“Hey, Cecil. Anything new to report?”
He’d finally managed to convince Cecil to stop calling him Master Sawyer. It was creepy and old-fashioned and he didn’t like it one bit.
“Nothing, sir. Progress on the pool is ahead of schedule. The gardeners have assured me that they’ll be able to get the landscaping in order not long after.”
“But still six more weeks.”
“Yes, sir. Master Eduard would like for you to join him in the study when you can.”
Sawyer nodded and gave Pearl’s belly one more rub. “Okay. I’ll head that way.”
While Sawyer had spent the past couple of weeks trapped inside the house, Eduard had spent it either buried under a mountain of paperwork in the room he’d claimed as his office or training with Andvari. The paperwork came as a result of his duties as a griffin. They were known for their ability to draw wealth to them and for protecting it with their lives. It was an interesting combination that Sawyer enjoyed reading more about. Griffins were pretty much considered supernatural royalty because they were all stupid rich. The money Eduard managed for Sawyer in his role as the chosen one had a whole lot of zeros on the end of the statement. Sawyer had simply blinked and handed the giant spreadsheet back to Eduard. He was used to dealing with an account with no more than three zeroes on the end of it, and that was only until he paid bills. Then he usually had one zero. If he was lucky. He was used to living on grants he received as a student, and those didn’t exactly provide a luxury lifestyle.
Eduard was on the phone when Sawyer pushed open the office door, so he leaned against the frame and watched him. He’d been attracted to Eduard from the start, and the attraction had only grown deeper as they became closer. Eduard was elegance personified. Tall and lean with carefully groomed, deep red hair. His clothes always fit him to perfection and even though he wasn’t leaving the house, he could usually be found in a button down shirt and dress slacks. Sawyer never wore either of those things unless someone forced him.
Then there were Eduard’s hands. Sawyer didn’t even know he had a thing for hands until he saw Eduard’s. Since when were fingers sexy? But Eduard’s were. And when he used them to light Sawyer up? Touched him and teased him until Sawyer was a quivering mess of want and need? Yeah. Sexy fingers. Really, really sexy.
Eduard ended his call and smiled over at Sawyer. “Morning, love.”
“Morning,” Sawyer said. He crossed over to the desk and leaned over for a kiss.
Eduard pulled him onto his lap and proceeded to check his tonsils. The other thing Eduard was good at? Kissing. So good at kissing.
When they finally parted, Sawyer was gasping for breath and ready to drop to his knees and make Eduard very untidy. But Eduard held him firm and cupped his hand around Sawyer’s cheek.
“Later,” he promised. “I have some paperwork I need you to sign.”
Sawyer groaned. “Do I have to?”
“Yep.” Eduard grinned and reached for a thick stack of legal size documents sitting on the corner of his desk. “Let’s get it over with before you distract me further.”
After leading Sawyer to one of the leather club chairs at the side of the room, Eduard claimed the other chair and sat the paperwork on the table between them. They spent the next few hours going over the contracts line by line. Eduard had insisted from the beginning that if Sawyer wanted him to continue managing the finances then Sawyer must commit to understanding what he was doing and why. Since Sawyer had recently gotten his master’s degree in business, he actually enjoyed most of the work. He hadn’t imagined leaving school to immediately become the multi-millionaire CEO of his own business, but that’s pretty much what happened. Being the chosen one may not have come with a lot of power for him, but it came with a lot of responsibility.
“Okay, last one,” Eduard said.
He had one file folder left on the desk. This one was less thick than the others, but the way Eduard’s hand hovered over it nervously made Sawyer’s heart leap anxiously. “What is it?”
“Come here.”
“What?”
Eduard patted his lap. “Come here.”
Sawyer complied, even though he wasn’t sure he wanted to. “What’s wrong?”
Eduard smiled softly and wrapped his arms around Sawyer’s waist. “Nothing. Well, that’s not entirely true. You’re unhappy. And I can’t stand it.”
Sawyer swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat and pressed his forehead to Eduard’s. “I’ll be okay.”
“I know you will. Because you’re so strong, Sawyer. You’ve accepted our word and gone along with our plans. You’ve let us lock you away in this house with few complaints. You missed your graduation because Andvari didn’t feel it was safe for you to be on campus. You’ve sacrificed so much for us.”
“Hey,” Sawyer said sharply. He pulled away and stared into Eduard’s eyes. “I’ve gained a hell of a lot more than I’ve sacrificed. Don’t think for one second I regret this. I don’t. I may not like being stuck in the house, but I have found four of the most amazing men on the planet to be stuck in the house with. I think that balances things out. So don’t feel bad about that, okay?”
Eduard kissed him softly before pulling away. “Well, I do. And so do the others. So…happy graduation, Sawyer. We’re all very proud of you.”
Eduard pressed the folder to Sawyer’s chest with a small smile.
Sawyer opened it slowly, his eyes drifting from the suddenly blurry documents inside the folder and up to Eduard’s beautiful eyes. He blinked away his tears and…
