Chapter Fifteen
Isley
What had started out as teaching Laken a lesson had become a nightmare with Jupiter’s arrival and his animal half wanting to play games.
Why did you scent Jupiter? Seriously, isn’t one alpha enough to deal with?
I don’t mean to, it kind of happened. I was aiming for his neck, not his mouth.
It hadn’t mattered how much he’d pushed his animal to give back control, the ‘tiny devil’ wouldn’t.
It was unfortunate that Isley’s animal spirit was as strong—despite its diminutive size—as his human half.
Now Isley was stuck in his animal form and convinced the second he shifted back he was going to be sacked.
His sugar glider was acting like he’d gone deaf and dumb while clinging on to Laken for dear life once back in his hand.
Let go, please. I know you can hear me. You won’t like it if we have to starve because I’ve gotten sacked!
No.
Please.
No. I can feel how much he likes me holding on. His pulse rate has settled down, and every time I mark him with our scent, he makes this sweet little humming sound.
That’s him growling you fool, because you pissed him off.
I’m not a fool, you are.
This was growing tiresome.
Laken got up and strolled to the door, locking it with his free hand. He brought up the hand holding Isley until they were nearly nose to nose. “Now come on, you need to shift back.”
His animal vocalized with barks and chirps, to express his displeasure at such a request. Held as they were, they were close enough for his animal to reach out a foot and scent mark Laken’s lips again.
Squeaks of pleasure followed.
“I don’t understand,” Laken murmured softly, the tip of his tongue tracing where the foot had landed.
What are you playing at? He doesn’t understand what you are doing to him, stop it.
Isley pushed to shift and his animal pushed back.
I’ll never shift again if you keep this up, I swear I won’t!
He meant it, because this was going too far. Shifting to make a point was one thing, but to interfere with work was something different.
You stripped off during the workday, his animal huffed.
It was lunchtime and I’m entitled to a break. You’re the one not letting me get back to what pays the bills, Isley fired back in frustration.
He’ll never sack us. Especially now he’s ours. The utter confidence made Isley groan in distress.
His animal side was having the time of its life. He felt it and, as conflicted as he was, Isley knew it was the right thing to do to stop this ridiculousness.
A gentle finger ran over his furry ear, and Laken wore an unmistakable look of affection. “As cute as you are, I need Isley, please.”
The softness of Laken’s voice was something Isley was not used to, and nor was the rare smile he was giving him. Isley gawped in shock, but thankfully Laken couldn’t see that.
He felt his animal relinquish control, and Isley didn’t think twice before shifting.
“Oomph,” Laken gasped all fingers and thumbs over Isley’s bare ass, attempting to stop him falling to the floor in a heap.
Isley whimpered at the warm, calloused hands that gripped onto his ass.
The brush of the material of Laken’s suit against his skin left him breathless and fighting his arousal.
He worked to think of something gross but was hard pressed to when those shapely fingers dug in for a brief second, and then eased, before Laken scowled grumpily.
The soft look disappeared along with the smile while Isley was dropped to the ground with more care than he expected.
Laken looked anywhere but at Isley, which he was grateful for when his cock thickened.
“Your clothes are under my desk,” he said stiffly, the stick well and truly wedged up his backside once again. “I’ll be back in five minutes. I expect you to be dressed and ready to work!”
Isley’s feeling of guilt fled out the window at the condescending tone. His hands went to his hips, and he gave Laken a piercing look, hating how his body was responding to Laken’s grumpiness. It was his cross to bear.
“Listen up, you and I will talk about last night, or you will find yourself with a ‘tiny devil’ hanging off you permanently. Understood?”
Laken met his stare with one full of annoyance, assessing whether Isley meant it. He did, so he made sure not to fidget. Being naked wasn’t the best way to negotiate because Isley had no clue what to do with his hands—or his wayward cock.
“Fine, but we are not doing it here. I’ll come by your place after work. It won’t be tonight as I have plans, so tomorrow. At least that will give you time to warn your boyfriend to check he doesn’t mind.”
I knew it!
Isley kept his expression blank, which was pretty hard to do whilst naked. He took a second to get his amusement under control before shaking his head.
“He’s my brother, not my boyfriend.” He sailed past Laken to his desk. “And tomorrow works.”
As he bent to retrieve his crumpled looking clothes, he heard the lock snick and the door open. The sound of voices had him stay low, not wanting to be caught bare assed until the door clicked shut.
Isley sagged against the desk and groaned aloud.
Left with his own thoughts, he couldn’t decide whether Laken coming to his apartment was his best idea.
Last time it hadn’t taken much to lose control, and now there was no buffer.
Isley wasn’t sure if he could keep his hands to himself.
He heaved a sigh at the realization his animal side wasn’t the only one with little control. “What have I done?”
Once dressed, finding no answer, he was sitting in his seat, flipping through emails when Laken returned carrying two coffees in a holder and a paper sack tucked under one arm. The scent of sweet pastries made him groan as he noticed the label on the paper. “You went to the bakery?”
His voice was more squeak, which embarrassed him enough to cause his cheeks to heat. Laken shrugged and placed what he held in the middle of the desk so Isley could easily reach.
