Mari just stared at him.
“Ican barely understand you,” I teased. “Maybe you should dilute that slang.”
He drew himself up. “I’m an Aussie. It’s how we gab.”
“Fine. When she pounds you into the ground because she thinks you’ve insulted her when you’ve told her she had nice legs, you can debate the wisdom of your choices.”
Matt’s mouth twisted.
I raised my brow at him.
He cleared his throat. “Fair enough.”
“I would not pound him into the ground,” Mari protested as we paused outside the washrooms.
“I am right glad to hear that,” Matt said with admirable control. “You gals showering before you eat?”
The male side was swarming with activity as guys pushed to use the toilets and showers. Our side had—us. I was pretty sure Amadeus had mentioned two other females, but there was no sign of them. “Most of us do not shower in the middle of the night,” I pointed out.
“Uh—right.” He shook his head, and the intensity of his stare increased. “Usually running at night helps me sleep. Last night, it just led to furphies.”
Furphies? I swallowed and decided against pushing for clarity. “Yeah. After all that’s happened over the last couple of days, I didn’t sleep too well either.”
His eyes flared emerald, and my breath hitched. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it again, before his grin reappeared.
“I’ll try to leave some tucker for you guys,” he said, and moved toward the stairwell. I guessed the elevators were for wimps.
“Tucker?” Mari asked.
I sighed and rolled my eyes in Matt’s wake. “Aussie for food.”
“Then why did he not just say food?” she inquired in a mild tone.
“Because he chooses to not speak proper English,” I explained.
“You mean Formal.”
I glanced at her. “What?”
“Formal. Isn’t that what you call it?”
“No. We call it English.”
Mari’s brow furrowed. “Oh.” She hesitated, then offered, “Matt seems to like you.”
That was alarmingly perceptive. I kept expecting Mari to be mentally slow to go with all that bulk, and I chided myself for it. It wasn’t true for humans, and it certainly wasn’t true for her, either.
Trix whined, and her gaze had that focused look...
It gave me the perfect excuse to avoid Mari’s comment. “I’m just going to run her outside, and I’ll be right back,” I told her.
She opened her mouth as though to say something, but I was already pushing into the stairwell. With my thoughts firmly on breakfast and out-competing an untold number of male bodies for food, I whipped my dog outside to do her business, and then we pelted back up the stairs. It was a process made much more difficult on the last flight by the press of large male bodies coming down from the fifth floor to the cafeteria on the fourth.
Not that they ignored me. Rather, the opposite—their eyes glowed as I pushed my way through, and far from making room for me, they instead jostled for the closest position as if vying for my attention. And the air was thick with a heavy, musky scent...
My skin prickled, and I avoided their gazes, breathing a sigh of relief when I broke out onto the fifth floor.
Trix and I entered the washroom to find it deserted except for Mari ensconced in the single stall just barely large enough for her. Apparently, ogres sang in the shower. It was more like bellowing than singing. But at least it was cheerful.
