And I genuinely despise society as a whole because of it.
“Let’s go home. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”
Ian grabs the handrail to steady himself, all of us beginning the arduous climb up the seemingly endless staircase. “What do you mean?”
Glancing between my mates, my chest tightens, for the first time in my life wanting something so much it’s physically painful. “We’re upping Hawk’s timeline. I want to actually get to see some of these changes before I die.”
Thirty-One
Esmerelda
Six Months Later
“Isaid creamer, not cream her. Goodness, I’ll just get it myself.” Hawk clucks his tongue, shaking his head as he enters the kitchen.
Fumbling around behind me on the table, I grab the container, offering it to him with an apologetic smile. “Sorry; got distracted.”
Still buried inside of me, Ian smirks, grabbing my hip and pulling me impossibly closer. “Don’t apologize, you know damn well he was listening in the whole time and getting off in the other room.”
Dramatically gasping, Hawk puts a hand to his chest indignantly. “How dare you spew such absolutely true facts to my beloved? The slander.”
Grinning, he wraps his hand around mine on the container, leaning in to kiss me. Deepening it, he urges me down until I’m flat on my back, slipping his free hand between me and Ian, rubbing languid circles over my clit. Overly sensitive, I try to flinch away from his touch, involuntarily clenching around Ian. With a tortured groan, his cock twitches once more before he reluctantly pulls out.
The door clicks open, Hawk’s attention instantly swiveling around, all humor lost until he sees it’s just Rheyas and relaxes. As much as it’s a relief on their senses that the underground is set up so each room feels like its own little world so they don’t get overwhelmed being surrounded by so many people, it also makes it harder to get a sense of people until they’re practically right on top of you. Hawk’s spent nearly his entire life here and even he still gets jumpy. The curse of shifter lineage; they don’t do well being caught off guard.
“Why am I not even surprised?” Rheyas snorts, closing the door behind him and joining us in the kitchen. I’ve just finished sitting up, legs swinging over the edge of the table, when he steps in front of me.
Cupping both sides of my face, he kisses me breathless before pulling away, grabbing my shorts off of the floor and offering them to me with a teasing smirk. “They’re waiting for us in the conference room. Apparently they have a proposal to throw your way, and by their nervous looks, they’re expecting you to hate it.”
Hopping off the table, I yank on my shorts and straighten my shirt. “That shouldn’t amuse me as much as it does.”
Ian finishes fastening his belt. “Eh, you get off on making other people uncomfortable. Admit it; them tripping over themselves to stay in your good graces after all of your diabolical ideas is almost as satisfying as your first gangbang.”
Slipping my shoes on, I plaster an innocent look on my face. “Why Ian, just how long have you been stalking me? I didn’t know you were there for that one.” He narrows his eyes the same time that Rheyas looses a warning growl and I grin.
Hawk chuckles right alongside me, grabbing my hand on our way out the door. “Stop poking the bear or we’re not going to get anything productive done today.”
“I think we have very different definitions of productive,” I mumble.
“I’m with Rel on this one,” Rhey chimes in and I just smile, thrilled with how much better they’ve all started to get along over the last few months.
Some things never change though, and the second I start to slide a chair out in the conference room, Rheyas wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me onto his lap. All this time and he still gets twitchy when we’re around other people for too long, and it just helps him tolerate sitting through the tedious meetings.
Charlotte’s lips are pursed, and I’m sure she’s tempted to make a quip along the lines of ‘nice of you to finally arrive’, but she bites her tongue. It’s a sure-fire sign that they have a favor to ask, and I sit a little straighter.
Noah clears his throat. “As I’m sure you’re aware, sales have been through the roof the last six weeks.” My broad grin is answer enough.
After they took my incredibly risky, immoral suggestion about utilizing the coffee factory above us differently, they’ve had to hire several dozen more employees and contract out to a distribution company until they can get a better system in place to keep up with the volume. Rather than just some surrounding towns and a couple of cities, their coffee is in nearly every store within a several hundred mile radius.
And they’re all addicted.
Ben picks up where Noah left off. “We think it might be time to implement stage two. But we were hoping,” he trails off sheepishly.
“That I’d do it.” It’s not a question, and honestly, I pretty much expected it. These people are far more comfortable hiding in the shadows. And honestly? I really don’t mind risking pissing people off or whether they hate me or not. “Yeah, sure. Get it all set up and make sure Sara is ready, and I’ll make the announcement tomorrow.”
* * *
“Are you sure about this?”Ian asks, testing his coffee before taking a drink. But ever since we started adding the special ingredient that’s made us so popular, it’s become habit to make sure batches don’t get mixed up.
