Page 69 of Dragon Tempted

“Natural habitat? This isn’t Animal Planet.”

“Well, I think you’re making headway. Jonas doesn’t let many in his office, much less near Skippy.” Sienna pursed her lips.

“You’re being ridiculous. Which makes me think you are very much trying to change the subject about your mood. Does this have to do with a certain muscly grump who visited you in the middle of the night?”

She frowned. “He said you told the guards it was okay for him to be at the house.”

“It wasn’t?”

“It was fine.” She was fine. Everything was fine.

Ryan kept staring at her. “You have on your mom’s necklace.”

She rested her fingers on the stone. “I do. It was time.”

“Did John help you come to that conclusion?”

The night before flashed back to her. His arms around her as he helped her with the necklace. And then his hands resting on her shoulders when he stopped her from kissing him. His peck on her forehead like she was a child.

“Let’s get going, Ryan. We have a full schedule today.”

He looked like he was going to argue but instead walked with her to the SUV parked out front and opened the back door. “No arguments. You agreed to be in the back behind the tinted windows as a compromise with Marcus not sending a bunch of guards.”

“Along with the tracker in my shoe.”

“Yes.”

She climbed inside and Ryan shut the door before getting into the driver’s seat. He drove toward the gate and stopped when someone came up to his window. Sienna leaned forward to see who had stopped them, and her stomach dropped when she saw John.

Sienna rolled down her window. “What are you doing?”

“I’m coming with you to the vault,” he announced like it was a done deal.

She looked toward the front and caught Ryan’s wide eyes that more than likely mirrored her own. “You want to go out in public and converse with people?”

He crossed his arms. “I’ll let you do the conversing.”

“I don’t—”

Ryan interrupted her. “It wouldn’t hurt to have some backup.”

She glared at Ryan. “Not you too.”

Ryan unlocked the doors. “Get in.”

Since when had she lost control of the situation?

“Get in the back with Sienna. That way the tinted windows hide you.”

John opened the door, and Sienna scrambled over to the far side. She didn’t want to sit in the back next to him. After last night’s crash-and-burn kiss, she needed to stay far away from him.

John climbed inside. She took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself, which was a mistake since she pulled in his pine scent. But she couldn’t be distracted because something wasn’t adding up.

“Wait. You weren’t at breakfast. How did you know I was going to the vault?”

“I asked Ryan this morning what else he and Jonas had found about the private vault facility, and he mentioned that it appeared to be a legitimate facility and you were going there today.”

She didn’t know how to respond. John was talking to Ryan? Ryan was talking to John? Had they planned this together? And more importantly, why didn’t John just ask her himself? Was last night going to make things awkward between them now? And that was saying a lot since it wasn’t like they were…well, what were they? She had thought they were friends and possibly more. But now they were acquaintances with a common goal. How sad.