7. Crouching Raccoon, Hidden Baby
7
CROUCHING RACCOON, HIDDEN BABY
Nat almost swallowed his tongue. Raccoon shifters did not have glowing eyes.
He dropped to his knees and shoved Wanda’s car seat under the desk—because that was the first hiding place he could think of.
“Nat?” Duke asked.
“Uh, sorry! I—I dropped my eyeball!” Nat cringed so hard. “I mean, my eyeliner!”
“I didn’t see any makeup on you,” Hubrie said with an odd inflection to his tone.
“I dropped my balls,” Nat groaned. Then he thumped his head against the back of his desk. Wanda’s eyes were still glowing. She smiled and grabbed his shirt, and he asked the gods why this had to happen on his first day of work.
“I think your balls might be intact,” Duke said mildly.
Nat’s face felt like it would burn right off.
He took a deep breath and shook himself. He was the CEO’s assistant. He couldn’t afford to pull things like this.
“Just a moment,” he said.
With a large handkerchief, he fashioned a hood around Wanda’s head. And he backed out slowly, dragging the car seat with him.
When he turned, Duke’s eyes jerked up to his face.
“Did you, uh, find my balls?” Nat asked. Then he could’ve smacked himself. His job was to help Duke unload, not proposition him at inconvenient times!
Duke glanced at Nat’s hips. “I don’t think you need me to show you where they are. But I’m positive there’s an outline of them.”
Nat blushed so hot, he couldn’t look at Duke.
Hubrie didn’t make any attempt to hide his snickering. Duke shot him a mildly annoyed look.
“Let’s get going,” Duke said. “We don’t have much time.”
Nat slung Wanda’s diaper bag onto his shoulders and grabbed her car seat.
It was an awkward ride down the elevator, partly because Duke kept glancing at Wanda’s new hood.
“What is that for?” Duke asked.
Nat squirmed. “To, uh, keep the sun out of her face.”
Duke nodded. By then, Wanda’s eyes had stopped glowing. Nat breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
They left the elevator and stepped into the lobby, where a guy from the cafe was holding a bag.
“Mr. Brimstone?” the guy said.
Nat didn’t even think cafes offered a delivery service, but Duke was a CEO. Maybe getting special food deliveries was his superpower.
Duke took the bag and tipped the man handsomely.
Instead of stepping out of the building, Duke led them back to the elevators and down to the basement parking lot.
“When you scan your staff pass at the elevator, does that give you priority?” Nat asked. “They come a lot faster when you call them.”
Duke grinned. “Yes. Perks of my job.”
In the basement, he headed to a car parked in a reserved lot. Duke made sure that Nat and Wanda were secure in the backseat. Then he got behind the wheel and drove them out of there.
“Don’t you have a driver?” Nat blurted.
“I do. Hubrie drives.”
Nat bit his lip. “Um, but I can’t.”
“That’s fine. We’ve taken it into account.”
Nat would’ve asked if Duke was sure, except he didn’t want Duke to think about firing him. He blinked when Duke handed him the lunch bag.
“Eat.”
“But what about you?”
“I’ll eat later.”
It felt rude to eat while his boss was hungry and driving. Nat clutched the bag, reaching over so Wanda could gnaw on his fingers.
Duke drove through Cartfalls to a quiet shop in the expensive part of town. Nat blinked hard. The shop looked extremely fancy, with an elaborate glass storefront, and a few elegant suits and evening gowns behind the large glass window. Nat had never even heard of the brand.
When Duke cut the engine, Nat hurried to unbuckle his seatbelt. But Duke was fast—he was already opening the back door by the time Nat had wrestled off his seatbelt.
They reached for Wanda’s belt buckles at the same time, their fingers bumping.
A jolt of electricity rushed up Nat’s arm.
“Sorry!” He snatched his hand back and blushed; Duke glanced up sharply. Had he felt it too?
Duke didn’t comment on it, though. He freed Wanda’s car seat and asked, “Would you like me to carry this? You seemed to be struggling with it.”
“But you’re my boss,” Nat blurted. “I should be helping you instead.”
“We’ll help each other.” Duke cracked a small smile. “When you struggle less, you’re able to help me more efficiently.”
It made sense. Nat should let Duke play to his strengths, instead of depleting his own energy in the middle of his workday. “Okay, thanks.”
They made their way over to the clothing shop, where Duke opened the door for Nat.
“But—” Nat protested.
“It’ll be easier not to question me every step of the way,” Duke said dryly. “C’mon.”
Inside the shop was an elegant redwood counter, and bolts of rich fabric arranged neatly on polished shelves. Several mannequins wore different fancy suits; Nat thought he saw a back room full of mirrors.
“Uhh... I thought we were buying clothes,” he whispered.
“We’re getting clothes that fit you.” Duke rang a bell at the counter.
They didn’t wait long. An old man walked up behind the counter and smiled at them both. “Good morning, Mr. Brimstone. How may I assist you?”
“Lector. I would like six sets of office wear for Nat.” Duke stepped aside to nod at Nat. “Whatever you think suits him best.”
Lector brightened. “Of course. Let’s see what I can do. This way, please.”
He led them to the back room with mirrors—the floors were carpeted in wine red, with a low circular platform in front of a semicircle of mirrors. Plush couches lined the sides of the room.
“Remove your clothes and stand in front of the mirrors,” Lector said.
Nat blushed furiously. “A-all my clothes!?”
“Well, not your underwear. You can keep that on.”
Duke had set Wanda by his feet. “Would you like me to watch Wanda?”
Nat hesitated. “Um, she can watch me. She feels better knowing I’m around.”
Duke nodded and turned the car seat so Wanda could see Nat.
