Chapter Thirty

Taylin

The desk in front of Taylin remained cluttered with paperwork, even after he'd diligently worked through several piles that required his attention. His secretary had long since gone home and, judging by the stiffness across Taylin's upper back, it was late.

Placing down his pen, he checked his wristwatch, confirming his suspicion. Groaning at just how late it had gotten, he rolled his shoulders and stretched his arms above his head. How was it nearly ten pm?

He paused and a niggle at the back of his mind morphed into a deep dread when he tapped at his computer to look at his calendar.

"Argh!" He rubbed at his face in frustration at what he'd forgotten. He'd promised Hollis he'd be home by seven so they could have dinner together. He even put it in the calendar so he wouldn't forget.

How did that work for you?

"Why can't I get my act together?" he grumbled aloud.

Three weeks under the same roof and all the high hopes of getting to spend lots of time together had yet had to materialize. So far, they'd managed two evenings together and an uninterrupted Sunday. It wasn't enough, which was why he'd purposely penciled in time.

"How shit of a mate am I? Can't even damn remember to go home on time!" he muttered crossly, under his breath. It was frustrating how life conspired against them with deadlines and trips away. It was why he'd promised Hollis this evening before the next trip, requiring him to leave the next afternoon.

Taylin eyed his silent phone and reached to check it for messages.

Nada…

Was Hollis pissed? It was a stupid question when he would be mightily pissed if the tables were reversed. He blew out a gusty breath and stared at the screenshot of Hollis he'd taken when he'd just slipped on his red framed glasses two weeks ago.

Should I ring now?

Give him time to have a rant and calm down before I get home?

A warmth came at just how Hollis's house was home and that layered on the guilt because Hollis didn't—hadn't—complained once about how little time they spent together. Did that mean something?

The wedding Popi had decided they needed, thankfully, hadn't gotten mentioned again. However, that could be because they'd had no time to see Popi. Hollis hadn't mentioned it when they'd got back to his, with all of Taylin's things.

Did it mean he wanted to get married? It was a question Taylin had no answer to because he was too chickenshit to ask and it had the oddest habit of popping into his brain when it was least convenient to think about. It was alone now, having dealt with the question about an unexpected pregnancy.

Taylin hadn't, as yet, processed his mixed feelings on that issue. As Hollis had little to no clue about his species and pregnancy, they'd done some research together and Taylin hadn't admitted aloud he'd been a little disappointed to discover that July to October was when pygmy loris's were fertile. That meant there was absolutely no chance Hollis was pregnant. Now that they had this information, they could avoid getting pregnant.

A planned pregnancy…

Admit it, you want little pygmy lorises to cuddle.

There's no guarantee with my genes.

His wolf side snorted, and it felt like he'd given him the finger.

Listen, with how things are right now, and we aren't even in the busiest part of the year, my workload is already insane. This madness and babies… they'll need their parents there for them. When I'm home, Hollis isn't and vice versa. That's not conducive to having babies.

It wasn't… was it?

Of late, they were all getting a true insight into what an amazing job Dad and Popi had done with juggling work and their private lives with eight sons. They did it, but it was exhausting thinking about how they'd achieved it. Taylin acknowledged he needed to find his groove before his life changed again.

He blinked the calendar into focus as he shoved aside those worries for another time, considering he should get his ass home. He leaned closer, his eyes narrowing on the screen.

"You motherfucker, Booker!" There, added to the trip away with Booker the next day, was an extra full day of appointments, eating into his weekend.

All thoughts of getting home to Hollis disappeared when he searched his contact list for Booker's, hitting dial the second he found it.

"Yo," Booker answered on the first ring.

"Don't yo me, asshole. Why is there another day added to the trip? I have fucking plans with Hollis this weekend," he shouted, not worried anyone would hear him when he was probably alone in the building.

Taylin ran through their plans and could see no valid reason as to why they'd need another full day and night away to finalize the commissioned pieces they'd finally agreed on. He rubbed his fingers in a circle on the left temple, doing his best to hold onto his temper, waiting and counting three seconds of silence Booker made him wait for a reply.

"You finished throwing your hissy fit?"

"You did this on purpose!" he snapped back, in no way finished .

"Did you read the content of the appointments?" Booker replied lazily.

He hadn't, and Booker damn well knew that by his self-righteous tone. He reached and clicked the mouse to open the extra appointment, his anger waning—a little.

"That's why, you dick," Booker grumbled after a moment. "We have to go back and kick those alphas out the door of the factory we now own. Dad sent me the confirmation of ownership an hour ago, and that was when I added the extra day to your calendar.

"We need to act now before they get wind of who has taken ownership of the place. With how the press has been over your mating and the changes at the company, we're under a lot of scrutiny and there's a chance things could blow up if we aren't careful. It's slim, granted, but it's a risk I'm not prepared to take when it comes to those omegas. Dad was on board with that and as we're not that far away with our current plans, I saw no reason we couldn't extend the trip instead of making an additional trip after the weekend… just so you can get your end away ."

He'd cooled down as Booker explained, then the fucker had to hit him with the jab at the end. His brothers' teasing and what felt like obstructions to Taylin's personal life was getting to be a real fucking pain in his ass.

"You're an asshole, you know that, right?" Taylin would love to say he'd been getting plenty of hot sex, but with his late nights and Hollis's, one of them was usually asleep before the other got in bed. Taylin wasn't a selfish prick who'd wake Hollis for sex. Waking with his little pygmy loris curled on his chest was extremely satisfying… it was. Just, hot sweaty sex would be nice too.

"Trouble in paradise already?" Booker teased.

