Page 8 of Laken's longing

A hiccupped-cough came from the other side of his desk, but Isley kept his head down, giving Laken the top of his head to stare at.

“Is this amusing you?” he hissed at Isley.

“It is amusing listening to you get all uptight. Is your tie strangling you about now? I bet it is. Why don’t you loosen up, Laken? You need to get laid, and fast, to improve your temperament.” Isley didn’t seem to care that Silas could hear their conversation. The traitor's slim shoulders shook with silent laughter, and Laken’s gray eyes hardened to steel.

“Ziggy came in for a meeting, and it’s perfectly acceptable to kiss one’s fiancé.”

“How many times do you need to get that into a sentence? I know you’re engaged. The whole fucking world now knows you're engaged.”

The press had caught wind of that bit of information and subsequently they had left Taylin alone to start a campaign of finding out as much as possible about Silas’s fiancé. It wasn’t going well when Booker’s bio-dad had told the press about Ziggy’s attack on him. Of course, they’d missed out reporting the part where the bear had threatened Frey and Ziggy was only defending his friend in snake form. It seems the big coward was afraid of snakes and ran away.

Laken held some sympathy about the shit they were throwing at Booker, who didn’t seem to care too much when they’d talked about it at dinner the night before. Laken and Booker had never been very close because Laken hadn’t known how to take Booker’s teasing when he’d arrived at the Starling house—one he now called home—and they’d fought more than Laken had with his other brothers. He had wanted to prove he wasn’t weak and could defend himself.

“I just like to remind you because I can,” Silas quipped, sounding far too amused.

Laken bristled at Isley not holding back his giggles, which could probably be heard over the phone.

“I don’t care about that, what I am fucking interested in is the delivery of merchandise the clothes stores need so we can actually sell the clothes we make! You know, important stuff like that which helpspay everyone’s wages.”

The last part he aimed at Isley, not that he noticed with how much he was now struggling to keep hold of his composure. The prettiness became more obvious as he tilted his head, the pale blue of his eyes glistening like the sea on a sunny day. His full lips were tugged into a mischievous grin.

Laken lost his breath for a second as their eyes locked and he felt the familiar tug of arousal low in his gut. The air buzzed with sexual tension, and Laken, in that moment, couldn't deny it as much as he wanted to. In the small confines of the cabin, something had changed. He saw Isley as a man… an attractive man… a man he was interested in.

“Keep your hair on Laken.” The voice floated out of the speaker, but it made no sense when blood rushed in his ears. His dick hardened painfully from its semi-aroused state as the man opposite flushed prettily and the warming scent of citrus and cinnamon increased until it filled Laken’s nose.

“Everything will be at the local stores by Wednesday. Wilder has just confirmed the international transport delivery time is Thursday afternoon through Friday morning, so that should give you something to smile about.”

Laken grunted, hoping it was the right response, his face heating when Isley’s smile stretched wider. It consumed his face. The sunniness of it eclipsed the gloomy room, giving Laken another punch of arousal. This one was more obvious, sending his pheromones on the fritz and making it impossible to deny what was happening under the desk.Fuck.

“A grunt! Is that all I get? Great, I’ll catch you later and don’t forget to contact Louis to let him know when you arrive.”

The sound of the dial tone shook Laken out of his stupor, his cheeks hot with embarrassment at how he had no way out of pretending the attraction wasn’t real. Unless Isley had no sense of smell?

“I’ve got the email from Wilder. I’ve checked your calendar and begun listing what needs rearranging. I’ll check the flight schedules for the plane and once you have locked in a date with Louis, I’ll book the hotel… for us.”

Laken must have made a suitable noise of agreement and minutes later he watched Isley’s pert backside exit through his office door with no clue what he was supposed to do next.

I can help. Go chase his pert ass and bite it.

Laken’s groan was pained for two reasons. Firstly, his animal was insufferable, and secondly, his throbbing dick was filling up the office with his scent and it was impossible to pretend it wasn’t because of Isley. Where had all his control gone?

“I’m a thirty-six-year-old man, not a horny teenager,” he said to the empty office, because really, how much more pathetic could he be?

He shoved his keyboard out of the way and banged his head on the desk in the hopes it would knock some sense into him.

You really are pathetic. Give in.

Fuck you.

No, let's save that for the gorgeous sugar glider.

Do you ever give up?

Laken lifted his head and rubbed at the spot above his bushy brows to take the sting of pain away, which had done nothing to help but added to his woes with a brewing headache. “Fuck my life.”

He didn’t like admitting defeat, he really didn’t. He couldn’t lie to Hollis and say Isley couldn’t do his job properly because he was excellent. The spreadsheets he’d created to manage their workload and track merchandize alone made Laken’s life so much easier. Not that he’d told him that. Every time he tried to think about being nice, he choked, seeing Silas’s sappy grin, or Booker’s when Frey perched on his lap in the family room. Taylin wasn’t much better. Thinking about Taylin left him with thoughts of how on an away trip, Taylin and Hollis had…

He laid his head back on the desk and shoved at his unrelenting dick. “I am not fucking Isley,” he said aloud and with conviction. “He’s my employee and I will not be cliché like my brothers, I won’t.”