Working Stiff(67)

“Oh, we live a very quiet life up here,” Cash said. “I thought we could build a fire in the fire pit on the deck outside and have a drink.”

“Good Lord.” He turned to Rox. “Is this your doing? Is he ready to settle down and succumb to the lethal matrimonial virus that seems to be going around?”

“Oh, Lord, no,” Rox said, waving her hands. “Cash and I just work together. We’re really just friends.”

“Oh, well, if you’re just friends. I must have misunderstood. What are we doing tomorrow, then?”

Cash said, “Rox and I are working on some very important contracts. There are some irregularities, and we are scouring through hundreds—”

“Tomorrow is Sunday,” Arthur said, gesturing and catching his tipping wine glass before it spilled. That was a pretty impressive save, considering that he had put down most of a bottle of wine by himself. “Surely you won’t work on Sunday. You would have something to say about that, wouldn’t you, Maxence?”

Maxence tilted his head and paused, holding a bite of roasted potato on his fork. “I’ll have to find a church for Mass. Perhaps you would like to go with me?” he asked Cash.

“I’m Protestant,” Cash reminded him. “The Dutch people are Protestant.”

“Not all of them, and we wouldn’t turn anyone away,” Maxence said, his voice low and gentle.

“Oh, of all the sanctimonious bullshit,” Arthur said. “God, Maxence. We’re not here to bore Casimir until he flees from us.”

“Why are you here, then?” Cash asked him.

Arthur continued, “Surely we can find something more interesting to do than going to church.” He turned his silvery eyes on Rox. “What do you usually do on Sundays?”

“I volunteer at an animal shelter,” Rox said.

Maxence lifted his eyes, and he smiled.

Wow, with those dark eyes and perfect cheekbones, when he turned on the smile, he was truly breath-taking, even if he was a tad on the skinny side.

A small, lustful part of her brain noted that low body fat revealed abdominals and other musculature. Under those black clothes, you could probably see every striation on the muscles that criss-crossed his body.

Okay, she wasn’t looking. He was going to be a priest, the kind that gave up women and marriage.

And she was sleeping with Cash. Or at least she had once. He hadn’t ghosted on her yet, though he was sure to.

But damn. What a waste.

She still told the lustful part of her brain to shut up and quit ogling the priest.

Maxence smiled at her, those dark eyes alight, and said, “Tell me about the animal shelter.”

“Yeah,” Rox said, blinking and looking at her hands. “It’s not glamourous. I clean the cages and fill the food dispensers, and I help with the paperwork and accounting and stuff. If you guys wanted to come, we always need dog walkers and kitten socializers.”

“Kitten socializers?” Arthur asked, his dark eyebrows rising. “That’s a job description?”

“Yep,” she said. “They need to be played with and held and petted so that they’re not afraid of humans. There’s a short window. If they’re not properly socialized for at least several hours every day, they’ll be feral their whole lives. They’ll be essentially unadoptable as pets. We try to find them placement as barn cats because it’s the only way that they’re happy at all.”

“Good God, Casimir! Kitten socializers! Why wasn’t I told that this was a thing? All these years, I’ve been throwing charity balls and buying overpriced lots at charity auctions, when I could have been saving my immortal soul and proving my scant worth as a human being as a kitten socializer. Come on, Caz. For the love of God, I must give generously of myself.”

Cash raised one eyebrow at him. “It’s just a lark to you.”

“And yet I shall socialize the kittens! Even you, Maxence, must admit that this is a worthy cause.”

“Well, yes. After I find a church for Mass—”

“Oh, come on. You can skip it.”

“Actually, I can’t.” He sopped up the last bit of sauce with the last chunk of chicken from Arthur’s plate and glanced at the windows, where the sunset glowed over the ocean. “Indeed, if you’ll loan me a room, Casimir?”

“Of course. I’ll be right back, Rox. If Arthur tries anything, just yell and I’ll kill him when I get back.”

“You guys throw around that killin’ thing awful casually for someone who’s never held a gun,” she called after Cash, but he just laughed as he walked away with Maxence, probably to one of the other guest rooms he had shown her on their tour.