"No!" Taylin became convinced Booker heard his teeth grinding together when his brother chortled.

"How's the wedding plans going?"

"I'm hanging up." He heard the belly laughter as he hit ‘end call' to slump in his chair, pouting. It was a common occurrence these days with how his brothers had ramped up the teasing.

His stomach snarled a reminder it had been hours since he'd last eaten and pushed him out of his seat. Phone tucked into his slacks, he reached to switch off his computer, then the lamp on the edge of his desk, casting the room into moonlit darkness. He grabbed his suit jacket, slipped it on and headed out the door.

He didn't breathe any easier in the car when he exited the parking lot, cutting down a near empty main street. Driving through nearly deserted streets, Taylin drove through the part of Hazardville that came with memories he had shut in a box years ago. Only, with those boxes being pried open by the press daily, it was hard to shut them again.

With Hollis's home on the far side of town, Taylin had to drive through the neighborhood he had called home briefly. It brought with it nightmares for all those who weren't as lucky as him. Homelessness was something Hazardville council pretended didn't exist because those on the streets were mainly divergent .

Forms skittered back into the shadows as he drove by and his hands tightened on the steering wheel as he felt a stab of pain for those who were hiding, hoping to evade those who prayed on the weak and vulnerable.

A desperation to get home to Hollis came with such velocity Taylin couldn't catch his breath. He increased his speed, hoping to outrun the shadows of his own past. Booker wasn't wrong. The press had become relentless since they'd invited them in. Wrong or right, they were stuck with the consequences. Taylin's biological parents and siblings had cashed in, selling their story for everyone to read about his family's pain at finding their offspring was divergent.

He'd seen the headline this morning and stupidly read the article, then buried himself in work to hide from his own pain. It was the reason he'd lost track of time. That he'd allowed it to interfere with his life left his mood hitting the rocks just as he pulled into the drive.

He had the wherewithal to check no one was lurking before he got out of the car, striding to the house. His inner turmoil was riding him so hard he felt like he'd snap in two. His hand shook as he attempted to fit the key in the lock.

The door burst open before he could turn the key. Hollis took one look at his expression and whatever he saw there caused him to leap at Taylin. Arms and legs wrapped around him as he caught his mate and buried his nose in his neck, releasing a pain ridden breath. "I missed dinner, I'm so sorry. "

"Shush, it's fine."

Aware that anyone could see them, Taylin stepped into the house and used his shoe to kick the door shut behind him before giving into temptation. The kiss was hot and needy.

Both were breathless and flushed when Taylin stopped to move them from the hallway up the stairs to their bedroom. Eating was no longer a top priority. He wanted to forget. He wanted to immerse himself in his mate.

"I missed you," he murmured against Hollis's smooth throat, kissing down to his mating mark to nibble on the scarred flesh.

"Missed you too." Hollis shivered, his legs clenching around Taylin as he rocked his erection against Taylin's suit jacket.

The sleep pants Hollis wore were no barrier to Taylin's wandering hands. He slipped them past the elastic waist and over the fleshy globes of Hollis's bare ass. Hollis moaned and tilted his pelvis to rock against Taylin.

The slick coating Hollis's asshole made it easy to slip two fingers inside and widen them. Taylin knew how much his mate loved the burn.

An unholy moan followed the muscles clenching around his digits. "Another," Hollis gasped hotly, his breath coming in small pants.

Taylin did as ordered.

Squelching, moans, groans, and whimpers added to the urgency for Taylin as he stumbled toward their bed. He only had the ability not to crush Hollis when they hit the covers, his fingers not leaving his mate 's ass.

"Enough, want your cock," Hollis whined through kiss-swollen lips.

Blood pounding hard enough to make his ears ring, Taylin yanked off Hollis's sleep pants and jerked at the zip of his suit pants, clumsily tugging out his throbbing cock. A second later, he thrust deep inside the hot, convulsing channel that squeezed hard enough sweat broke out over Taylin's body at how close it brought him to climax.

"Fuck, you're tight… am I hurting you?" he rasped past the dryness. Holding completely still, which went against every nerve ending inside him that wanted him to move, sweat slid down his hairline.

"No… more… fuck… move… please," Hollis demanded breathlessly.

With a mindlessness that was more suited to insanity, Taylin thrust into Hollis, who begged for more. It was a hard, dirty fuck, and it did what nothing else could have; it closed down Taylin's brain.

Unsure how much time passed before he howled his release after Hollis's clenching hole alerted him Hollis had climaxed, Taylin rolled and collapsed onto the mattress utterly wrecked.

When his brain came back online, it came with a huge dollop of guilt. He placed an arm over his eyes, dragging in a deep, sex scent breath.

A hand crept up over his suit sleeve. "That was amazing… Give me five minutes and let's do it again."

Taylin lifted his arm and glanced sideways at the man wearing only his t-shirt covered in cum, who looked utterly pleased if the smile aimed at Taylin was anything to go by. "You liked that?"

"Hell yeah. What's not to love about hot, sweaty, unbridled sex?" Hollis asked in a way that suggested Taylin was mad if he suggested otherwise.

Fuck, he loved this man.

Taylin sat up and removed his jacket, throwing it on the floor, then did the same with his shirt and tie. He eyed his spent cock poking out of his slacks and gained back his sense of humor. "Slacks on or off?" he asked Hollis, shifting his attention back to his mate.

The wickedness to the smile went straight to Taylin's cock, which twitched at how Hollis was eying him. "Most definitely on."

In a fast move, Taylin rolled back on top of Hollis, pinning him to the bed. "On it is!"