Chapter Thirty-One

Hollis

Hollis wanted to sulk after the glorious evening they'd had the night before, as he listened to Taylin explain that their weekend plans were going to have to change.

"Booker added the extra day to the trip last night. We're close enough not to have to add in an additional trip away and waste time on dealing with the situation at Design Detailing & Co now it's confirmed the company sale has gone through." Taylin, carrying shirts and underwear, gave him an apologetic smile, going to the open suitcase on the bed. "He wants to do some ass kicking. I get it, but fuck, I'm sorry. I know we were going to have a proper date night Friday and a weekend of lounging in bed binge watching movies, eating takeout."

Worry, it was there in the taut lines around Taylin's lips as he cast another look at Hollis before resuming his packing .

Hollis slipped on his shirt, buttoning it up as he kept his disappointment out of his voice when he answered, "He's right. It's silly to come back when you're close to the factory. And those alphas could be doing who knows what to those omegas during this transition period."

They had talked about him going, but Taylin didn't need Hollis present for the meetings with Brand Alliance and the lawyers to iron out the last few details before the contracts received their full approval. His sensible side had taken hold with the list of ever-growing demands the other brothers threw at him, so he'd acted like the professional he was and had forgone his urge to say ‘fuck it'.

The ‘fuck it' was getting much harder to ignore and it worried Hollis that his sensible side was disappearing with each passing day because of the sexy hunk who'd taken up residence in his heart.

Taylin folded another shirt and added it to the pile, then glanced up at Hollis. "I'm disappointed. I meant it last night, I miss you."

Sincerity and disappointment reflected at him helped, it did. So did how sore his ass was and how he'd be feeling just how much Taylin missed him for days. A dopey grin appeared. "Then you'll need to demonstrate again when you get home on Saturday night."

A light of interest came over Taylin's sexy grin. "You could be asleep?"

Finished with buttoning up his shirt, Hollis slinked around the side of the unmade bed and ran a finger down Taylin's naked chest until it reached the belt buckle, where he tapped at it. A vision of Taylin last night popped right to the forefront of his mind.

"I've never had anyone attempt to seduce me while I'm asleep…" he cupped Taylin's cock, feeling it swell under his hand and getting an extra thrill. "That could be fun, don't you think?"

The huskiness in his voice wasn't put on, not with how dry his mouth got at the flare of desire and the hard shaft doing its best to poke through the zipper.

Taylin's groan sounded painful as he placed his hand over Hollis's, cupping it and pressing it more firmly against the hard shaft beneath his clothing, the scent of arousal warmed the air. "If you keep that up, you'll be face down on the mattress with my cock in your ass…"

Hollis, never a flirt, fluttered his eyelashes at Taylin, tempting the sexy beast inside his mate he had discovered. Last night… yeah, he wanted a lot more of that side of Taylin unleashed on him. "I don't see any problem with that… I mean, you are the boss."

"Fuck…" Taylin cursed, his gaze roaming the bed as his phone chirped madly. "Brothers! Cock blocking fuckers," he growled, moving, forcing Hollis to let go so he could search the covers for the offending item.

Hollis decided moving far away from Taylin was for the best. Aroused enough to want to consider jumping Taylin and to tell him to ignore work was not a good thing for a man in his position. Something he had to remind himself of repeatedly as he finished dressing, only half listening to Taylin .

He left him in the bedroom when the conversation continued, and he wasn't sure he had talked himself around from his current ‘fuck it' moment.

He had waffles and fruit plated and coffee percolating by the time Taylin appeared dressed, his suit jacket in place giving Hollis a sinking feeling in his gut.

"Sorry." Taylin eyed the table and sighed morosely, adding to Hollis's conviction they wouldn't be having breakfast together. "The plane is booked for a damn service back here tomorrow, so we have to leave now. Booker will be here in a minute."

Hollis's face fell, despite understanding. "Can't you at least eat a waffle? You ate so little last night," he fussed, picking up the warm waffle and offering it to Taylin.

His expression softened and Hollis's breath caught in his throat at the love he was still getting used to seeing. "I love you," Taylin said, taking the waffle from him and swooping down to kiss him hard.

Breathless and the world beyond his glasses wonky, Hollis whimpered at the loss of Taylin's hot lips when he stepped back, saying, "That'll be Booker."

"Huh?"

Taylin grinned cheekily, pointing to the doorway with the hand holding the waffle. "Ringing the doorbell," he explained.

A blast of heat filled his cheeks as he coughed in embarrassment at having heard nothing. "Oh… okay .

"You're fucking adorable." Taylin kissed him too fast for Hollis to do more than blink. "I'm gonna have to go, I'll ring you tonight."

