Eduard
Eduard stared across the office at Henry and Sawyer, who’d once again buried themselves behind a pile of books. For the past three days, they’d spent hours holed up, searching for something. They didn’t even know what they were looking for, at least from what Eduard had been able to translate from their half-finished sentences to each other. They definitely had a language of their own when they were researching.
He couldn’t resist temptation and crossed the room. Leaning down, he pressed a kiss to the top of Sawyer’s hair while he rested his hand along the nape of Henry’s neck. “You’re both beautifully distracting today,” Eduard said.
Henry looked up and grinned. “I wouldn’t mind distracting you a little more.”
Sawyer looked up as well, a wide grin on his face. “I like the way you think.”
Eduard reached for Sawyer, but the blaring of his cell phone drew him up short. “Dammit.”
“Don’t answer it.”
Eduard made the mistake of glancing at the screen. “It’s my father.”
“Oh! Let me answer it.”
Eduard handed over his phone, and Sawyer accepted the call.
“Hey Augustus!”
Eduard leaned back into Henry, rubbing his mate’s tense shoulders. They’d spent entirely too long hunched over this table. Perhaps he should see about having Henry’s collection digitized. In fact, an entire library might be useful for searches, especially if he could have some sort of indexing created. The more texts they had, the more opportunities they had to find answers, both now and in the future. Eduard made a note to assign the project to Victor. He’d have the resources and bandwidth to make the project happen. Eduard planned to take on as few new tasks as possible in the coming months. His entire focus could be his mates.
Sawyer poked him and drew his attention. “He wants to talk to you.”
Eduard took the phone and moved it to his ear. “Hello, Father.”
“Son,” Augustus said. “I’m having some difficulties on a deal I’m putting together and wondered if I could come by and get you to take a look.”
Eduard moved the phone away from his ear and scowled at it. “Pardon?”
He couldn’t have heard that correctly.
“Something’s not right with the numbers, but damned if I can figure it out. And hey, I wouldn’t mind a dinner invite.”
“That can be arranged,” Eduard said. Something was definitely going on. His father could run circles around him putting together a deal, even extremely complex ones.
“Excellent. I’ll be there in a few hours, then.”
“Wait. You meant tonight?”
“No time like the present. Thanks, Son. See you soon.”
Augustus ended the call and Sawyer looked up at him with a grin. “Is he coming to visit?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t you look happy about that?”
“Because it’s weird. Something’s going on.”
“Maybe he’s doing that thing you guys did before,” Henry muttered. His focus was back on a book, and he marked his place with his finger before looking up. “Remember? When we were on the boat and trying to keep things on the down-low and you guys were talking in code, sort of?”
“Yes,” Eduard said. “He clearly has something he wants to talk to me about.”
“And he probably doesn’t want to do it over the phone,” Sawyer concluded. “Either way, I’m glad to see him.”
“Me, too,” Eduard said. “I need to go—”
