Page 4 of Silas's Sweetheart

Silas didn’t notice the sun had risen and he no longer needed the lamp he’d switched on when he’d arrived at the office at the ass crack of dawn. His focus was on the multiple projects that Dad had emailed him an extensive list of, along with details of which brother had which part to deal with. He’d never gotten, until now, just how good Dad was at juggling all the work balls and not dropping a damn one.

He stretched, arching in the seat, his fingers tapping away at the keyboard as he made a list of priorities. Fortunately for him, working on the ranch had turned him into an early riser, which, with everything he was going through, would be a necessity. He didn’t let out the groan of complaint, having worked in the family business since turning eighteen. His first love would always be horses, and his long-held dream was to shift gears from the fashion industry, his second love, to only work at the ranch. But that now seemed even further in the future than it once had.

Buying a ranch had always been part of his plans, and he’d achieved that quicker because of investing in Sax’s business. His parents had offered to loan him the money, but Silas didn’t want that. He wanted to do it for himself. They’d both been so proud of him when he’d achieved his goal and that he’d not let it interfere with his job at the company. Over the years, he’d learned to juggle both sides of his life.

The ranch got as much time as Starling Enterprises did. It was partly why he’d given up on attempting to have a relationship with anyone. They required energy and plenty of time, neither of which he was willing to give.

A flash of purple silk wrapped around a lean, tattooed body swam into his mind. He shut the memory out, which was harder than he liked, to focus on the computer screen. His personal cell phone rang and he answered it without checking the screen, knowing at this time of the day it would only be one man.

“What now?” he asked without preamble.

“Nice to speak to you too, boss!” Ethan answered, sniggering. “I got an issue.”

“When do you not have one?” he fired back, tapping at the keyboard before reaching for the mouse to save what he’d been doing before he did something daft and hit the wrong key. Distraction around the computer was never good for Silas.

Ethan launched into the reason for the call and Silas groaned, already opening up anew word document. With two staff members leaving the ranch, he’d have to move some folks around the ranch while they looked for new ranch hands.

“You sure about this?” Silas ran through the list of names he’d typed, seeing that Ethan was right. They had very few options available to them.

“What the fuck stupid kind of question is that? What am I supposed to do? Cut myself in fucking two?” he groused, andSilas didn’t need to see his ranch manager's expression to know how genuinely pissed off he was right then.

All the amusement leaching out of Ethan’s voice was not something that happened often, so when it did it was that much more effective at guilting Silas about this current situation. Not that he or Ethan had any control over it. Two of their best cowboys had quit because they’d gotten offered a more profitable job, and there wasn’t much arguing with that.

Silas had no fucking clue what the job was, and he didn’t rightly care, but it left them in a hole with the ranch booked up with city folks looking for a ranch experience aimed at team building.

It had turned out to be a lucrative side line, suggested by Jupiter when Silas had a moment of weakness and mentioned how the ranch was eating money. The big companies, it turned out, were prepared to pay handsomely for the privilege of being forced to work as a team. Silas had reaped the benefits, booking months in advance for corporate packages. However, Ethan couldn’t manage all the additional work it created alone.

“Cranny can help,” said Silas.

“Cranny! He’s—”

Silas shook his head and stopped the rant before it got going. “Don’t fucking start again ‘bout him not being up to it. That record got broken long ago. You and I both know he can show those city slickers what real cowboying is ’bout without breaking a sweat.”

“I know that, but he’s not who I would have picked to help take up the slack when he can get easily distracted by Zippy and his antics,” Ethan groused. He groaned, and then Silas heard a soft thud.

“You bangin’ your head on the desk again? What has Zippy done now?” Silas asked, unable to stop from smiling.

“Don’t fucking ask. He’s a menace. If Zippy wasn’t such a fine fucking horseman, I’d fire his ass for plain stupidity.”

“Whatever is going on with him and Cranny, I wish to fuck they’d decide whether to go at it like rabbits, or find themselves mates. It would be easier for everyone.”

“I hear ya.” A heavy sigh came through the speaker. “That doesn’t help me right now, though, does it?”

A knock on the door stopped Silas from answering. “Come in,” he called out, his gaze never lifting from the computer as he considered the list of names, thinking it was Wendy, his secretary. “We could give more responsibility to Brye. He’s sensible enough not to frighten the natives. He could…”

Silas’s nose twitched madly at a smell that made his gut clench. His wolf whined when his gaze drifted up to meet a pair of pale green eyes. “What the fuck are you doing here?” Silas demanded, with no consideration to Ethan listening in.

“Huh?” came through the speaker.

“I work here,” rasped an all too familiar voice that gripped Silas’s balls in a vice-like hold.

The omega that had occupied his thoughts far too much after their tryst walked towards him, hips swaying seductively. The confident fucker who’d gotten him to…

Fuck, was this a joke or what?

Aware he was blushing harder than a virgin getting naked for the first time in front of a lover, Silas stared at the offered hand. “I’m Ziggy, your assigned PA.”

“Is this a joke?” he finally voiced aloud, because it sure as hell felt like it.

---