Seconds later, he heard the door slam and Hollis remained standing in the same spot, his lips still buzzing and his body too hot for comfort.

"That man is lethal!"

Isn't it great?

Hollis couldn't argue with his animal, not one little bit.

He took another minute to revel in his reality that, despite how busy they were over the last few weeks, he continued to wake daily to find himself curled up on his mate. He was pinching himself on an almost daily basis, just to see if he would wake up from the dream he was in.

Not tomorrow or the next day or the day after that, his animal sulked.

Stop being greedy. He wasn't sure if he was actually talking to his animal or himself as he felt his animal flounce about inside him, ignoring him.

Thirty minutes later he entered his office, having eaten standing at the counter, before collecting his laptop, which he brought home daily to work while waiting for Taylin to come home. It was that or pace, and that wasn't nearly as productive.

He placed the bag on his desk, barely having time to shed his suit jacket, when the door burst open and Wilder ran in, tears glinting in his eyes.

"What did he do now?" Hollis asked, walking to close the door before guiding a now sobbing Wilder to the chair in front of his desk. Hollis caught a whiff of melon and something sweeter when Wilder didn't let go and clung to him, forcing him to crouch next to the seat.

"I'm sure he's doing it on purpose now!" Wilder whined.

"Doing what?" Hollis asked, none the wiser. Jupiter, it appeared, was making it his life's mission to make Wilder as miserable as possible. Why, Hollis hadn't figured out.

Wilder relaxed his grip on Hollis to reach into the breast pocket of his shirt, pressing at the screen of the phone he now held. He held up the screen to Hollis, while his other hand scrubbed at his damp eyes. "This!"

"Wilder, you will refrain from calling the men who contact you by a number or else I will need to consider your suitability for the position of my PA," Hollis read aloud.

"He's going to fire me!" Wilder cried, his dark eyes swimming once more.

Hollis sucked in a breath, getting a tickling feeling at the back of his throat when it sank in exactly which men Wilder was using numbers to remember. The conversation he had with the little raccoon only two days ago ran through his mind, and the tickle increased.

Wilder had literally taken Hollis at his word when he'd innocently suggested that Wilder add numbers to the men who called and wanted to speak to Jupiter when Wilder kept getting the names mixed up, setting off Jupiter to rant at him once again.

He ran a hand over his mouth and worked to keep his reaction to himself, when it was to laugh inappropriately at how Wilder had handled the long list of men who Jupiter dated.

"He can't fire you, Wilder," he said to allay that fear first, because Wilder was an excellent PA and only had issues with Jupiter. "I'm the only one who can do that. I told you to read your contract, didn't I?" he said gently. "Your roles and responsibilities fall directly under my remit. If Jupiter has issues with your work, then he should be addressing them with me."

"He can't?"

Hollis shook his head, trying to get a read on what was running through Wilder's head with the thoughtful look he now wore. To date, it had only been Wilder who'd come to visit Hollis with problems. All of which related to non-work problems.

It was time to pay Jupiter a visit, one Hollis did not relish after the fun the other man had at his expense over a wedding that he hadn't actually had a proposal for.

Wilder sniffed huffily, rubbing at the tip of his nose, drawing attention to the gleam that appeared in his eyes that set off a warning bell inside Hollis. "Whatever thought has just ran through your head, don't do it." Wilder was the cheeky one of the group. He acted impulsively most of the time. His adorability meant that he got away with his silliness—until Jupiter.

"I don't know what you mean," he replied innocently.

Hollis rose and shook his head, pointing at Wilder, who tucked his phone away. "This is me you're talking to. I know you. You are excellent at your job, but your impulsiveness could land you in more hot water with Jupiter." Hollis thought for a second. "Maybe it's time to consider switching you with one of the other PAs." It was the safest option when none of the others had complained about working with Jupiter in the past.

The speed with which Wilder left the chair left Hollis wide eyed. "No. It's my area of expertise. Why should I be the one to get punished for his behavior?"

"He's upsetting you on a nearly daily basis, Wilder. How is that punishing you?" Hollis let out a little of his frustration. "The file notes I have from your frequent visits to my office are bigger than that of all the other PAs put together."

Wilder's little nose rose in the air. "He's a… he's a… well, I don't know what he is. It doesn't matter… you don't need to worry about it, I'll fix him… it." He quickly followed up with a reassuring smile that did nothing to allay the feeling Hollis had that things were about to go from bad to worse.

"Wilder, I'm warning you, please don't do anything stupid. I don't want to have to do what Jupiter is threatening because you did something to rile him up." He was wasting his breath, he could see it as Wilder nodded but didn't lose the glint of devilment Hollis was familiar with.

God save me from sassy raccoons!