Page 20 of Laken's longing

He should be mortified by his clingy behavior. He was. Fiddlesticks, he wanted to be, even though his feelings were hurt post clingy behavior.

God it was all so confusing.

You aren’t kidding anyone but yourself. The man is a dream, and he’s hiding from what he wants, us.

He’s a haughty, uptight, tyrant.Isley had come to that conclusion since their return.

Then why are you the one having to tell yourself to behave when you want more. Are you considering getting me to scent mark him again? Answer me that?

Isley blushed furiously, the denial right there on the tip of his tongue.

Don’t even try that with me. I can read your thoughts, matey.

He sniffed indignantly and ignored his other half, mentally going through the list of meetings he’d set up for today. It was better than the alternative.

He clutched his iPad a little tighter. He had all the planning notes prepared before leaving his office. He was extra meticulous because Laken demanded it from him. Isley didn’t mind that so much. He liked order in his workplace because he was more of a scatter-brain when at home. He was used to hard work and long hours, loving his job, he truly did… untilrecently.

The next sigh came out more tormented than he liked. He didn’t get why Laken was so dead set against starting something with him. He was nice. People liked him. No one had ever actively gone out of their way to pretend he didn’t exist before. And okay, maybe Isley had tripped and hit Laken in the balls with his face just last week, and he lingered for a second too long to check if things were…hard. It could happen to anyone, right? The office was small enough to find trip hazards anywhere. He’d not done it on purpose. His foot caught on the silly leg of a chair. Laken had been so critical when Isley had used his butt to stop falling to his knees. He had apologized profusely hadn’t he? Nothing had made a difference to the grumpy scowl.

It seemed Laken now thought him a clumsy fool and went out of his way to evade Isley. So when he’d accidentally—on purpose—tripped and spilled coffee into Laken’s lap for being rude to him, who could blame him? He’d offered to wipe up the mess. What more could a person want?

Another sigh while coming to a stop outside Laken’s office door an hour before he was officially supposed to start. Laken always arrived early, and Isley had gotten into the habit of being here to avoid playing catch up. If he thought Laken had worked hard before, now he never seemed to want to leave the office.

Isley wasn’t competitive, but if Laken thought he could out do him he was in for a shock. He didn’t have a life outside of work,so what difference did it make spending all his waking hours with Laken.

I really don’t want to be anywhere else, why can’t he see that?

He swallowed a groan of distress, took a fortifying breath outside the door, and knocked once. Not waiting for a reply, which could see him waiting a long time when Laken often got lost in his work, he walked straight in.

Coming to an abrupt stop, Isley glanced wide eyed at the empty chair behind Laken’s desk. The office was much like Laken, no fuss, classic furniture and all clean lines. No personal knickknacks anywhere. The place gave little clue as to who the alpha was. It had taken weeks—months—to glean any information about the stoic man fond of issuing orders without so much as one glance in Isley’s direction. It was maddening to be ignored so blatantly after recent events.

His nose twitched at the lingering scent of Laken’s cologne, which wasn’t strong, and there in the corner of the room sat the coffee machine. The coffee pot was empty.

Isley’s lips twitched as he took a seat opposite Laken’s desk and opened his iPad and started working through the list of emails that required his attention. He didn’t think to put the coffee on because he never made it the way Laken liked.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been sitting there when Kodi appeared through the door like a whirlwind.

“Where is he?” he asked, coming to an abrupt stop when he noticed the empty desk.

Why doesn’t he know where Laken was?

“He’s… he’s…” Heck, what was he supposed to say?

“Don’t bother,” said Kodi, throwing up his arms. “I don’t have time to fuck about, I’ll find him later.”

He stomped out and Isley rolled his eyes at Kodi’s back as he got up to close the office door and return to what he was doing,trying hard not to jump to any conclusions as to why Kodi didn’t know where Laken was when they lived in the same house.

Sometime later, there was a knock at Laken’s door, which brought his attention back to the time. Rising from his seat, he placed down his iPad and went to open the door when it became clear that whoever had knocked had no intention of entering without being asked. Clearly it wasn’t one of Laken’s seven brothers, who wouldn’t wait for an invitation. Isley grew uneasy at this change.

He smiled at the handsome man dressed in a smart, dove grey suit that matched his eyes. Not as tall as Laken, he matched him for broadness across his chest. He looked familiar, but Isley couldn’t place him with his mind racing over all the possibilities for Laken’s lack of absence.

“Hello, can I help you?” He glanced at the empty secretary’s desk, where Charlotte usually sat, and frowned.

Where is everyone?

“I have a meeting with Mr. Laken Starling.” The man shifted his attention to Charlotte’s desk, then back at Isley, offering a twinkling eyed smile. “It’s just his secretary isn’t at their desk and as it was five minutes past our meeting time, I thought it best to knock.”

He held out his hand. It was large and Isley’s was engulfed in it a second later, receiving a firm handshake. “David Sinclair, buyer for Haymarket. Call me David.”