“We need to eat, and we missed lunch.” A quivering note to his voice had Isley stop mid reach to watch Laken root in the paper sack and pull out some paper serviettes and lay them down, then place an almond sweet pastry on top of it. They were Isley’s favorite.
He struggled to swallow past the lump of emotion growing in his throat at the sweet action. Isley couldn’t remember anyone he’d dated recalling what he liked and then buying it for him without being asked.
Told you he wasn’t going to sack you.
Be quiet.
The rest of the day was meeting after meeting. Isley was exhausted after his lack of sleep and how full-on things were. He got back to his office after six to find Wilder lounging in the seat in front of his desk.
“Hey,” he said, glancing up from his phone, “I thought you’d gotten lost.”
“Nope, I’ve been playing catch up after Laken took yesterday off.
” He grabbed his laptop bag thinking about the fifty or so unopened emails that needed addressing.
He would sort them at home, once he’d eaten.
He’d had nothing else except the pastry, and that was hours ago.
His stomach gurgled loudly as if in agreement.
“What were you after?”
Wilder slid off the seat in a way that made him look as if he was performing some dance routine.
He was hypnotic to watch, and he didn’t even try.
He wore a cheeky grin permanently, though it was missing right now.
He had cut off his dark curls last year and now wore his hair short to his head, which required little effort, or so he said.
Today he wore black fitted trousers and an elaborate pink shirt with flowers around the inside of the collar and cuffs.
It was over the top, and totally Wilder, who carried it off with panache, whereas Isley would just look silly.
Mahogany brown eyes revealed Wilder’s concern, and Isley frowned.
“To see if you wanted to go out for a drink. From the sounds of your stomach, I’d say food was more important. Did Laken make you work through lunch again? That man is a machine, and he should remember we don’t get paid for that!”
Isley eyed Wilder and gave in to the need to talk to someone about the situation he found himself in. “I missed lunch because of a… situation.” He carried his laptop bag and slipped an arm through Wilder’s. “Wanna hear about it?”
“Oh, now this sounds intriguing, and as I’ve absolutely no social life you can tell me all about it over dinner, my shout.”
“You’re on.”
Twenty minutes later, sitting in a booth in Ren’s burger joint, their orders taken and their drinks sat in front of them, Wilder motioned to Isley. “Spill.”
Isley took a drink of his soda. “It all started at the ranch.” Wilder went to say something, and Isley shook his head, stopping him. “Just let me get it out.” At Wilder’s nod of agreement, Isley took a deep breath.
“Laken is one of the most hard-working men I know, and that includes his dad who is a machine. I get it, and I do everything I can to make his life easier. Except he…” Isley ran his fingers over the chilled, damp glass.
“He…” He wasn’t sure how to put it.
“Acts like you don’t exist. Like you’re not even in the room, even when they are issuing orders.
Maddening, isn’t it?” There was a sadness about him, and Isley knew why.
Wilder was in love with Jupiter. Stupidly in love with the one man who didn’t want anyone.
Wilder had confided in Isley after the swap happened between him and Ziggy.
He had moved to PA for Silas while Ziggy went to work with Jupiter.
It had caused some concern to all of them when Hollis had originally been adamant they weren’t switching up.
Then Wilder had fallen in love with Jupiter and Ziggy, who at the time was having issues with Silas, had agreed to switch brothers.
Jupiter was hard to pin down with feelings, but to Isley, Jupiter wasn’t happy with the swap despite Wilder’s messing with Jupiter’s sex life. They’d all laughed at Wilder numbering Jupiter’s conquests instead of using their names when they called.
“Am I right?” he prompted.
“Yes, I suppose. Maybe not to the same extent.” Isley threw up his hands. “I lost my cool at the ranch and during the night I shifted and my animal marked Laken as if he was ours.”
There was a pause as Wilder stared at him like he didn’t know him.
His head tipped back, and gales of bright laughter erupted out of his slim body.
Several heads turned in their direction, but Wilder didn’t notice as he slapped the table, choking out, “I bet your animal had fun doing that and I can only imagine how fucked Laken is right now, smelling you all the time and not understanding why.”
“He never mentions it,” he whispered, darting a look around to check if one of his brothers had decided to come for dinner. It was close to work and very popular.
Wilder’s laughter died, and he grabbed hold of Isley’s hand holding the glass. “You’re shitting me!”
“Nope. Now things are worse.”
“Worse how?”
Isley’s sigh was as dramatic as it could get. “He came by last night after not coming to work all day and things got…” A fiery blush made him sweat as he struggled to explain aloud what they’d done.
“Out of hand?” Wilder finished, the grin returning, and he wiggled his butt on the seat. “Give me all the juicy details. I need to live vicariously through you.”
“You asked for it.” Isley leaned closer, once more checking around, and went for it, spilling his guts to a wide eyed Wilder about his sexy antics, Paris and then about Laken having bolted after the epic frotting session with his brother just down the hallway.
He ended his tale with the events of the day and Jupiter’s visit to the office.
“Fuck me, Isley, you sure know how to switch it up. I need to write this shit down.”
“Yeah, I’m totally slaying it over here… not,” Isley groaned. He met Wilder’s gaze, and they fell about laughing.
“At least you can laugh about it.”
Isley held on to that, because he wasn’t sure he’d be laughing the following night after Laken came to ‘talk’ to him.