Ashley put her hand on Ava’s shoulder. “Well, then. You two might get along perfectly.”
Ava didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot with her new coworker, and she did consider Ashley a friend. But if Eli expected them to stay off their phones, that was hardly unusual. She wasn’t sure why anyone would find it acceptable to allow distractions while doing such important work. Ava was a rule-follower, and her friends had laughed at her for it all the way through college. She’d assumed everyone would feel the same way she did about rules once she was in graduate school, but that had not been the case. Many of her peers were just as immature now as they had been years ago when they were in undergrad biology programs.
The fact that Eli didn’t tolerate careless behavior made her respect him even more.
But until she saw someone putting either themselves or their work in danger, she’d keep her mouth shut. “I’m glad we’ll be working together,” she told Ashley.
“Me, too,” Ashley said. She squeezed Ava’s arm. “I’m excited that we’ll get to have lunch together.” She sighed. “I better get back to work.”
Ava and Eli continued the tour. He showed her the cytogenetics laboratory and the biochemical genetics laboratory and introduced her to all the technicians there.
“Right now, my main project is on DNA analysis for metabolic genetic disorders. That’s what you’ll be assisting me with.”
“I can’t wait,” she said. And she meant that. Not only was she excited to learn more about her field, she was happy that Eli was treating her with respect. Far from being difficult, so far he had treated her as an equal and had not been condescending to her once.
As far as she was concerned, she’d hit the jackpot by landing this job with him.
5
Eli
“Good morning,” a female voice said.
Intrigued, Eli turned to see Ava. She was standing beside the car parked directly next to him. She lifted her hand and waved.
“You’re here early,” he said.
“Didn’t you say 8:00 a.m.?”
“I did, but no one’s ever shown up that early.” Especially not on such a wet and foggy day. He found that the rain seemed to make humans extra sluggish, but apparently not Ava.
“Except you,” she said.
“Except me.”
So, she had shown up to work right away. He hadn’t really doubted her, not after Johnson’s ringing endorsement, but so many of his assistants had been flaky. It was just what he had come to expect.
Her school schedule was somewhat erratic, but she had every Tuesday and Thursday completely free, and told him she’d be at the lab as many hours as he wanted. She’d clearly gotten here even earlier and been waiting on him. He’d have to make sure she got a badge and a key so that she could get in even if he was late.
Today, she had on sleek black pants with flat shoes and a teal shirt that looked good with her red hair and brown eyes. She walked in front of him to the main entrance, and he couldn’t keep his eyes off of her little round backside. Arousal swirled in his belly.
He bit down on a growl. He did not relish any inopportune physical reactions. However, it seemed like he would have to learn to control himself, because so far, his body was not cooperating.
He eventually got himself under control, and the day passed without incident. Ava fit right into the lab seamlessly. She was just as committed to the work as he was.
He had been afraid she’d still want long breaks, but she didn’t. She took a lunch break most days, but it wasn’t long. Even if she went out with one of the other employees, she was always back within an hour.
Weeks went by, and he found her presence soothing. He knew that no matter how stressful his day was, she would be there with her quiet competence. He came to depend on her in a way he had never depended on a human before. He’d only been this close to the members of his clan. In private moments, he wondered what it would be like to date her.
But dating a human seemed crazy to him. He knew it was possible; Jackson’s cousin Garrett had done it, and he’d even married the human woman. But it seemed risky. And Garrett lived far away, right in the middle of Las Vegas, surrounded by humans.
Eli spent the weekends with his clan, and he didn’t want to give that time with them up. There was no way he could bring a human to the Cape, not unless she knew the truth already. He’d have to hide way too much from her.
Every day, he got to know her a little better. Two weeks after she’d started, she asked him to join her and the rest of the staff for lunch.
He paused for a moment. None of the staff had ever invited him out to lunch. It didn’t bother him. He knew they found him just a bit odd. It was probably due to the fact that he was a workaholic more than that he was a dragon shifter, but the distance made it a little easier for him to hide who he really was.
But when she asked him, he felt inclined to say yes. He went, and he had a great time. Spending time with the staff at lunch even helped him in the lab—it made the staff trust him more.
Four weeks after Ava started working for him, they had a request from the hospital’s CEO. He had been contacted by a colleague in South Korea. The Korean doctor had a breakthrough in an experiment and wanted to see if Eli’s lab could duplicate
