Chapter 11 Foot-in-Mouth Syndrome （Part 2）
“There’s the contract,” Titan said, nodding at the desk.
When Mathlin looked, he realized that Hamilton had placed the stack of papers in front of Titan’s seat—on the boss’ side of the desk.
“You can have my chair,” Titan said. “I don’t need to be there while you read it.”
“Do you just want to see me in the boss’ seat?” Mathlin blurted.
A tiny smile tugged at Titan’s lips. With a bit of hesitation, he said, “What I would prefer is you sitting on my lap, but I won’t abuse my employer privileges. You can sit there without me.”
Disappointment hit Mathlin’s chest; he tried not to show it.
What would it be like to sit on Titan’s lap, clothed or otherwise? Titan’s legs were thick like tree trunks; Mathlin would have to open wide if he wanted to straddle the huge alpha.
Nope! Not thinking about that right now!
Because he had never sat in a position of command, even with his previous Master, Mathlin rounded the desk and climbed into the leather chair.
It was so tall that his feet dangled off the floor.
The seat stretched out on either side of him; the armrests were so far away.
“It’s like you’re a giant or something.”
Titan laughed. “Compared to you, I may as well be.”
Mathlin blushed and ducked his head. He looked at the large desk stretched out before him, and felt absolutely tiny in Titan’s chair.
I need to focus! I have to sign the contract. I want this job.
Before he could get through the first paragraph, Jannie began to make unhappy sounds.
“What’s wrong?” he murmured, bouncing her in his arms. She whimpered and squirmed; when Mathlin checked her diapers, he found them clean. He offered her his nipple, but she turned her head away.
Mathlin tried to burp her and rub her belly, and he checked her temperature—but he couldn’t find anything wrong. Jannie began to wail.
“Here, put her on me,” Titan said. He lay down on the office couch, carefully moving his arms away from his chest.
“You can’t hold her, though,” Mathlin said uncertainly.
“Prop up my left side with a rolled-up towel. That way, if she slides off, she’ll just land on the couch.”
Mathlin went in search of a towel, once again caught off guard by all the pink walls. He found a clean towel in the kitchen, rolled it up, and stuffed it under Titan’s left side. Then he laid Jannie carefully on Titan’s broad chest, arms outstretched to take her back in case she cried louder.
The moment Jannie landed on Titan, the alpha began to rumble. It was a low, soothing sound, and Mathlin felt it all the way in his bones.
Jannie stopped fussing.
Mathlin stared. “Wh-what? H-how did you...”
Jannie was so calm now, she looked like an angel.
That traitor! “Jannie!”
She blinked up at him, stuffing her fingers into her mouth.
Titan wasn’t even her dad!
Titan grinned. “Wolf pups like it too. I do this all the time with the pack’s pups. Go on, read the contract while she’s distracted.”
Because Titan had paused his rumbling to speak, Jannie began to whimper. But she calmed down again when Titan’s rumbling started back up.
Mathlin had to tear himself away from the sight: a huge alpha like Titan, with Mathlin’s tiny baby rising and falling on his chest every time he breathed.
How many pups had Titan held like this?
Mathlin retreated behind the desk, sneaking peeks at them. It was surprisingly domestic.
His ovaries swelled with interest.
Horrified, he clutched his belly. “No,” he hissed at his body. “I don’t care that my heat’s landing soon. You’re not making babies!”
Titan glanced over, eyebrows raised.
“I wasn’t talking about you!” Mathlin yelped.
The alpha coughed discreetly. “Sure.”
But ever so slightly, his cheeks turned pink.
“Wait. You heard—” Horrified, Mathlin choked down his words. Titan had said he could hear lies. “Oh gods.”
“Read the contract, Mathlin,” Titan said, sounding amused.
Mathlin whimpered, climbing onto Titan’s office chair and holding up the stack of papers so it hid his face.
“I’m professional,” Mathlin whispered to himself. “I can be professional even though I want to fuck my boss!”
In the other corner of the office, Titan began to cough. “Sorry, Jannie,” Titan muttered, his face as red as Mathlin’s.
“Oh gods,” Mathlin moaned. “Everything is terrible.”
“You’re not terrible,” Titan pointed out.
“It doesn’t help that Hamilton put up all these rippling pink curtains,” Mathlin blurted, trying and failing to stop his mouth from moving. “When I walk through this place, it’s like I’m moving through someone’s ass. Because the walls are pink.”
Titan began to cough again. Somewhere in the distance, Hamilton cackled.
“You’re making it better than I ever could,” Hamilton howled.
When you made things ‘better’ than a Butler Brother could—that was when you knew you had really fucked up.
Mathlin pressed his face against the desk, the contract flopping onto his head.
“Read the contract, Mathlin,” Titan said, amused but with a hint of command in his voice. “I’ll have one of my brothers take down the curtains.”
