Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82371 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82371 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Yep, having mates was going to be difficult.
Chapter 12
Carrick
“Do you know why I’m here?” Glaring at Monroe made me feel better but his smile made me want to do something drastic to him.
“You wanted a tour of my shop?” He stepped away from the car where he’d been doing something under the hood and cocked his head to study me. “No, that would be why Lorne showed up here an hour ago.”
Interesting.
“No, I’m here because I’ve had three phone calls since lunch by members of our lovely community asking me to settle my privacy issues with Lorne quickly so they can figure out what’s going on.” Monroe’s laughter was not helping my mood.
But he did look nice when he was happy, so I could understand what Lorne saw in the tattooed giant.
“Evidently, I’ve bought him something or did something special to him that he can’t talk about and to sort out who won the bet, I have to explain what I did.” Monroe was trying not to laugh, I had to give him credit for that. “So far, the winning option seems to be that I’ve built him an amusement park in my basement because that’s what a little would want.”
I was really hoping Lorne hadn’t heard that one.
He’d get ideas.
Monroe took a deep breath and then started shaking his head. “This place might be bugged. Come on.”
What?
Blindly following him toward the back of his garage where his office was, I looked around the open space. “Where are your employees?”
He had at least two…I knew that much at least.
“It’s already four.” For some reason, Monroe thought that was a good answer until I just kept frowning at him.
As he let us in his office and shut the door, he chuckled. “They come in early and leave early. They’ve both got kids and their husbands do morning duty, so they come to work early so they can be off when the kids get off school.”
Oh.
Had I realized his employees were all women?
“That sounds like good planning.” For them at least. “I don’t like that you’re here alone, though.”
His grin came back.
“Don’t distract me by doing something cute and romantic. Now, what’s going on with this bet?” Before I could decipher the romantic part of what he’d said, he leaned against a chair and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against his body. “That’s better.”
For who?
I needed to think about why I was pissed, not his erection.
“You’re being ridiculous.” And so was everyone else in town. “From what I’ve managed to gather, Lorne and his friends were at the diner and he kept explaining that I wanted privacy and that he couldn’t talk about things. He dropped just enough odd comments that people are trying to guess what’s going on in my house.”
Monroe pressed his lips together as his chest jerked.
“Sure, laugh it up.” It wasn’t funny. “People keep calling to make me settle the bet. Evidently, the pot is at two hundred dollars at this point, and I got offered half if I’d let someone take pictures of the amusement park.”
Monroe was still doing his best not to laugh, but the big dragon’s eyes were filled with delight as he took another breath. “Well, at least he didn’t say you had a dungeon in your house. Sex or otherwise.”
“I’m truly grateful.” My dry response got a chuckle from him. “But an amusement park? Really?”
Monroe had the nerve to give me a kiss and grinned when I glared back at him. “I’m going to fall back on…at least it wasn’t the truth.”
That was true enough that it reminded me of what he’d said before. “Now, you’re being bugged?”
He shrugged but words quickly followed, so I didn’t have to kill him. “I can’t prove it, but several different people have tried to leave weird things in the shop today. A teddy bear and an alarm clock. Weird shit that I think have those nanny cams in them.”
For fuck’s sake.
“I don’t even know what to say.” Everyone was getting more insane by the second but I tried to find some logic in the situation. “Would you like me to try to find a spell to help you find the bugs or cameras?”
Having mates was more difficult than anyone had ever told me.
Monroe nodded and looked genuinely pleased. “Yes, thank you, but how about we talk about our evening first."
Our evening?
I must’ve looked stupid because his grin got wider. “I want a date with just the two of us later this week, but as long as you don’t mind, I wanted to have a little night with Lorne tonight.”
Before I could even begin to figure out a response, he continued adding to my list. “I’d love it if you were there with us, but if you want to ease into that side of things, I understand.”