Page 15 of Silas's Sweetheart

“Me teaching Ziggy to bake.”

Monty’s dark locks fell over one eye as his head whipped to Bowie. “Were you going to share your recipe for the fig and almond cake?” he demanded.

Bowie’s grin widened as he shook his head. “No, silly.”

Pointing a dirty mug at Bowie, Monty gave him a cheeky wink. “Right answer, or I might have to spank your bottom for holding out on me.”

A flush of red crept up Bowie’s neck, past the collar of his white button-down. When the other man squirmed and looked at the ground, Ziggy got the impression Bowie wouldn’t have minded in the slightest getting his bottom spanked. He filed that away for now, realizing Bowie wasn’t comfortable discussing such things.

“How’s it going with Silas? I’ve worked with him before. He’s a bit intense, but he’s always been decent to me. Now Rue? Fuck, that man could do with a personality transplant.”

Evade.

Evade.

Evade.

Ziggy’s brain screamed at him and he gave the two men a vague smile. “Hopefully Rue will chill. It’s gotta be hard to be forced back here when they all had lives elsewhere,” he said, evading the original question by making a show of checking his wristwatch.

“I better head back to my office to finish my list of jobs before Silas decides he wants a different PA.” On that, he skipped out of the coffee lounge before either man could reply. Ziggy didn’t breathe easy until he was safely behind the closed door of his office.

He leaned on it and stared at the office in front of him. Big, bright, airy and personalized with his belongings because Lane Starling, the co-founder and husband of Derick, wanted the PAs happy.

Would Lane want him making his son ‘happy’ in the workplace? He bet his last dime that was no, but Ziggy knew himself, and resisting was never something he was good at. Especially when his animal side wanted the same thing.

He groaned and thumped his head against the wood, eyes shutting.

What was he going to do? That same question had run through his mind all day, and still he had no definitive answer.

Because he was pretty sure that fucking the attraction out of his system wasn’t the solution?

He chewed on his lower lip, his eyes opening, filled with a light of determination. It could work. No strings, just sex. What alpha didn’t want that?

Chapter Five

Silas

He was a scaredy-cat. There was no other way to describe what he was doing when, instead of facing Ziggy, Silas did all his correspondence via email. Every time he considered being in close confines—in his officewith a lockable door—alone, he got the hot sweats. Close proximity to Ziggy—his snake—left him dry mouthed and hard as a fucking stone, with the lasting memory of the feel of the snake’s weight against his body while he came in his pants like a high schooler.

His cheeks flamed, reaching once more to adjust his cock in the tight confines of his slacks. Ziggy was lean but not overly muscular, which suggested he didn’t work out at a gym daily. He was pretty slender and was nowhere near as tall as Silas. When he’d thought about what Ziggy’s snake form would look like when they’d fucked at Hidden Desires, he’d never considered a huge python that was a damn sight bigger than any snake Silas had the privilege to see up close and personal.

His boyhood fascination with snakes had somehow morphed into a Ziggy sized obsession, and it was getting ridiculous how many times he’d had to get himself under control so he wasn’t walking around with a boner in front of everyone. His brothers would never let him live it down. It was fucking exhausting as it meant his concentration had gotten shot to pieces.

One week in and he wasn’t sure he could keep up the pretence that all was right in his world. He was having to take his laptop home to do the work he wasn’t able to in the office because his wolf could smell Ziggy and wanted to go find him.

“You got two minutes?” Laken asked, walking into his office without knocking.

Silas jerked his hand out of his lap, working to stop himself from acting guilty at being caught with his hand on his cock. “As you’re already in my office, I’d say it’s a little late to ask.”

He didn’t admit that, as he’d been staring at the same page on the screen for the last hour thinking about Ziggy, Laken’s interruption was actually welcome.

Laken just shook his head and took the seat, not rising to the bait of getting into a snippy battle with him. “Have you had any word from Ven at Dore’s Delivery service?”

His head quirked to the side as he frowned, working to recall when he’d last had correspondence with one of the biggest haulers of their stock to the international department stores. When he came up blank, he reached for his laptop, clicking out of the file he was in to search through his emails. His gaze skimmed over the dates, and his frown deepened.

“Been three months. I’d have expected an update from them last month, even if it was to just say everything is cool.” He looked over the screen of his laptop. “Whatsup?”

“I’ve had a call from the head of the international branch of Hales Department stores to advise the stock they ordered from us, the new summer line, hasn’t arrived. It’s late by a week, soI rang Ven for an update on the issue, as clearly there is one. I got a voicemail service saying he’d get back to me. He hasn’t and subsequently I’ve left half a dozen more, and still no reply. I never had Ven down as a fly by night. This seems out of character and I wondered if I was missing something?” He ran a hand through his hair, messing it up, revealing his agitation. Laken hated to have a hair out of place.

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