“He wanted a moat.”Lucian laughed quietly, remembering the absurd request.“I talked him into an electric fence since he didn’t have a clue how much equipment it would take.”
“And water,” Montana added.“Holy shit.Can you imagine?”
Lucian wadded up his napkin.“This is why people shouldn’t be left in charge of their own security.They’ll be digging holes with bear traps and walking into them.”
“It’s kicking again,” Hope said with undisguised love.
Tak slid out of his chair and knelt beside her.While his mate continued eating her dessert, Tak stroked her belly and placed his ear against it.Everyone else had cleared out of the room except for Lucian and Montana, who were sitting at the opposite end of the table from the Packmaster, giving them privacy.
Montana leaned in close and lowered his voice.“You okay?”
“That remains to be seen.”
“What’s the problem?”
“I piss people off,” Lucian said quietly.“She’s a Councilwoman.If I say or do the wrong thing, he’ll kick me out of the pack.”
Montana peered over at the alpha, who was having a one-sided conversation with a fetus, before looking back at Lucian.“You can be blunt.Just watch what you say on a personal level.Keep it strictly business.Don’t give your opinion on her furniture, her outfit, or how she doesn’t clean.If she says something that you know isn’t right, don’t correct her.”
“In other words, don’t be conversational?”
“She doesn’t know you like we do.”
Lucian glanced up when Robyn’s black wolf trotted jauntily into the room, her tail swishing back and forth.She sniffed the air, spotted her favorite person, and walked around the table to greet him.
After kissing her head, Montana scooted back his chair and faced Lucian while stroking her ebony fur.“Tak’s right.Doing a job for the Council is a big deal, so don’t screw it up.If you run into any trouble or need advice, let me know.”He patted Lucian’s shoulder.“I need to run with my lady.”
Robyn barked and twirled excitedly in a circle before racing out of the room.She howled from the back hall until Montana joined her.Lucian stared out the side windows as the security lights popped on when the two emerged from the back door.After taking off his shoes, Montana shifted, and the two greeted each other before rushing down the steps.
With Robyn and Montana out for the night, that would give Lucian privacy.Their bedrooms were next to each other and shared the same hall as Tak and Hope, and those two had been staying up lately to watch TV and talk.
Lucian headed down the back hall and turned right.His bedroom was the second door on the left, past the bathroom.The multicolored LED lights around his desks stayed on at all times, making it easy for him to see without switching on the overhead light.The custom-built L-shaped desk ran along the entire left wall and the one straight ahead.
Since the wall opposite the door had a window, his monitors were mounted on the left-hand wall so he could watch the surveillance cameras.The desktop monitors, computers, laptops, and other equipment were mainly on the desk straight ahead.Lucian kept his workstation organized, the cords secured under his desk and out of the way, a printer in the corner, a docking station to the left, and other technical equipment, some of which he stored beneath the desk.
He didn’t require a lot of personal space.All he needed was a single floor mattress against the right wall and a low bookshelf.Because the shelf jutted out from the wall by the door, it hid the mattress and gave him a private nook where he could lie down at night and read.It also concealed his bed from anyone barging in; Tak wasn’t a fan of putting locks on the doors.
Stripping out of his clothes, he scanned the surveillance monitors.Movement automatically set off his alarms and initiated recording.In the early days, owls had constantly tripped his alarms and woken him up.It drove him nuts, so he’d built a smart system that identified specific animals and eliminated them from triggering an alert.
Once he was down to his trunks, he walked around the bookshelf to his floor mattress and crawled into bed.He liked the bookshelf facing him so he could view his collection.Most of the books were on subjects that interested him, such as programming, quantum physics, and psychology.Those were topics he wanted to understand.But he also had fantasy novels to escape in.
Since the LED color-changing lights around the desk were on, he didn’t bother switching on the lamp on his makeshift nightstand beside him.He stared at the blue and pink colors that merged on his ceiling to form an interesting mosaic.
After tucking his legs beneath the sheets, he closed his eyes.The first thing that popped into his head was Eden’s smile.During every encounter they’d had, she always acknowledged him with a word or a touch.
His thoughts drifted to the moment she carried her shoes to the door and bent over to put them down.
Bent right over in front of him with those tiny shorts.
As he watched her round bottom, his cock had twitched awake as if summoned like a genie from a bottle.Before the Councilwoman really got an eyeful, Lucian had averted his gaze and started thinking about dirty diapers, cleaning hair out of the bathtub drain, and anything that would save him from the humiliation of getting a boner in front of a community leader.Eden always wore slacks and skirts, so that was the most leg he’d ever seen from her.
Now, in his bedroom, he was in a safe space.
Alone.
Lucian licked his lips when he remembered dropping to his knees and running his tongue up her thigh.Hands down the most irresponsible thing he’d ever done.Eden wasn’t a Chitah—she didn’t understand his ways.
And whathedidn’t understand was his reaction to her sweet taste.
