Page 85 of Dragon Tempted

Ryan sat back from his laptop. “Because he asked me about our relationship.”

She frowned. “I already told him we were best friends.”

“And he questioned if it was more than that.”

She blinked again. “More?”

Ryan looked at her like he had a secret. “Yes, I believe his exact words were, ‘How can you spend so much time with her and not…’”

“Not what?” she asked.

“Love you.”

“I…” She couldn’t think of anything else to say. Veronica was not having the same sort of trouble since she was screeching like a winning contestant on a game show.

He gave her a hard look. “Wow. I don’t remember the last time you were speechless.”

“I…” She closed her eyes and told V to shut up.

Ryan chuckled. “I take it Veronica is giving you an earful?”

“When isn’t she?” There. Sienna could talk again. Ryan was the only person who knew about Veronica. He didn’t think it was strange, or that she was strange. Maybe because she had told him about her inner voice when they were children. Kids were a lot more accepting of things.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have told you,” Ryan said.

“No. I’m glad you did. He’s one of the things I have on my mind.”

“I bet,” he said with a smirk.

“Stop.” She took a deep breath and blurted, “I yelled at him and then we kissed.”

Ryan sat upright in his chair. “Holy shit.”

“I know! There is so much going on right now. I don’t—”

“Nope,” he interrupted. “You’re not going to use your clan leader job as an excuse. There will always be something going on in the clan and your family. That doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to have a life.”

She cleared her throat. “After we kissed, John said we needed to talk about us, but not now. He wants to wait until after the curse is broken.”

Ryan reached across the desk and laid his hand on top of her clenched one. “And what do you want?”

Wasn’t that a loaded question? “I want a lot of things. But now isn’t the time. And my head keeps going over it again and again, with Veronica weighing in on things.”

He squeezed her hand. “How about we talk about clan business that has nothing to do with Templars, curses, or grumpy males?”

“Yes, please,” Sienna said. “Where are we with the paperwork for the children’s center?”

Ryan reached for a folder on the desk. “Pulling everything together. Susanna sent over a couple potential places for us to look at.”

“Great,” she said with a sigh. They spent most of the afternoon working on the plans and next steps, which let Sienna’s nerves take a break. Of course she should have realized that wouldn’t last too long when her phone dinged. There was a message in the chat group from Mia.

“What is it?” Ryan asked.

“I have a message from Mia. She attached a file. Let’s get Jonas on the phone so he can check the file before we open it.”

Ryan reached for the office phone. “Yeah, we don’t need some Templar virus in your phone or our network.” He called Jonas and spoke to him for a moment before hanging up. “He’s on his way.”

Minutes later Jonas walked in carrying a black laptop and sat down across from Sienna.