Like he’s both my lover and my captor.
“What woman?” he asks.
Noah perks up. “Does the Russian daddy have a wife we need to off?” He says it so sweetly, like plotting a murder is just another Monday night.
I chew and swallow, eyes on Callum. “First of all, I’m not getting daddy vibes from him. At all. Not my kink.”
Elliot plants a kiss on my mouth, low and lazy. “Mm. He looks like the kind who says please and thanks you after. You’ll eat him alive.”
“Not with that woman he didn’t,” Callum says. “Couldn’t make out shit she was saying. All Russian, but you didn’t have to be a linguist to know they were threatening each other.”
He pauses.
Then adds, “Sexually, probably.”
I snort.
It is absolutely not sexual.
He is mine.
“His immigration paperwork listed a female sponsor. Not a spouse. Someone needs to dig. Preferably someone who speaks ‘I’ll slit your throat and bake a cake after,’” I say.
Elliot drums his fingers on the table, already plotting bloodless murder. “Give me her name. I’ll have everything she’s ever done and everywhere she’s ever lived by lunch.”
“I’ll get the inside info. He hired me,” Noah says, pride leaking out of him like honey. “Nobody makes a latte like I do. And once he’s part of the family, it’ll be a family business anyway.”
Oh.
My perfect, dangerous boy.
I reach over, grab his face, and kiss him until I taste the smug on his tongue.
“That’s why you’re my favorite today. Tomorrow’s up for grabs,” I say.
I lean back in my chair, spearing another shell and pointing the fork at them. “Alright. Assignments.”
Elliot sighs dramatically, sipping his wine like he didn’t just offer to commit digital homicide on a complete stranger. “You do realize you’re treating this like a hostile acquisition, yes?”
“Not hostile,” I say, batting my lashes. “Sensual. Strategic.” I swirl the fork. “And he doesn’t know it yet, but he’s going to love being part of our domestic situation.”
Noah raises a hand like we’re in class. “Do I still get to seduce him with latte art and morally questionable compliments?”
“Obviously. You’re my man on the inside,” I say, tossing him a kiss. “Make yourself indispensable. Learn his patterns. Find out if he sings when he bakes.”
I pause.
Then add, “Bonus points if he talks dirty to the dough.”
“He’s taking longer than Noah did,” Orion says. “It’s the sweet boy energy. Makes her edgy.”
I set my fork down. “Sweet men take more finesse. They need wooed.”
Elliot tsks. “I’m slightly offended. I have the shortest notes and the fastest stalk time.”
“Bullshit,” Callum says. “My notes were fucking doodles of cock. She didn’t even stalk me properly. Barely earned my dick.”
“It’s a nice cock,” I say. “And you screwed up the process because you’re too wild to be stalked like a gentleman.”
