Page 17 of Bearly Yours
Even though they cosplayed about us, if they found out we were real, they’d aim a heat-seeking missile at us.
I mean, it wouldn’t hurt us, obviously, because we had magic shields, but it’d be annoying.
Consort Mia and King Draven let me take everything in, while Zian nosed around the huge room, sniffing various thingsand sneezing a lot. It was probably due to the cleansers that had been used to clean the room. Those always made me sneeze as well.
“It’s perfect for a library,” I said. I couldn’t stop staring at everything around me. This room was going to beepic.
Consort Mia nodded, beaming. “I know, right! It’s like those Pinterest fantasy libraries, except pre-build!”
I laughed. “I was just thinking the same thing. You guys are interested in what, exactly? Shelving and seating?”
“Yes, to both,” King Draven said.
I nodded, still feeling a little heady from being in the presence of a king. Roarke would probably laugh if he knew. Speaking of... It was like I’d summoned him from the deep beyond with my thoughts when King Draven’s phone rang, and he laughed as he answered and put it on speaker.
“What can I do for you, Roarke?”
“Is my bear there yet?”
King Draven’s eyebrows did a very expressive thing that made me wonder if he could hold whole conversations with them. Was this a secret vampire ability? Expressive eyebrows?
Also, my heart melted a little bit at Roarke’s voice calling me his bear. Seriously, the things you learned when the other person was not aware they were on speaker phone. They should all be written down in a book somewhere.A Thousand and One Embarrassing Conversations You Were Never Aware You’d Had. On sale for $19.99.
Mesmer chuckled from behind us, and King Draven cleared his throat, clearly trying to contain his laughter. “You’re on speaker, Roarke, and yes, your bear is here.”
Roarke sighed. “I’m going to have to kill you now, you realize.”
King Draven laughed. “You’re welcome to try. You keep promising violence and never deliver. I’m starting to get my feelings hurt. Am I not good enough for you?”
“You know I could eat you with one bite, right? Maybe two?”
“Don’t say—“
“You’d be good with ketchup.”
King Draven groaned. “That’s so overdone. I can’t believe you went there.”
“Can I speak to you without being on speaker phone, please? I have some less-than-gentle expressions I’d like to re-acquaint you with.”
King Draven chuckled and took him off speaker, meandering away from Consort Mia and I. She shook her head fondly at her husband and took me through the library while I pulled out my design notebook and pen and started taking detailed notes while she described what she and her husband wanted.
“I’m going to need to come back and get the dimensions of the room and the spaces. Once I get that information, I can give you a better estimation of cost and time.” I glanced around the huge space. “I can tell you right now, I do all of my work myself. With just me, I’m guessing it will take close to a year to complete this project, and I wouldn’t be able to do any other pieces for anyone else.” I glanced at Consort Mia as the king got off the phone and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, snuggling her to his chest.
Consort Mia looked desperately hopeful while King Draven looked like he was about to go in for the kill on a billion-dollar business deal. I was trying not to feel completely flattered, but the feeling welled up inside of me anyway. The idea that they liked my work enough to commission something of this size and scope blew my mind and made me feel incredibly grateful.
I knew I had a talent with design and woodworking. I’d honed it carefully since I was a tiny cub. But this was a next-level project. I’d never doneanythingof this size before, unless you counted building houses for my Clan, which didn’t count because they all pitched in. I was just the foreman who worked alongside them.
“If you decide to do it, we’ll pay you a million-five,” King Draven said, his intelligent eyes measuring me.
My heart jolted and started pounding as fast as a hummingbird’s.One million, five hundred thousand dollars!I did my discreet breathing-through-the-nose thing to calm myself and tried not to blink a lot, which I sometimes did when I was overwhelmed.
I swallowed thickly. “Can I give you my final answer tomorrow morning?”
Consort Mia nodded exuberantly like a dashboard bobble head, beaming again, and Draven pulled out a card from his inner coat pocket and handed it to me. It simply had his and Consort Mia’s numbers on it, but it was printed on expensive, black, glossy cardstock.
We all walked me to the entryway together. I turned at the door. “I’ll call you tomorrow morning and let you know. I just wanted to say thank you for this opportunity.”
King Draven nodded. “No hard feelings if you can’t accept.”
