Page 10 of The Manny's Fiery Dragon Bond

He had to be exaggerating, right? I’d never asked them how old they were, so maybe not. Either way, the thought of my boss being dunked in a river amused me.

“Yeah, I suppose it had to be different back in the day, without everything we have now.”

“You’re not kidding. Though, lucky for me, we did have some modern conveniences. We didn’t actually use the river. After all, it was easy for dragons to keep bathwater warm when we could just breathe fire onto it. Thank goodness for modern plumbing.”

I laughed heartily, trying to imagine such a thing. “I never thought of that. But how convenient to be able to breathe fire. You didn’t have to worry about keeping a fire stoked either.”

“Nope. Ready-made fire all the time.” He leaned in slightly, a smile tugging at his lips. “And chopping down trees was incredibly easy when you could turn into a dragon the size of a house and clear out a forest with the swipe of your tail.”

My eyes widened. I could almost see the dragon in his eyes. It was easy to forget how small I was compared to all the shifters I was surrounded by, but I didn’t think they were that ginormous.

“Are you really that large?” Then I realized how that sounded. I slapped a hand over my mouth. “My apologies, Lord Malric, that was—”

He chuckled. “It’s not inappropriate to ask a dragon his size. The same can’t be said for our age. And yes, I am that large.” He winked.

My heart thundered in my chest, and goddess help me, if I wasn’t thinking about something other than his beast.

Opaline let out a squeal and tossed her plate to the floor.

Right. I was working. Not flirting. I was most certainly not having inappropriate thoughts about my boss’s father and the size of his cock. Nope. Not doing any of that.

“Looks like that one’s done. How about I take him upstairs first?” Malric gestured to Flint.

“That sounds wonderful. Thank you.”

Together, the two of us worked in tandem. Malric bathed them, then handed them off to me so I could get them into their pajamas. Although I wasn’t sure how much was bathing and how much was playing sink-the-boat in the water.

We managed to get the job done with no screaming or crying, an abundance of giggles, and only a small lake of water on the floor.

I laughed when Malric came down the stairs with Ruby in his arms. She was patting his cheeks like they were a drum set while he made silly noises.

“Sir, your shirt is soaked through.”

He looked down at himself. “Ah. It is. That’s no bother.”

He set Ruby on the floor, then finished unbuttoning his shirt and pulled it off. Now I was the one bothered—hot and bothered that was.

He wore a white tank top underneath—and my mouth went dry just looking at him. That chest hair that’d piqued my interest earlier in the evening was on full display now. It too was damp and clung to him in all the right places. Letting him help with the bath wasn’t the best idea.

“They seem quite sleepy. I suppose putting them down for the night shouldn’t be too hard,” Malric said.

I cleared my throat. “Nope. I have their bottles ready.”

“Fantastic,” he said. “I haven’t mastered carrying two at a time.”

“That’s fine. I have.” And then what did I do? I winked. So much for the don’t flirt with the boss’s father plan. Thank gods, he didn’t notice, or if he did, he was gentleman enough to ignore it.

Putting the kids to bed was a lot easier with the two of us working in tandem. Not a single fuss was made, and we were able to walk out of the bedroom with all three of them sound asleep in record time. They wouldn’t stay that way, of course, but they’d be down for at least six hours. Eight if the wind died down.

“Thanks for all your help.” I wanted to ask him to stay, maybe watch a movie. I knew better. The best result would be him politely declining and then avoiding being alone with me. The worst? I’d lose my job. I needed to keep everything professional.

It would be so much easier if he was mean or ugly or looked even a fraction of his age. But he was none of that.

“It was no problem. I enjoy spending time with… with the kids. It’s nice being able to dote on them and then hand them back to their parents when they get grumpy. Not that they get grumpy. They are practically perfect.” He chuckled at his own joke.

“As perfect as they are, it was nice having a second set of hands.”

He watched my mouth as I spoke, and for half a second, I thought he was going to lean in for a kiss. Or maybe it was wishful thinking. One thing it wasn’t, was reality. Because the next thing I knew, he was walking out the door, leaving me standing there and wondering if maybe this wasn’t the job for me, after all.

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