Page 8 of Dragon's Desire

It meant he and his kin could do their work in the open now. He'd come from a long line of witch hunters, and it was a skill set PEACE desperately needed.

He winked at the girl working the front desk. She blushed as she buzzed him through. Nodding as he walked past her, he made his way into the main lobby and took the elevator up to the third level.

As he walked through the main office, the place was a buzz of activity. Ever since he came aboard, there was always something going on. It kept life interesting.

He swaggered into the main office of Task Force Commander Liam Sharpe. He had barely cleared the threshold of the office door before a wisp of a woman with brown hair started saying, "This is fucking absurd, and I can't believe you're asking me to work with an arrogant asshat like Peter Winthrop."

"Jeez, Kiercy, I'm standing right here," he said.

"I know." Her voice was flat and cold as ice.

Peter just smirked. "Ouch. That stings, darling. What have I ever done to deserve such harsh treatment from you?"

Kiercy glared at him. "What have you done? Don't play innocent. You know exactly what you've done. For all your faults, you're not that dumb. I suspect that's the only reason you still have a job. You have to be doing something right, or you'd be fired by now. I just can't be expected to work with you."

Liam looked up at them. If they were going to keep arguing, he was going to let them. He might actually be able to get some paperwork done with them there.

Sure, they were loud, but as long as everyone outside his office could hear them yelling, no one else would try to come in or transfer a call to him that wasn't important. So, he just logged into his computer and started typing away as the two continued to tear into each other. He pulled out some earbuds and queued up some calming music.

Kiercy continued without even noticing. "You are a walking lawsuit waiting to happen because he thinks he's God's gift to women. I'm sure we are one more HR complaint away from all of sitting through another hour-long sexual harassment seminar."

"I have never sexually harassed—" he started before she just talked right over him.

"You're irresponsible, chauvinistic, arrogant, and have a complete disrespect for proper procedure and basic human decency. And let's not forget people like him and his genocidal family have killed hundreds, if not thousands of witches."

"Whoa. Whoa. Take it down a notch, little lady. Don't need to go throwing around words like genocide."

"Then what else do you call an attempt to wipe out an entire people."

"You make it sound like witch hunters just up and decided one day that they liked people. We do what needs to be done. You act like all witches are upstanding citizens who've never hurt anyone or are completely defenseless little, lost puppies. If that were the case, witch hunters would have been out of a job centuries ago."

"Don't you think it's a little funny how witch hunters were always able to find work," Kiercy said.

Something in the way she changed her tone and shifted her body made him know he would be walking into some rhetorical trap if he asked her to clarify what she meant. But since he wasn't looking to do much with her besides getting in between her thighs someday, he decided to ask anyway.

"Exactly what in the hell are you going on about?"

"Are you sure every person you murdered was actually a witch?"

That accusation might have actually stung a little.

"We don't murder people. Witch hunters eliminate threats."

"Oh, do those euphemisms help you sleep at night?" she asked.

"No, that would be the company of a pleasant woman," he shot back.

"A new one every night. Did you get a revolving door installed in your bedroom yet?" The cool edge to her voice had melted. She was tipping into red hot anger.

"Damn it! I knew I had forgotten something. Thank you for reminding me I need to call the contractor about an estimate. Though, it might not be worth it. It could just end up slowing things down for too long. I wouldn't want the queue to get too long. The only long thing I want in my bedroom is my—"

"You're disgusting," she interrupted.

"What, you shouldn't be such a prude. You're actually as young as you look, right? It's not like you came over on the Mayflower. You grew up after the sexual revolution. It just doesn't make any sense for a sexy, young thing like you to be so damn uptight about it, darling."

Kiercy had heard a lot from him, but this one had kicked things up a notch.

"Stop calling me darling. Your southern boy charm may work on some, but not me. Do you see why I can't work with you? You're a gross, disgusting pig. I could go down to HR right now, but I'm going to let that slide because I don't want to sit through another hour-long session because one person can't keep his grubby hands to himself."

---