Dark Sexy Knight (A Modern Fairytale)(3)

Her brother.

Of course.

She and her brother were looking for work together, and from the way she’d just been selling him, he guessed that it wasn’t an easy feat.

Colt knew what he needed to do. He needed to give her a look that said “I’m sorry” and shrug his shoulders to let her know he couldn’t help her. He needed to say no and walk away from her big, blue, pleading eyes and mumbling man-child of a brother. Because Colton Lane wasn’t really a knight. In fact, he was the furthest-possible thing from a knight. He was just a guy who dressed up like a historically inaccurate Viking Knight and rode a horse in a dinner show—a job that had grown stale five and a quarter years ago. He had no business getting tangled up with these two. They’d be trouble. He could feel it. And he didn’t need any trouble.

“Please?” she whispered so softly, he almost thought he’d imagined it.

“What’s your name?” he asked, every instinct still warning him not to get involved with them, even as the words escaped his lips.

“Verity.”

Of course it was. Colt groaned inwardly.

Verity. Truth. Her name was as sweet and earnest as her freckled face, which looked like it had seen more sunny days in the country than hot nights in the city. He searched her pretty eyes, feeling his resistance weaken under their hope.

“Colton,” he said, holding out his hand.

She didn’t look down. Her gaze held him captive as she reached out, sliding her small, cool hand against his until their palms were flush. And something—something indefinable and unexpected and very, very inconvenient—passed between them as she pressed her hand intimately against his. He felt it in his gut. He knew it in his head. And his heart beat a primal rhythm that it had apparently always known yet never shared.

Gasping softly, he yanked his hand away from hers, frowning, but helpless to drop her eyes without offering some hope.

“I, uh, I know the head of human resources. Give me a minute, okay? I’ll be right back.”

With a last glance at Ryan, he muttered the word f*ck, then turned and walked away.

***

Verity watched the knight go, his long legs putting distance between them, his horned helmet making him easy to track through the crowd. For all of his Nordic good looks, he was dark and brooding, edgy and male.

A sexy beast.

Though she’d already decided his face wouldn’t be gracing the cover of GQ anytime soon, he oozed sex. Overtly. Effortlessly. Like if you pricked him with a pin, he wouldn’t bleed red, he’d bleed orgasm.

Her heart thumped wildly. Her hand was still warm from his touch. The effect he had on her was altogether . . . breathtaking.

“Ver’ty?” murmured Ryan, his deep voice uncertain. “We gettin’ jobs now?”

She cleared her throat and blinked, turning to look up at her brother. Ryan was eight years her senior, and at thirty-two years old, traces of silver had just started appearing at his temples. His eyes were the same sky-blue as hers, but his nose was bulbous and his lips were shiny. Shiny, because he was nervous and kept licking them.

“I hope so, Ryan.” She reached out and patted him on the arm. “You remember what I told you?”

He held up three beefy fingers with scrubbed-clean nails. “Use my pleases and thank-yous. Look people in the eyes. No mumblin’.”

“That’s right,” she said, taking a deep breath and letting her hand slide from his forearm. “That’s right.”

She turned to follow the dark, sexy knight with her eyes, watching as he threaded his way through the job applicants jamming the far aisle, his tall, broad Viking body unexpectedly graceful as he wove around the people in his path until he reached a table toward the back of the room.

He placed his hands on his hips, and a gray-haired lady at the table looked up at him, straightening her glasses as she listened to whatever he was saying. Verity stared, her stomach in knots as the woman pursed her lips and shook her head dismissively. But Colton leaned forward, placing his palms flat on the table and drawing closer to the woman. Not immune to his masculine body so close to hers, the woman’s eyes lost some of their pinch, softening as she glanced over at the doorway where Verity and Ryan waited. After a moment she rolled her eyes and sighed, giving Colton a reluctant nod.

Verity gulped, wondering what had just transpired between the two and why he’d just advocated on their behalf. He didn’t even know her, and she was fairly certain that she’d annoyed him during their short exchange, since he’d cursed when he walked away. He owed her nothing, and yet he’d gone out of his way to help them. It made sentimental tears prick her eyes as she watched him turn around and face them. He held up one hand and beckoned them over.

Blinking her eyes and straightening her spine, Verity turned to her brother, reaching out to smooth his shirt.

“Ryan, you listening to me?”

“Yeah. Okay.”

She leaned up on tiptoes and smoothed down his cowlick. “We gotta make this happen. You hear?”

“Make it happen.”

“Look at me in the eyes, Ryan.”

He looked at her, his lips tilting up into a ready smile that she couldn’t resist returning. “You look real professional. Real nice. You answer any questions politely. No mumbling. Only speak when you’re spoken to, okay?”

“I know, Ver’ty.”