Page 30 of Arrivals & Assets

“The elevator is over by the reception desk,” I said. “Or we can take the stairs.”

“I love how they turned those stairs into a feature,” Connie gushed.

“Stairs then?”

“Sounds good to me,” Dylan replied.

I shivered, knowing I was about to give my alpha an even better view.

We walked up, and I heard my alpha’s slight intake of breath as soon as he got a look at our open coworking space.

“This is the main working floor,” I started. “It’s mostly open, but there are four focus rooms available if somebody needs quiet. Then there are two medium-sized conference rooms and one larger. There’s a kitchenette in the break room and a small coffee bar near the conference rooms. Then there’s the research room and the appraisal room.”

“Everything makes sense except the appraisal room,” Dylan said with a laugh.

I chuckled. “We can start there then before you take some time wandering the floor.”

We walked across, over to where I instinctively knew the vault was below us. There was smart glass, and a door that always let out a slight hiss when opened.

“Wait… it’s climate-controlled, too?” Dylan asked as soon as he heard the hiss.

“Yes,” I replied with a nod. “Old paintings are extremely delicate. What the owners do with them is one thing, but we had strict protocols. Anything appraised high enough was either in here or in the vault.”

“Why not do the appraisals in the vault?” Dylan asked.

I pointed up, then motioned to the walls. “Lighting. These lights are special for true color, and the walls are painted to not reflect color onto pieces. The appraisal tables were also quite large.”

“Ah, ok.”

“The research room is over here,” I said, leading them through another door. “It’s got its own door to the floor as well.”

The sound of hollow metal rang out as Dylan rapped his knuckles on the flat file cabinets.

“I expect those will have to be disposed of,” I admitted. “They’re heavy, and there’s not a ton of use for those types of cabinets.”

Dylan hummed. “I might be able to figure something out. If nothing else, they might be a good donation item for a library.”

“I think I’ve seen those at a couple of the galleries that sell prints,” Connie added. “They might be interested, too.”

I smiled and met Dylan’s eyes.

“Why don’t I give you a few minutes to look at the rest of the floor,” I suggested.

“Great!” Connie chirped.

We walked back out to the working floor, and I stood to one side while Dylan and Connie wandered around.

The bit of space helped. Being close to my alpha and not having him inside me was almost torture. Every instinct insisted that I should be moaning from how good his knot felt.

I watched as Dylan trailed his fingers along one of the coworking desks and appreciated how his hands lingered on the back of a chair.

I wanted those fingers playing with my nipples as his free hand rested where our baby would grow.

He glanced over and smiled at me every minute or so, and each time a thrill raced up my spine.

My alpha. Everything had seemed so bleak; then he’d breezed into my life and seemed to carry with him more than just our impending mating. He could barely contain his excitement about the building, and the way he’d looked around the vault told me it hadn’t been just words when he said he wanted to keep it.

“Ready to head upstairs?” I asked when Dylan and Connie seemed to converge in the middle of the room.