Persuasion in the Pantry [Maid for More #1]

Chapter 29: Hatching a Plan

Mina's heart thumped furiously as she peeked over Agent Dra'gaan's shoulder at the fight before her. Her palms grew sweaty as she watched Jay duck and weave between the Captain's colossal fists with expert precision. The Duke had bared his chest without a care for the crowds and it sheened with moisture in the lamp light. Of course she had seen a man without his shirt before but there was a mammoth difference between Jeffery the pig keeper and the Vulcan swooping in the ring. For one thing, Jeffery never made her blood crash in waves at her pulse or her breath hitch desperately in her throat.

Jay pivoted and the muscles over his back contracted as sweat sluiced down the curve of his spine. Mina's eyes followed its path lower and lower until...

"Oh my," the exclamation slid from her lips unchecked.

"Ssh," Dra'gaan warned.

Her mentor had ordered her to stay hidden, but really, who in their right mind would not have their eyes glued to the performance of a century. This stuff was better than the Opera...if she had ever visited the Opera. Perhaps I should compare notes with Liara, she wondered.

For the life of her she could not have torn her gaze away from the swift movements of the man she spent a night in a tree with. Beneath the layers of well stitched cloth, he had the body of a warrior with long toned muscles that dipped and curved around his arms like the hills and valleys of Kent. She wondered what it would be like to run a hand over the planes of his torso as a sculptor would a marble specimen.

Mina let slip a slight groan that was fortuitously cloaked by the clatters of the bar.

"Quiet!" Dra'gaan hissed over his shoulder.

She bit her lip in contrition and continued to watch with one eye open. Maybe she would not get hit with the full effect of his devastatingly lithe body with only partial vision.

The duke's punch connected with his opponent's cheek and both her eyes snapped open, eager for more. She reflected that the display could only have been made more enthralling if she had food to accompany it. Not one to accept culinary defeat, Mina quickly perused the nearby tables for any discarded bowls of nuts but sadly none were close to hand. She resorted to fishing into her own pockets and retrieved a half-eaten oaten biscuit with a light sprinkling of lint. With an inconspicuous blow, she declared it adequate to digest and returned her avid interest to the match at hand.

Jay was incredible to watch as he dominated the ring with agile ease and yet kept his gaze shuttered and cold. Minasmiled a little to herself, sure that it was only to conceal his cunningthoughts. To others he brought with him the North wind's arctic grace, but she had been tempted beneath the frozen lake and met the warmth that awaited her within.

The memory of the Bexley gardens on a summer's night seemed at odds with her current surroundings where the softly hooting night owl gave way to the leering and jeering of raucous men. It was the kind of establishment that stuck to the bottom of ones shoes and Mina found the atmosphere oddly appealing.

She contemplated if women were allowed to fight in the ring, while dimly noticing that money was flowing around her almost as freely as ale. The scent of shillings being passed over grubby palms teased at her nostrils temptingly, rubbing against the honeyed oats that lay on her tongue. The skills she had been perfecting recently deviated down the more well-trodden pathways of her thieving youth and her fingers itched to slip between a few coat pockets and divest them of their burdens.

There was a sharp grunt as Jay hit the floor and Mina's nails bit instead into her mentor's back in surprise. Dra'gaan shifted back imperceptibly to step on her foot but she retreated as easily as a woman matching a man's waltz. She knew that move. He had taught it to her.