Nat got out of his clothes, his skin prickling in the cool air of the shop. Ordinarily, he wouldn’t think much of his nakedness—he was a shifter, and shifters moved between shapes without their clothes.
But Duke was watching him. Come to think of it, he had left their lunch in the car, except he wasn’t leaving to retrieve it.
Was watching Nat more enjoyable than eating? Nat blushed, not knowing what he’d done to deserve Duke’s rapt attention.
“Do the buttons bother you?” Duke asked. “Will it be easier if you had snap buttons, instead of the round plastic ones?”
Nat blinked. No one had asked him that before. “Yes, actually.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Lector said, holding his measuring tape over different parts of Nat’s body.
Nat felt so naked, all over again. Maybe it was the bright lights, maybe it was the way he had nothing to hide his body behind.
Duke did not look away.
“Open your legs,” Lector said.
Nat’s face burned. He planted his feet shoulder-width apart and watched as Duke’s gaze darkened. Especially when Lector measured his inseam.
Would Duke want sex when they got back to the office?
Then again, Duke’s schedule was packed. He only had allowances for food and a shower, all the way until the end of next week.
Maybe they’d get to do something if Duke’s appointments ended early?
Lector wrote down the measurements on a notepad, before nodding at Nat. “I have what I need. If you’d like to have your lunch first, there’s an outfit I can alter for you to try on by the end of your lunch.”
“That’ll be great,” Duke said before Nat could reply.
Nat gaped like a fish.
“Put your clothes back on,” Duke murmured, getting to his feet. “Our food is getting cold.”
Nat scrambled to get dressed, but everything turned out sloppy because he was in a hurry. “Sorry, sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Duke said. “What I have after this is an internal meeting. I can be late.”
Nat grimaced. “I don’t want you to be late!”
“Well, I can make my own decision on that.” Duke grinned and picked up Wanda’s car seat, before ushering Nat out of the shop.
“No one does this much for a new employee,” Nat said disbelievingly. Then he wished he could stop putting his foot into his mouth. “I swear my mouth doesn’t taste like feet.”
Immediately after, he buried his face in his hands.
Duke huffed. “I sure hope you don’t taste like feet.”
“Except for my feet. Those had better taste like feet.” Nat whimpered. “Oh, gods. I need to shut up.”
“I don’t know about that. I enjoy listening to you.”
“You don’t know me!”
“Yet,” Duke said. “This is just the first day.”
Nat was not going to imagine how much more he could fuck up in one week.
They made it back to the car in one piece. Duke put Wanda in the back seat and handed Nat his food—smoked salmon bagels, a peanut butter cookie, and orange juice.
“I have chips and fries too, if you need more.” Duke gestured at the lunch bag.
“But that’s your food!”
“I ordered extra.” Duke placed the bag on the car roof and tucked into his own sandwich. He was still standing out in the sun, next to where Nat was sitting in the back seat.
“Sorry for taking up your entire lunch hour,” Nat said hesitantly.
“Nat, eat your food.” Duke’s mouth tugged up at the corners. “We don’t have much time left for lunch. Besides, this is fine. I appreciate the change of pace.”
“Okay, shutting up and eating.” Nat unwrapped his bagel and bit into it. The bagel was soft and chewy, cream cheese cool on his tongue. And the smokiness of the salmon... He moaned and stuffed his face, and moaned again.
“Should I have gotten you a third bagel?” Duke asked quietly.
“I don’t know if my stomach has space for it.” Nat made happy sounds, washing down his bagel with some orange juice and starting on the next. “This might be the best thing I’ve eaten in years.”
“Years?” Duke frowned.
Nat jerked his shoulders. “Um. I don’t think you want to hear about my... life.”
“Tell me anyway.”
Nat sighed. “Well, the short version is that I lost my parents and fell in with the wrong crowd.” He twitched his fingers. “More like the wrong person, I guess.”
Duke stiffened. With a growl, he asked, “Someone did that to you?”
Nat hunched his shoulders. “Yeah.”
Something crunched above him. Water splashed down the side of the car.
“Be right back,” Duke said.
He stalked away, a stainless steel travel cup crumpled in his fist.
Nat stared. “Oh.”
His friends had been furious about his ex. Duke... Duke didn’t even know Nat all that well. And he had just crushed an entire metal cup when he heard Nat’s answer.
No one had done that for Nat, either.
Duke stalked around the parking lot, further crushing the travel cup into a tiny ball. After a while, he looked around, heading over to a trash can.
When he returned to the car, his expression had smoothed out. He seemed calm.
Nat poked his head out of the car. “Are you okay?”
“You’re asking me that?” Duke asked, his eyebrows jumping. “Are you okay?”
Nat shrugged. “I guess. It happened maybe... six years ago.”
Duke scowled. “You were young.”
“Young and stupid.” Nat hunched his shoulders. “I fell in love with an alpha and he beat me. Well, I guess I should start from the beginning. My parents weren’t... great. They were okay. But they didn’t really want me around, and they always acted like I was a burden.
“I thought I had struck the jackpot when I moved in with my boyfriend, except he started telling me—” Nat’s breath hitched “—bad things. He said I was too stupid for college. And too ugly. I was under a lot of stress, partly because of him. He would throw my textbooks around and crumple up my assignments; I couldn’t bear to hand them in to my professors because the pages were a mess. And I got so embarrassed when people asked why my homework looked like crap.
“In the end, I dropped out; I thought it would make him calm down. But he got worse. I didn’t manage to leave for a while.”
Duke growled again, a low, animal kind of sound. “He beat you so hard that you lost your fingers?”
“He—” Nat bit his lip. “Yeah. Crushed them under a chair.”
Duke tensed. And his eyes glowed so white, Nat dropped his sandwich.