He can work this job, protect the kids from more than just outside attacksandprepare to get them away before Jules turns twenty-one.
Lachlanknowsit, but he has to trust people.
Alistair and his entourage arrive two days before Savannah’s birthday.Lachlan is still very much in the dark, despite asking Carrigan twice daily if there’s any update.
Danya has not met with Penhalyx yet and Lachlan would much rather keep it that way but knows it’s inevitable down the road.For now, the arrival lands like a stone on a millpond and everyone adjusts to the ripples, although it is, Lachlan thinks, the smoothest arrival so far because he’s been preparing everyone so much in advance.
No one wants a repeat of the previous summer.
Lachlan meets him on the landing pad, shakes his hand and walks him inside.Carrigan is there speaking with Maddox as they enter.Lachlan notices her offer Alistair her hand, only for him to bypass her entirely and bring his assistant forward to deal with her instead.Technically, it isn’t a snub.Men like Alistair Penhalyx rarely acknowledge anyone they don’t consider directly relevant but Lachlan sees Carrigan quietly take it like one.
‘Has the new surveillance been fully implemented Estate-wide?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Excellent.’
Mimi is out of sight playing in her Tower with Blaire.
Jules, Lachlan suspects, will be called into the office soon, so he’s nearby in the West Wing, dressed sharply.
Lachlan would know, he did his tie that morning while he told Jules in a quiet, entreating voice that everything had to stop now that his father is here.
Jules had agreed, seemed serious enough but then after the tie was tied, his mouth was on Lachlan’s and then Jules’ back was up against the wall, making desperate little noises while Lachlan lost himself to the swirling upswing of pure sugar-soakedmadnessthat is kissing Jules fucking Penhalyx, and he’d messed up his hair and he had wanted to fuck him so bad that the wordfuckdoesn’t even apply, it’s gone all the way back around to love, love, love as a verb and he’s half hard just thinking about it right now, which is a bad fucking sign.
Alistair asks for a tour of the improvements.
‘I can show you, sir,’ Carrigan offers.
‘No,’ he simply says, glancing at Lachlan, who takes him from wing to wing, displaying each new innovation.‘Fantastic,’ he intently praises just once.‘Let’s take lunch together.Bring my son.’
It happened twice during thebad summerlast year.Alistair spent a mealtime with his children, both were lunches.Lachlan recalls how agonisingly awkward it was for everyone.
Carrigan steps in.‘Sir, would you like me to—?’
‘Speak with Maddox,’ Alistair tells her without looking at her once.
Lachlan goes to collect Jules from where he’s waiting in the library.It’s deathly quiet inside, overwhelmingly musty no matter how often it’s cleaned and aired.Jules is in the back, reading.
He looks up when Lachlan approaches.
The catch of their eyes is an electric thrill.
Lachlan works to hide the way his throat bobs.
Alistair Penhalyx is here now.
This has tostop.
‘Your father will take lunch with you,’ Lachlan says.
Jules looks around.
There’s no one else in here.
Lachlan almost wishes that there was.
‘How’s his mood?’
