Fur and Honor (Steel Bonds)

Chapter 9

How did the most powerful man in the city tell his personal assistant that he wanted to…woo him?

For one, Hal needed them to be in the same place at the same time. After weeks attached at the hip, the next two days were a game of missed opportunities as Hal finalized year-end deals and Miles organized everything else in his life. Hal didn’t often make New Year’s resolutions, but starting tomorrow morning, he’d prioritize the most important deal of his life. Maybe once he figured out how to make it clear to Miles that Hal wanted him, he’d finally be able to breathe.

First, he had to make it through tonight’s gala. Through an evening of some limpet girl hanging off his arm, playing the demure socialite. He didn’t mind so much when his dates were human, but every female werewolf he knew was the most terrifying being on the face of the planet, and it drove him bonkers when they donned such personas. Hal had hoped Miles would stick around the apartment while he dressed for the evening, because they’d both been so busy that he didn’t even know who he’d be paired with that night.

And maybe he wanted Miles to see him in his tux, because he knew he looked damn good.

Instead, Miles laid out Hal’s outfit earlier in the day and vanished. Now, as Hal crossed his building’s lobby, he also crossed mental fingers that one day he’d be granted the privilege of enjoying Miles in a tux. He nodded his thanks to the doorman and slid into the back of the waiting limo.

The practiced greeting to his date for the evening died on his lips. Instead of a woman in a fashionable ballgown, Miles waited on the seat wearing a hesitant smile.

And a tuxedo. Maybe Hal should wish for world peace while he was at it. “What a pleasant surprise!” he said.

“I’m so sorry, sir. I was unable to arrange for anyone else to accompany you tonight.” Miles twisted his hands in his lap.

“Dare I hope you’re my date instead?” Hal hadn’t achieved his level of business success by allowing opportunity to slip by. He dared to snatch this one now by chancing a bold move, slipping his hand between Miles’s and twining their fingers together before the poor man abused his joints further. “I’d be honored to have you on my arm.”

After the briefest moment of stillness, Miles welcomed Hal’s touch by returning his firm grip. The limousine pulled away from the curb. “From what I gathered, I may be useful in tracking any business dealings that occur tonight. And something about not disrupting the seating for dinner?” Despite his excuses for his presence, each passing streetlight illuminated the low smolder in his eyes.

To be honest, Hal didn’t give one flying fuck about business as long as their hands remained clasped. He hated that at his first chance to admire Miles’s dapper outfit, once they stepped onto the red carpet, he’d be under the watchful eyes of New Angouleme’s press and the vicious gazes of his fellow elite. He had half a mind to ask the driver to return to his building so he could drag Miles up to his place. He wanted to drink his fill in privacy, then discover whether those broad shoulders looked as good naked in real life as in the imaginings that had driven him to distraction in the past weeks. Alas, responsibility compelled him to throttle the impulse and check in with his…Miles. How did he go back to thinking of the man as a mere assistant after this unexpected taste of more?

Unable to resist, he dragged his thumbnail lightly across Miles’s skin and basked in the small shiver he provoked before saying, “This won’t be like any other meeting. No vanishing into the background to take notes. You’ll be at my side all night. Expected to share the conversation at dinner. To make the rounds with me before and after the meal.”

On Hal’s arm. Not at a respectful distance behind and to the side. Or so he hoped. The inside of this luxury car had become a sort of liminal space during the short drive, where he’d suddenly been offered everything he wanted. It threatened to give him whiplash, but the way their hands remained clutched together, and the comforting warmth of Miles at his side, grounded him.

As if their words and bodies held separate conversations, Miles shifted, leaning to the side until his shoulder pressed against Hal’s. When he turned his head, scant inches separated them in the limo’s dark interior. “I think I could manage this…change in my level of responsibility.”

Human men tended to add heavy dashes of cologne when dressing up, but Miles had refrained. Hal wanted to nuzzle close and savor his clean scent. The subtle notes of pine embraced his wolf in the promise of home, away from the wretched miasma of the city he’d adapted to.

Miles had traded his functional cane for a gleaming black walking stick that rested between his knees. Hal jerked his chin toward it. “I’ll let you off the hook on the dancing, though.”

“You’re too kind.” Miles tilted his head enough that their temples brushed. “Sir.”

Hal gave a low groan as his cock threatened to thicken in his pants, and Miles chuckled. Giving Miles a bit of side eye, because the alternative was throwing his body atop the other man and claiming his mouth, Hal said, “You know exactly what you’re doing to me when you say that, don’t you?”

Dropping his forehead to Hal’s shoulder, Miles’s shoulders shook in a silent laugh. When he raised his face again, his broad grin struck Hal’s heart the same way his words teased Hal’s body. “Caught me out. Oh, I think we’re here.”

The brilliant lights of the red carpet laid out at the event space’s entrance brightened the limo’s interior as it drew to a halt. Miles eased away to peer outside the window, but his hand did not yet leave Hal’s grasp. Before he could open the door, Hal drew him back. Trading in subtlety was all well and good, but Hal needed more before he threw Miles to the wolves, both metaphorical and literal. “I spent all day wondering how I’d convince you I was interested in more, without coming off as a skeezy boss trying to take advantage of you. Once outside this car, if I take what you seem like you’re offering, we won’t be able to come back from this,” he said, echoing Rob’s words from their telephone conversation.

He might have grown suspicious if a response came without pause, but Miles glanced down for a beat before meeting Hal’s eyes. Werewolves had many strengths, but no supernatural ability to detect lies. Even so, Hal sensed nothing but honest truth when Miles responded, “Sometimes I think you may need me as much as I need you.” Miles released his grip, dragging his fingers across Hal’s palm before exchanging their connection for his new cane and opening the limo door. He ignored the calls from the press as he stepped outside the vehicle, then turned back and stretched his hand toward Hal. “You with me…Hal?”

Hal’s wolf had claimed Miles so long ago that his answer felt like a foregone conclusion. Miles was pack, now. “All the way.”