Page 5 of Operation: CuddleDom (The Port Haven Omegaverse #9)

JUSTICE

I closed my office door carefully behind me, not slamming it. Which, given my mood, should earn me a gold fucking star. The product demo had gone well. That is, after the lead engineer forgot to be scared of me. Whatever. That’s his issue.

My head was screaming from the tension crawling up my shoulders. I looked at the coffeepot in the corner. I didn’t need caffeine, I needed hydration. I pulled open the mini-fridge, and the lunch bag stared back at me.

Theo’s bento.

I placed it on my desk and opened it slowly.

The only other person who had ever brought me lunch was Ren.

When we were kids, I had known he was making giant sandwiches for himself, just so that he could give me half.

I had always been grateful, but as a kid, it had always been embarrassing and shameful.

I hated that I hadn’t had normal parents who did things like make lunch.

The lid came off to reveal… perfection. It was like a PackSpace pic come to life on my desk. Fuck restaurant quality. This was foodie obsession quality. And made just for me.

Theo had thought of everything, right down to a folded napkin, chopsticks, and a tiny little bottle of brown sauce.

I stared at it for a long moment, almost afraid to mess with the perfection.

I took a bite of the chicken, and it practically melted on my tongue.

It was salty, a little sweet with the sauce.

I chased it with a bit of rice that was perfectly sticky.

I closed my eyes, savoring it. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until that moment.

And not just for food, but for this kind of care. For my omega.

“Well, this is a shocker.”

I looked up to find Daisy standing in my doorway. She was tall for a woman, but she took up way more space than her physical frame commanded. That was partly because of her alpha aura, but mostly because of her no-bullshit attitude.

“What?” I asked, already defensive.

“You, eating lunch. At your desk. From what appears to be,” she squinted, “a homemade bento box? After your long-standing objection to the meal prep trend?”

I had, in fact, delivered several rants about the absurdity of Sunday meal prep.

I had held back on the PowerPoint, however.

Why spend hours making mediocre food that would only get worse day by day?

When we had been dreaming up the company back in college, catered lunches were the first thing on our perk list.

I set the chopsticks down. “My, uh… my omega made it for me,” I said, trying to keep my voice matter-of-fact. I wasn’t used to this new normal yet, and fuck knows what Daisy actually thought about it.

She smiled and dropped into the chair across from my desk. “Look at you. Pack Lead Justice Twill, eating a homemade lunch like a regular person.”

“Shut the fuck up.” I tried hard not to smile. She stretched a hand across my desk and snagged a pickle, making an appreciative sound.

“No, it’s cute. You’re all domesticated now.” She crossed her legs, her expression shifting from teasing to serious. “Which is actually perfect timing for this conversation. Since you won’t answer my fucking text messages.”

She tossed a folder onto my desk, careful not to disturb my lunch. I frowned, picking up the chopsticks and taking another bite.

“What’s this?” I said with my mouth full.

“CVs. For the CTO position.”

“I’m the CTO.” I finished chewing and swallowed.

“And the CEO. And now a pack lead.” She leaned forward. “Justice, we’ve put this off for too long. You know it was always supposed to be temporary, you wearing both hats.”

“I’m handling it fine.”

“Are you?” She gave me a look that said she knew better. “The demo started late because you had to personally inspect the code.”

“It needed to be fixed.”

“It needed to be fixed by someone whose job title includes ‘technology officer,’ not by the fucking executive officer.” She sighed. “Justice, you have a pack now. That’s a full-time job in itself. CEO is another full-time job. You don’t need a third.”

I felt a familiar stubbornness rising in me. The CTO role was mine. I’d built this company line by line from my dorm room. Every piece of our technology had my fingerprints on it.

“I’m not ready to give it up,” I said finally.

“Tough shit. Co-founder,” she said, pointing a finger gun at her own head. “I already have interviews scheduled. There’s a press release.”

I stared at her in utter disbelief. I took in a deep breath to let her have it, but she cut me off with a wave of her hand.

“I know, ‘how dare I?’ right? Suck it up. You started a pack without my permission. I’m hiring a CTO.”

“Are you… jealous?”

“Cupcake, we tried that, remember? We went a whole two weeks trying to pretend we had romantic feelings. And the sex? It was just bad. You never let me be on top.”

I snorted. It had been an awful two weeks.

Daisy’s face went still in a rare flash of… love. I loved Daisy, and she loved me. It wasn’t romantic, or pack, or even platonic, really. It was something else, something more.

“This is the best thing that’s ever happened to you.

Despite fucking Ren.” She rolled her eyes.

I might have forgiven him, but she probably wouldn’t.

“And you’re being a dickhead. Work, even this empire we’ve built, comes second to pack.

You know it, you feel it in your bones. And you’re too fucking stubborn to do anything about it.

So,” she brushed invisible lint off her shoulder, “as usual, I have to wear the pants in this relationship and do it for you.”

My pack. The words still sent a thrill through me, even as they complicated everything.

“This isn’t about your capabilities,” Daisy said. “It’s about what’s sustainable. You, of all people, should appreciate the importance of scalable systems.”

I hated when she was right.

“Well, nice chat.” She snagged another pickle and stood. “Interviews will start next week. They’re all betas, by the way.” She tapped the folder twice before turning toward the door. “We don’t need any more big dick alpha energy floating around here,” she said over her shoulder on the way out.

I flipped the folder open and scanned the first applicant. I pushed it away to focus on my lunch.

The whole point of going on that cruise had been that I was losing my shit. Filling both roles was killing me, and the company. Letting go of the CTO role felt like letting go of a part of myself, the part I understood best.

CEO? Pack Lead? Those were things I didn’t quite understand. And now everything depended on me getting it right.

I looked down at the bento again. It could have been a PB & J on whole wheat and it would have still outclassed the 4-star meal our cafeteria made downstairs.

Theo’s ‘yes Sir’ floated into my awareness.

He was always the perfect combination of hard and soft under my fingers.

Wet and willing, too. And him sitting at my feet the other night…

Seeing him on his knees for me, at my feet, like all he wanted in universe was to serve me, please me.

It was erotic and visceral that went way beyond my alpha aura.

It did something to me deep inside my psyche.

I sat back in my chair and took a deep breath. Shifting my weight, I adjusted my hard cock and replayed that scene at the door. How his mouth opened for me, how he was instantly hard. Moaning around my tongue.

My mind took it further and put him on his knees between my legs. Naked and needy, taking my cock right down to the knot.

Running fingers through my hair, I blew out a breath and checked my watch. I had at least three hours before I could get home and finish what we’d started. Leading the investor meeting with a hard-on was going to suck.