“No more, then.” I grab him up, easily supporting his weight against the wall. The position is sexy as fuck. If I have learned one thing about my fuckable little lover, making him come settles him down. But he can’t fall asleep right now. We can still flirt, though. “One day soon, I’m going to pin you to a wall just like this and bury myself inside you until I don’t know where you end and I begin, sugar.”
“This is Jack’s office,” he breathes. Not a protest. “They are waiting for us to return.”
“They,” I kiss him, sliding my tongue in and out of his mouth until he makes little needy sounds in response, “are undoubtedly planning whatever they are planning. Scheming. Someone will order brunch, more drinks. They will have a plan by the time we get back. Probably also a million more questions they want you to answer. Promise.” Theo groans, but he heard the conversation continuing without us as we left. He knows I’m right.
As for Jack’s office, not a protest worth considering. Part of me wants to grab the lube in my wallet and put it to good use right here and now. Instead, I bend my head, going in for a kiss I deny him by pulling back, making him chase me. I get a pleading look from him. When he bites at his lip ring, I can’t take it anymore and seal my mouth over his.
“Matt.” Theo sighs, melting into me now, releasing the I-can-hold-myself-together-with-sheer-determination stiffness he had when we walked in here.
“I don’t care where you live, Theo, as long as it’s in Bear Valley.”
Theo swallows hard and nods.
I ease my hand into his pants. “Just looking for change, sugar. You look like you could use some water. There’s a vending machine down the hall.”
I have my own plan for putting Theo’s life back to rights. The sooner I can get Nico Donahue before me, the better.
Chapter 20: Theo
The past few days have been a blur. Matt has stayed with me at my place all except one night, and then we went to his cabin. Somehow, telling Jack what was happening settled me. People have my back, people who want good things for me.
His brothers don’t even pretend to keep their distance anymore, except for Jack. Jack is pissed, not at me, Matt explained. Rather, Jack takes family very seriously, and he’s upset I’ve been hurt so badly. Perrin and Bishop have also made efforts to talk to me—even popping by Maxine’s. I get the optics of that move, the support it shows for all of me, not just the bits of my life connected to Matt or to Quinn.
I don’t want someone else to fight my battles for me. I just need allies in figuring out what to do about Nico. He’s coming here tomorrow. Tonight, Lucien has invited me and Matt for dinner. We are driving to a place in Keystone Matt has wanted to try, so it’s almost like a date.
Matt tangles his hand with mine as we enter the upscale restaurant and meet Lucien in the back. The table is subtly out of the way, tucked into a corner, allowing an expansive view of the restaurant and the scenery out the window. It’s not private, but it seems like it.
While we make small talk, I study the place, and Lucien pours the wine he had already ordered. The silverware is appropriately heavy, as are the linens, and the menu is leather-bound with thick paper listing the items but no prices. It’s been two years since I have sat in any restaurant, anywhere and had the ability to choose for myself what I wanted. Such a simple thing, but it means so much to me. And Matt knows that, but he has to make it playful.
Matt leans into me to whisper as Lucien places an order for a starter course. “I promise there are dates in our future, sugar. I can’t tell you how interested I am to see what you order tonight. Just remember I can make it better.” He gives a smug peck to my cheek.
We relate our orders to the attentive waiter, who lingers longer than necessary in putting Moretti’s napkin in his lap. Since then, he has seemed intent on catching Lucien’s eye.
“It is good we have some time to talk, yes?” Lucien says, after I make my decision.
“Depends on what you want to talk about,” I say.
“First, I don’t want to bring up Deny, but I feel I need to.” I nod at Moretti’s words. I figured it would be a difficult topic to avoid. “You do not need to worry about him, of course. But I did take the liberty to reach out to his family. As they have some business interests with me, it is . . .important. . . they know what he was up to. Like I guessed, his work with Nico Donahue was on the side and definitely not what they wanted him to be doing. I left dealing with him in their capable hands, with a few suggestions. However, both his family and I need to discuss making you whole.”
“Making me whole?”
“Deny’s family is under my umbrella. His actions reflect on me. And not well, I am afraid. So we owe you, Theo.”
“You don’t—”
Lucien cuts me off. “This is a matter of my conscience and my honor, Theo. These are important things to me. I already owe Bishop favors, and now I owe you one as well.”
“Oh.” What would it be like to have a favor in my back pocket? From Lucien Moretti, no less. I might not ever call it in, but the idea makes me smile.
“Anytime you need something, Theo, you call me. You allowed me to confirm my suspicions about Deny, which has had its own profitable consequences.”
“It did?”
“Business. Reputation. It’s all the same and finding out someone wasn’t what they seemed is valuable to more people than just me. In fact,” Lucien reaches into his finely tailored suit and pulls out a thick envelope, “this is yours, Theo.”
My eyes flying to Matt, I take the heavy paper in my hand. Matt just nods in a way that says, you-got-this-sugar-I’m-only-here-for-the-wine. I huff out a breath at his laidback demeanor showing up now.
The envelope is more like a long folio embossed on the outside with a seal I do not recognize. When I open it, papers folded like letters are stuck in the tabs cut into the sides. I pull one out to scan. “What’s this?” My name is next to a field labeled “account number” with a jumble of numbers and letters. The address is listed as the Hobbit Hole. There is also a number with far too many zeros behind it to belong to me, purporting to be a “balance.”
