Is he confused? Confounded? About to kill me for my clumsiness?
He slowly bent his knees, kneeling until he was eye level with her.
Lacking the fundamental intimidation she should be feeling, Evie instead smiled brightly at the man the entire kingdom lived in fear of. “Good morning, sir.” A muffled groan came from within the boss’s office. Raising her brows and angling her head to look past his, she added, “Having a busy morning, are we?”
The boss raised his brows back at her. “Quite.” Shaking his head as if rattled by his own answer, he began gathering the rest of her strewn-about papers before placing them on her desk.
Evie put her foot down to stand and winced, earning a sharp look from the evil incarnate standing before her. His mouth twisted down into a frown. He was…angry? Of course he was angry. Evie had interrupted his business by falling flat on her ass.
She started to pull herself up with one hand on the edge of the desk, but the boss gripped either side of her waist and lifted her before she could protest. Not that she would’ve, had she had time to, because his large hands were, well, very nice.
When she was finally on her feet, he dropped his hands in an instant, clenching them at his sides. Warmth stole up her cheeks as she awkwardly tried to look anywhere but at his face, afraid she might see a smirk or worse, and landed upon the open V of his black shirt.
And her mouth, for some gods-forsaken reason, decided to produce an excess of saliva.
Evangelina Celia Sage, if you choose this moment to drool, you are never reading a dirty novel again.
Too distracted by the patch of skin, Evie nearly missed the way her boss was assessing her. Not the way her previous employers had, but in a far more analytical way. Like he was searching for inconsistencies.
“How did you fall, Sage?” His words had a smooth sophistication. A lilting accent that only made his voice more alluring.
“My chair turned on me,” Evie said flatly. “And my rear end became very well acquainted with the floor.”
His lips twitched upward, and Evie felt like she’d just found a treasure trove. Twisting to put the rest of the papers down, she felt another sharp ache slide down her back. She winced.
The ghost of a smile slipped from his lips, and Evie cursed her own clumsiness for causing it to disappear.
“Do you need to see the healer?” he asked, placing a hand on one side of her desk, leaning down in a way that put emphasis on his strong forearm beneath the sleeve of his rolled-up shirt.
Hmm…suddenly her mouth was completely dry.
“No, sir, I wouldn’t want to subject Tatianna to my war with the chair.” She leaned in, gesturing at him to come closer into her confidence. He turned his head slightly, giving her his ear, and Evie smothered her surprise at him entertaining her antics. “Best to keep this between us, or it may enlist the other chairs in a revolt.”
Then the boss did something that nearly made Evie’s mortal soul leave her body—he laughed. Or rather he coughed, a lot, into his hand. It was closed around his mouth, clearly masking a smile he was having the fight of his life trying to keep off his lips.
Evie mumbled her shock under her breath. “That wasn’t even that funny.”
The watchful eyes of the other workers snapped them both to attention, and before the boss turned to glare a warning at their audience, the crowd scattered like ants that saw a large foot coming at them.
Except, of course, Becky, who kept her hawk eyes glued to the pair from the other side of the room.
“See the healer, Sage. We have a big week ahead of us, and I can’t afford you falling dead on me.”
“I don’t think anyone’s ever died from a bruise on the ass, sir.”
His eyes went tight, and his mouth did a familiar movement that even Evie knew meant she’d pushed too far.
She took a tiny step backward. “But I’d hardly want to be the first, so I’ll just—I’ll just head there now.” She made a wide path around him, passing his office. She spied a scrawny-looking man inside, lying underneath a brick that had come loose from the wall above. No doubt, after he’d been slammed into it.
Kingsley sat on the edge of the boss’s desk, as he always did these last few months, his wide, unblinking expression taking her in before his webbed foot lifted one of his tiny communication signs. This one in red chalk, reading, Ouch.
Evie had grown quite fond of the tiny creature’s presence. He mostly just sat there, observing and offering up quiet counsel with the slab of slate the boss gave him to write on. His tiny gold crown always at attention on his slimy head.