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What she didn’t know was that while she was busy staying with her brother, I had employed an interior decorating team to redo the upstairs bedroom for her. I wanted Nicky to have her own space so she didn’t feel like she had to run somewhere else to get it.
My wallet had gotten quite the workout, but it was all part of the rush. I also took the opportunity to get a classy as hell greenhouse put into our backyard that included a lounge area so we could snuggle down with the plants no matter the weather. I’d been meaning to put one in for years, but now seems like the perfect time.
Ordinarily, I didn’t flex my dollars too hard, but building Nicky a sanctuary in our home created a special kind of high. I only hoped she would love it as much as I did. As much as I was growing to love her…
I had also used those dollars to hire a private security firm that posted guards at every entrance to her building while we handled the move. It was an expense I would’ve paid a million times over because I wanted her to feel safe. Even if Alphonse happened to show up, guns blazing, the guys I had hired him would take him out in a heartbeat.
“Do you want to get some froyo after?” I asked Nicky.
“A thousand times yes. I need the energy boost.”
She looked so darn cute with her hair in braided pigtails to keep it out of the way and dressed in an old T-shirt and sweats. Nicky yawned again, and I took the chance to see if I could swoop in with another assist.
“How would you feel if I hired a cleaning company to come in after us? Move-out cleans are a lot of work, and you look like you could use a break.”
Nicky wavered for only a moment. “That would be amazing, actually. I was kind of dreading it. Hana's workouts are no joke.”
I cackled. “Boy do I know it. You’ll be able to bench press me without blinking soon.”
I had snuck down onto the stairs to spy on them a few times. Hana was always ruthless when she was on a mission, but damn if she didn’t get results. It had only been a bit over a week since Nicky and Hana had started to work together on her self-defence skills. It was more than a little hot to watch Hana flipping and pinning Nicky, though I did feel aweebit bad because I was all too familiar with that burn of well worked muscles.
Even with Nicky staying at her brother's for part of the week, she had been meeting up with Hana every day whenever they could grab time, much to my jealousy. I had no reason to hog her when she was away from the pack. Until today, anyway.
“Do you want to take a break now and go?”
Nicky surveyed her apartment. “I guess we could go for a little bit. All the important stuff is packed up.”
“Cool. We can have the boys pack up the rest.”
Nicky's exhaustion made her pliable, and since there was absolutely nothing wrong with letting the movers do their full job, I was okay pressing my advantage to get her to take a break. My whole pack was a bunch of workaholics, and sometimes they needed me to fuss at them to surface for air.
I took her to a cute place nearby and grinned at her the entire time as she loaded up her frozen yogurt with berries and chocolate shavings.
“Oh my god, so good.” She moaned after swallowing her first bite.
I laughed. “Sexy sounds are how you know it's the best food.”
Her cheeks turned pink, and she snuggled against my side. “Thank you for helping me today. I liked spending extra time with you, even if we’re surrounded by movers.”
“You’re totally welcome, Books. I’ve got surprises for you when we get back to the pack house.”
“Oh?”
“Nope! They’re secret surprises. You’re gonna have to find them for yourself.”
There was a lot that I wanted to say to her, but they weren’t my topics to bring up, so instead I struck up a conversation about books. Discussing the finer points of monster romance as an allegory for the outsider got us through the rest of our frozen treats.
When we got back to her apartment, the movers had already finished. The relief in her was palpable when she realized there was no more work to be done.
The movers loaded up her suitcases and boxes of her personal items into our minivan. As we exited, I had one of the security guards drive Nicky's car and one drive our minivan while Nicky and I rode in one of their sleek black SUVs with tinted windows. I refused to take any chances with her fucker of an ex out there.
Truthfully, if it wouldn’t have crossed several boundaries, I would have hired the security team to follow Nicky around full-time, but I was pretty sure she’d have some negative feelings about that.
Our drive back to the pack house was entirely uneventful. Almost a pity. I half-hoped that Alphonse would show up just so I could have the satisfaction of watching security faceplant him into the concrete.
Nicky was barely awake by the time we arrived. She stumbled into the house, and I sent her up to Jasper's room, where our omega was probably already asleep. Then I directed the movers to take Nicky's things up to her new, secret room.
Under orders to be as quiet as possible, the team of them trekked up the stairs all the way to the top level. I should really look at getting an elevator put in…
