Read Online Never Deal with Dragons by Lorenda Christensen - Free Book Online

called me at least once a day to change the wording.
    Trian caught the look on my face. His eyes sharpened, and he gave Emory what I’d labeled as his “dangerous” smile, the one that looked all sweet and innocent, but held a potentially lethal bite of wit. “Well, it was good that Myrna was available to hold down the fort until you arrived.” Trian looked down to scoot a cucumber from one side of his plate to the other. Then, almost as an afterthought, he spoke.
    “What was your prior appointment?”
    Emory’s smile froze on his face. “Well, I, uh...” He wasn’t used to people questioning his excuses, and obviously hadn’t bothered coming up with one. “Um, there was a dental problem that I needed to take care of.”
    “Before eight in the morning? I didn’t know dentists had office hours that early.” Trian’s smile and tone remained pleasant, but he’d leaned slightly toward Emory, and I caught a glimmer of purpose in his eyes, like a predator circling prey.
    Richard shifted slightly in his chair, his gaze also focused on my boss.
    Emory must have noticed the change in the air, because he chuckled once more. Only this time, his laugh was shaky and flustered, and he ran a napkin nervously across his mouth before responding. “Yes, well, it was an emergency appointment. He had to fit me in.
    “I’m not sure how that’s any of your business anyway. What I do when I’m not in the office is personal and private. If you invited me to this meeting to talk about my teeth, then we’re finished here.” When Emory was backed into a corner, he tended to bluster about until he’d intimidated the person making him uncomfortable. Unfortunately, in this case, he didn’t have anything intimidating to say. And he knew it.
    Emory pushed back from the table and moved to stand. He was sweating again, and the hand I put on his shoulder caused his thin cotton shirt to cling to his skin. He’d already dragged me all the way here; no way would I let him leave now.
    “Emory, I’m sure they were simply curious about what type of tasks fill the day of a high—level member of DRACIM management. The questions weren’t meant as an attack.”
    Emory muttered something under his breath, but he settled back into his chair. I deliberately avoided looking at Trian, knowing that he had, in fact, been baiting my boss.
    I wondered why. We were halfway through dinner, and they still hadn’t told us the reason we were here.
    “Mr. Green. I’m assuming there’s a new project Relobu Holdings wants to discuss with DRACIM? Perhaps if you gave us some of the details, we could help you determine whether our offices would be a good fit for the job.” I took a bite of my chicken and waited.
    Before Richard could answer, a woman opened the door and practically ran to the table. Handing a small piece of paper to Trian, she whispered into his ear. The skin around his eyes tightened as he read, and he nodded to her sharply before crumpling the note and turning back to the table.
    “I’m sorry—you’ll have to excuse me for a moment.” Taking the napkin from his lap and dropping it beside his plate, Trian rose and quickly followed the woman out of the room.
    The dragon-sized door swung closed with a large bang, and I looked to Richard for a clue as to what was going on. He raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “Trian’s always running off for some reason or another.”
    “Don’t I know it,” I muttered under my breath.
    Emory looked at me curiously, but I pretended not to notice. And if Richard heard me, he didn’t let on. “Actually, Miss Banks, we do have a project in mind. Do you have anyone on staff with experience in dragon-to-dragon mediation? More specifically with dragons from China?”
    Now this was interesting. I forgot all about Trian. Most of DRACIM’s work centered on translating dragonspeak for human entities, whether for business purposes or personal. I’d never heard of dragons using humans to facilitate