Those golden eyes raked over her one more time before Perrin said, “Yes. We’ll eat together.”
“Oh, okay.”
Perrin’s stride was long and purposeful, and Katherine had to take two steps for every one of hers to keep up. Several people called out greetings, but her companion didn’t crack a single smile. A slight head dip in acknowledgment was the best anyone was getting. Regal, Katherine thought again. Like a queen. Meanwhile, the woman’s eyes tracked everything as if she were on high alert, expecting an attack at any moment.
Joining the queue to get their lunch, Katherine heard an odd clicking noise and she followed the sound with her eyes. Perrin’s nails, she realized. The woman was tapping her thumb and middle finger together.Tap, tap, pause. Tap, tap, pause.
“I like your nail polish,” Katherine volunteered, hoping to get the conversation ball rolling and end the uncomfortable silence.
“I’m not wearing polish.”
Oh. Wow. Okay. So Perrin’s nails were naturally black, and now Katherine was feeling all sorts of awkward. Thankfully, the line was moving quickly and she could busy herself with getting her lunch. Grabbing a cobb salad and bottled water, she followed Perrin to a table.
Seated, she began to dig in – if her mouth was full, she couldn’t stick her foot in it again – and tried not to notice that Perrin was studying her once more instead of eating. Maybe Katherine would get lucky and someone else would join them.
A large, well-built man with ebony skin and incredibly pale eyes that made Katherine do a double-take, approached with his lunch tray, but a glare from Perrin had him changing directions at the last minute.Wonderful.
“My girls all went shopping.”
Katherine had no idea where Perrin was going with that statement, but anything was better than her nerve-racking silent regard.
“That sounds fun. Why didn’t you go with them?”
“I had guard duty.”
The woman pointed a finger up and slightly to the right and Katherine wondered if she’d been posted in one of the guard towers that loomed over Black Bay. Nodding, she shoveled a big forkful of salad into her mouth.
“They’re helping Kong prepare for your date.”
Katherine coughed in surprise and everything she’d just stuffed into her mouth went flying back out. Lettuce, a chunk of tomato, bits of egg… Horrified, Katherine’s face flamed with mortification.
“Shit! Sorry!” she gasped, quickly trying to clean up her mess and silently praying no one saw that.
Perrin glared at a piece of lettuce that had landed on her tray and flicked it off with one of her nails. “Obviously you need help as well.”
Ignoring that drolly stated observation, Katherine choked out, “Date?”
Kong hadn’t said it was a date. She’d thought he was just being nice, maybe even taking pity on her for her oven-less state. Had she misread things?
A date… Butterflies exploded in her belly and a giddy anticipation raced through her. She may not have been thinking that way before, but now that the suggestion was out there, she couldn’t help but be excited by the idea.
“What will you be wearing?”
Pulled from her thoughts by Perrin’s question, Katherine frowned and looked down at her clothes. She was wearing herusual work attire of a sweater set, this one heather grey, paired with a charcoal gray, calf-length skirt. “I was going to wear this.”
Kong was supposed to pick her up after work and she hadn’t brought anything to change into. Not that it would matter much. The majority of her wardrobe was more of the same.
“You should wear more color. Since you arrived at Black Bay, I’ve yet to see you in anything other than gray or tan.”
Feeling a bit defensive, Katherine was half-tempted to point out that everyone around here pretty much wore fatigues twenty-four/seven, but Perrin was watching her with that intimidating gaze again.
“I’ve offended you. That was not my intention.”
“What was your intention?”
“I want to help.”
It was Katherine’s turn to study the other woman. She couldn’t pull off intimidation like Perrin could, but she thought she might have come close. “Why?”
