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“Do you even have a birthday?”

“Of course I do. What a rude question. I picked it out after I saw someone else having a party. It’s December twenty-fifth.”

“Christmas?”

He smiled widely. “I like a little competition.”

“Well, actually show up in person and I’ll make sure to give you a gift this year.”

“I’ll hold you to that, Little Crow. Now, I think it’s time you wake up or you’re going to be late.”

That same sensation as I returned to my body unnerved me, but sure enough, when I opened my eyes, the blaring of my alarm told me he was right.

I rolled over, hitting the button to silence it, trying to get the sound out of my head.

As always, I wasn’t sure if things were better or worse after a conversation with Knot…

He really was an enigma.

* * * *

“Absolutely not.” Ruben crossed his arms, his expression stern, as though the very fact I would ask annoyed him.

It seemed a little dramatic reaction to borrowing a book, but whatever…

At least he looked good, all closed off like that. Other people needed to smile to be attractive, but Ruben looked best like this.

Or maybe I just never saw him smile, so I couldn’t compare it to anything?

“Come on. After everything I’ve done for you?”

“If you mean your courier work, we pay you well for that. Other than that, I can’t recall anything positive you’ve done in my life.”

Ouch.“Really? I baked you a cake!”

“It had laxatives in it.”

Right. I’d forgotten about that part.“Well, you had taken away my day off when I was supposed to go on a date. What about the time I gave you dating advice?”

“Your advice was to lean into my ‘Daddy Dom’ look and try a sex dungeon.”

“And that is amazing advice. Did you try it?”

His cheek didn’t even twitch, making me suspect he probably hadn’t. Pity, because he really could pull that off. He had that stern, disapproving, older man expression that would just make any brat or little fall in love.

It wasn’t my fault if he refused to use his best assets.

“Come on—this is important.”

“Tell me why and I’ll consider it. Those archives are not open to the public, so I need a good reason to break protocol and show them to you.”

“It’s important. Can’t you trust me?”

He didn’t have to even cock an eyebrow for his expression to say that, fuck no, he didn’t trust me.

Fair.

I hadn’t done much to be trustworthy.