Page 39 of Accomplice to the Villain

She was riding a train of delusion whose last stop was hopefully off a cliff. “I wasn’t paying attention, sir.”

Trystan frowned. “Why?”

“I was staring at your chest,” Evie blurted, her grin turning sheepish at the way his eyebrows shot to the top of his head.

“I beg your pardon?” he asked incredulously.

“I’m sorry?” Words continued rolling over her tongue, like a runaway carriage wheel. “You could stare at mine, too, if you want.”

What are you doing?she asked herself.Make it stop!

“To ensure we are, you know…even?”

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

Amid her self-flagellation, her boss looked on the verge of a panic attack.

“That won’t be necessary, Sage, nor is it a-appropriate.” But Evie didn’t miss the way he stumbled slightly on the word, nor the subtle puff of his chest and the way his eyes flashed to the small amount of cleavage peeking out of her green dress.

She scrunched her nose. “After I get you some pearls to clutch, would you mind repeating yourself?”

“Iaskedif you’ve had any luck with the information you received when you ventured out with Keeley.” His eyes found something interesting about the stone archway in the back courtyard, and she had the sneaking suspicion that his control was slipping. It made her gleeful.

Evie clicked her tongue. “It turned out to be less useful than I’d hoped.” She eyeballed the few glass pieces he was forcing to fit together. “I still don’t understand why we couldn’t just leave the window as it was and direct the sunlight against it in the morning.”

He bent at the knee and gestured to the glass before him. “Because, Sage, it needs to be held directly in the sunlight, not at an angle to it, and it was either take apart the window or knock down the west tower.”

Well, that hardly seemed to matter; it wouldn’t be the first time part of the manor needed rebuilding in some form or another. The Villain had a standing tab with the magical contractors for all the mishaps they endured. Only 30 percent of them were his fault. The other seventy was a split between their enemies, dragons with bad aim, and of course the most destructive of all of them…Evie.

“And you’re sure the sunrise will hit it right here?” she asked. “What if we can’t put it back together exactly? What if none of the words are right or none of them go together?”

He looked away from the arch, and though he didn’t glance anywhere south of her face, she still felt blood rushing to her cheeks at the near reverence in his gaze. “Ironic, little tornado. You’re the one who taught me all words go together if you’ve the proper imagination.”

Oh, that was…inconveniently sweet.

She rolled her eyes in a poor attempt to hide the way he had affected her. “I’m your apprentice, sir. You’re meant to be teaching me, not the other way around.”

He lifted a brow, his voice low and rasping when he asked, “And what is it you’d like me to teach you, Sage?”

The most inappropriate and mortifying sentence popped into her head so quickly she desperately grasped for something else.Anything.

“How do you balance villainy with, uh—taking care of your, uh…physical… needs?”NOT THAT.

Looking at her quizzically, he scratched his chin. “I don’t take your meaning, Sage. What is there to balance? Exercise? Personal hygiene?”

Oh well. If she was going to be brash and bold, she was going to do it as aggressively as possible.

She stared at him head-on when she said, “No. Sex.”

He pressed his mouth shut, suddenly much closer than she remembered him being. His head angled down to look at her. His brows drew together in anger as he asked, “Having difficulty with that, are you?”

“No.” She smiled reassuringly, and his eye twitched. “I was just wondering howyouwent about it.”

She would’ve been more embarrassed if the way he was nearly choking on air wasn’t so entertaining.

“I am certain this is not appropriate conversation between colleagues,” he replied through gritted teeth.

“Do you think we should ask Becky?” She was bluffing. If they asked Becky, they’d probably send the HR woman into heart failure.