“Nooo! Don’t destroy my hard work,” Hamilton wailed.
Mathlin cringed. But he straightened up and began to read the contract for real.
To Hamilton’s credit, the terms were easy to understand—simple and straight to the point. Titan would pay Mathlin a respectable wage, and provide food and board for the entire time he was employed.
Mathlin grabbed a pen and signed it.
“You’re happy with the terms?” Titan asked hopefully.
Mathlin nodded. “I think I’ll enjoy working here.”
A bright smile lit up Titan’s face. “I’m glad. Welcome to Twin Buns, Math.”
“Thanks.” Mathlin smiled back and looked around. “I guess we’re now truly inside a Twin Buns.”
Titan froze. And groaned. “Hamilton, please take this down before a customer shows up. I’ve tried to spread the news that Twin Buns is temporarily closed, but there might be some people who haven’t received the memo.
Please don’t let them walk into my bakery while it looks like the inside of an ass. ”
“I’ll look for a victim right now,” Hamilton said gleefully. “We’ll see how long it takes for them to make the connection. Maybe I should add some white silly string to the curtains.”
Titan cringed. “Ham.”
“Tit,” Hamilton answered.
“Don’t wreck my reputation!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make your reputation rock-hard,” Hamilton said. “It’ll fit into the pink insides of Twin Buns.”
Titan looked pained. To save him from it, Mathlin asked a question.
“Why did you call your bakery Twin Buns? Do you sell butt-shaped buns?”
“I haven’t baked anything questionable, actually,” Titan said slowly.
“I just thought it would be a hilarious name. Memorable. Fun. After my previous job, I just wanted to do something I didn’t have to think too hard about.
But the joke’s on me—running your own business is the opposite of relaxing. ”
“What was your previous job—”
Mathlin was interrupted by the door chime jangling. Titan’s head snapped toward the noise; his forehead furrowed.
“Hello?” a stranger called.
“Fuck,” Titan muttered. Then he looked down at Jannie, who had fallen asleep on his chest. “Math, could you hold Jannie for a bit? I have to deal with this.”
“Of course.” Mathlin scrambled over to the couch, gently scooping his daughter into his arms. Jannie scrunched her face and made an unhappy sound, but stayed asleep.
Titan gingerly got to his feet and strode through the bakery; Mathlin followed cautiously behind.
A wizened old man stood in the retail area, glancing around in dismay. “Titan, boy. I thought Everdin was making things up, but it’s true. You fought the slime monster and it broke your arm in three places. Did you really knock up four omegas?”
Mathlin gaped. “What?”
Next to him, Titan sighed. “No. Mr. Abercrombie. Mrs. Everdin must’ve heard wrongly. I got into a car accident while saving—Mathlin last night. No one was knocked up. Mathlin is helping me with everything while I recover, though.”
Abercrombie’s eyes drifted over to Mathlin, then Jannie. “Ah yes, she mentioned the red-headed stepchild.”
“Jannie isn’t a stepchild!” Mathlin cried. “She’s mine!”
“And mine,” Titan said, leaning into Mathlin. He was a warm, solid line against Mathlin’s side. “Sorry, Math. I would hug you, but I can’t right now.”
Whether that hug would be for show or comfort, Mathlin didn’t know. But it sounded really good.
He wrapped an arm around Titan’s waist, careful not to jostle the alpha’s injuries.
Titan glanced at him, surprise flickering across his face.
Why was he so surprised? Mathlin was being a good employee! Okay, so the contract didn’t say Mathlin had to lie about being Titan’s omega, but he was determined to help Titan with everything he needed. If this meant making a good impression on Titan’s customers, then that was what Mathlin would do.
He buried his face against Titan’s side, rubbing his nose into Titan’s shirt.
Titan’s breath hitched. He made no move to pull away, so Mathlin kept going, breathing him in.
Titan smelled good, actually. He smelled like wolf and forest, but the longer Mathlin sniffed, the more intoxicating Titan’s scent became.
“Wow, I can’t stop sniffing you,” Mathlin mumbled, pushing his face against the alpha. “You smell like a gift. Or like a box that I had lost and found, and it’s full of all my favorite things.”
“Huh,” Titan murmured, leaning in ever so slightly. “Keep breathing me in, then.”
Abercrombie snorted. “You say the baby is yours, but where have you been hiding the omega this entire time? Did you do him dirty, boy?”
Before Titan could reply, Mathlin blurted, “Titan does me very cleanly! Very thoroughly! He scrubs me all over his washboard abs like he’s washing a wet towel, then he wrings all the juices out of me! It’s like a two-in-one package deal. I clean his abs and also his balls.”
Abercrombie gaped.
Titan choked. “Math—”
Mathlin shoved his mouth against Titan’s body in the hopes that it would stop his foot-in-mouth disease. “Sorry!”