My work day was about to begin and with it, another set of worries. Not just for me personally but the charity as a whole. Even if I auctioned the bike, it would only give us a short reprieve. Time for me to put Tanner and his erection out of my head. The one resting on my shoulders not… the other one.
Turned out I didn’t have time to think about my landlord or his cock until I closed my laptop and walked from my office to the elevator. Waiting for the doors to open, I thought of nothing else except his dick. It was big, that much I knew.Stop, Candrin. He’s your landlord. Nothing can happen.But I couldn’t take my own advice and the entire way home, images of Tanner filled my head.
When I got to the gate, I hesitated, unsure of the reaction I’d receive when I got inside. I’d also forgotten about dinner—the food Molly had given me was diminishing. Instant noodles it would be.
Would Tanner be home? He’d had some days off but he might have been flying today, and who knew how long he’d be gone. A day? A week?
But as I cracked the door and made sure my landlord wasn’t lounging on the sofa, I stepped in. But I froze as I was met with the most delicious aroma wafting from the kitchen.
“Candrin?”
There was no chance of creeping up the stairs and hiding away in my room. “Yeah. Had a long day. Just heading up to bed.” That was a stretch at 6:30 p.m. but I was avoiding Tanner for the moment. Or trying to.
“Hungry?”
“Ummm.” My mouth was watering and I couldn’t lie because my belly rumbled. Damn! It gave me away.
Tanner grinned. “Someone’s hungry.” He beckoned me into the kitchen. “It’s nothing fancy. Just roast chicken and vegetables and a simple salad.”
Him saying that brought back memories of Molly’s cooking. She was a whizz in the kitchen and she created the most amazing dishes, but her roast chickenwas one of my favorites.
“You can’t keep feeding me,” I protested.
He shrugged. “I can’t eat an entire chicken dinner by myself.”
“That’s kind of you. What can I do to help?”
“Nothing except wash your hands.”
When I returned to the kitchen, the salad and a plate of roast vegetables were on the table and Tanner was carving the chicken. “This looks so good. Thank you.”
“It’s good I had the week off or you might have gone hungry.”
“I’ve been eating.” I shoved a forkful of chicken and gravy in my mouth and savored the taste.
“Mmmm.” He put down his fork. “Tell me if this is none of my business but you said you’re short of cash.”
I had. “Yeah, it sucks.” I pushed the food around on the plate. While I didn’t owe Tanner an explanation, it would be weird if I stayed here long-term and never revealed anything about myself. “I work at a charity. Technically I’m the head of a homeless shelter.” The office was another thing injeopardy.
Father had paid for an office in a building he owned because my day to day work wasn’t in the trenches at the shelter itself. And also any rooms at the shelter were used for the homeless, not office staff. But that office space was probably on the chopping board. And it might be a good thing. Perhaps I needed to get my hands dirty more often and me and my staff should spend part of our day in the shelter. As for office space, I’d think about that when we got kicked out. It wasn’t an if but a when.
And the plans for expanding and buying more buildings to use as shelters? That was probably not happening.
“I was disinherited,” I explained.
Tanner quirked a brow.
“My Father died so technically I’m an orphan.”
The alpha’s hand holding a fork froze in midair. “I’m so sorry.”
The silence that followed was punctuated by our cutlery hitting the plates.
“When you say disinherited?—”
I explained how during the reading of the will, a brother I didn’t know I had turned up. “Everything was left to him.”
“And when you say everything?”
