Of course you did.”
Her grandma waved her up the stairs.
Rose’s lips thinned. She glanced at him with foreboding.
The friend raised a brow at Jasper. “So, can he talk?”
Jasper deferred to Rose.
She rolled her eyes. “You can talk. Just don’t say anything that makes me look like a crazy person, okay?�
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“When did I do that?”
She rolled her eyes, jogged up the steps, and disappeared inside with her grandmother, leaving him outside with the curious friend.
He rested his hip against the hood as he waited on the sidewalk, ignoring the friend’s obvious scrutiny. Rose protected her family. She would be a great mother to their dragonlets.
Cheers erupted from Luis’s house. He was watching a sport, maybe soccer.
Rose’s friend trailed a finger along the hood of his Jaguar. “Rose didn’t tell you who I am?”
“No.”
“She’s my twin sister. I’m Briar.”
Surprise filled him. “You’re Liam’s mother.”
“That’s right. He’s a little pain in the patootie, but I love him.”
“Rose, too.”
She snorted. “Yeah, right. She can’t wait to get rid of him.”
“No, Rose loves Liam very much.”
“Except for all the times she asks me to take him away.”
“She often says she doesn’t care about what she most values,” he assured her. “That’s her way of protecting herself.”
Briar raised both brows. “Oh, really? She told you that?”
“I figured it out.”
“Huh.” Briar circled his car, admiring it from every angle, and then snapped her hands. “Hey, Mister Smarty Pants. I’m starting a sure-fire clothing business: Leggings infused with essential oils. It’s aromatherapy for your clothes. They’re pre-soaked in one hundred percent raw peppermint oil, citrus oil, and tea tree oil which rub your skin all day. It’s a hundred times stronger than those wearable diffusers. We just need a startup investment of one…no, two thousand dollars.”
“Two thousand American dollars? Cash?”
“Yeah, well, it’s a lot at once, but I’ll take whatever you’ve got.”
“The amount is fine. Here.” He peeled twenty hundred-dollar bills from his clip and handed them to her.
She stared at the wad in shock.
“Where are you sourcing your materials?”
“Oh. Uh, my friend knows.”
“Will you provide a quarterly investor’s report?”
“Yeah. Sure. Whatever that is.” She stuffed the money into her small, tight denim pocket, but it was too big to fit. She stumbled back like he would change his mind. “I’ll be back for more. You’re an important investor. Yeah.”
