Page 36

Silas

Silas hesitated outside his parent’s bedroom, rubbing sweaty palms down his jean clad thighs.

He glanced up and down the hallway to check no one was around.

Getting caught was not on the agenda. Occupied in the kitchen with Jupiter and Emmy, Dad would be busy for a while, leaving Silas enough time to speak to Popi—alone.

With them all heading to the ranch in two days, Silas had decided he needed help and Popi was it, because there was no way he was asking his brothers.

He’d rather cut his own tongue out and die of blue balls.

Dying of blue balls was looking more realistic every day.

The door in front of him opened, and Popi’s eyes widened as he grinned.

“Did you need something, Silas?” Popi reached for his clammy hand and tugged him into the bedroom, shutting the door behind them. “You must have read my mind. I was just coming in search of you to see how things were going with Ziggy. Have you spoken to him about how you feel yet?”

“I…” The carefully laid out conversation disappeared from his head like a stiff breeze clearing away fallen leaves in fall.

Alone and ambushed by Popi’s question, he felt more awkward than any alpha should talking—seeking advice—at fucking thirty-seven years old.

He inwardly groaned. What man of his age did this shit?

Me. I did!

“What is it, my sweet boy?” Popi gave him an expectant look as he stood like a dweeb.

“I… You see… It’s like this… I…”

Popi chuckled, looking utterly pleased with himself. “You want my help with Ziggy?”

Silas’s lips made a popping sound as he stared at Popi. “How the heck do you do that?”

“Mind read?” Silas nodded, because seriously it was damn spooky. “You’re all so easy to read, my sweet boy.” He patted his arm. “So, you want to know how to get Ziggy to fall in love with you?”

Heat surged into his cheeks like he’d swallowed a hot potato. “Yes,” he crooked out, knowing there was no point beating around the bush.

“When you were together, what did you do to show him you were interested? Does he have any particular things he enjoys?”

Dear gods, why had he thought this was a good idea? His face was burning as he dropped his gaze to the carpet. Lingerie and being in control… yep, no way he was saying that.

“He likes cake,” he mumbled pathetically.

“Cake, who doesn’t love that? No, I mean things you shared when you were together that you can show an interest in. You’ll have tried things when you were intimate together, did he show any particular interest in anything?” Popi persisted, increasing Silas’s distress.

He didn’t dare look up because the situation was more mortifying than he could ever have imagined. He should have spoken to Dad instead. Surely he’d understand the sex stuff?

“Silas, I can’t help if I don’t know everything.”

“I… Popi I can’t—”

“No, we’ll have less of that. You came here looking for my help and I’m going to help. And you know you can talk to me about everything. Including the sex stuff. I’m not a prude and I have been very adventurous with your dad.”

Silas groaned and slumped, his gaze roaming to the door, looking for an escape.

As if Popi sensed he was deciding to run—run fast enough his own stupidity couldn’t catch him—he moved to prevent him from escaping.

“You’re being silly. Do you think it’s going to embarrass me to know what things my boys like in the bedroom?

Don’t be silly. You’re all healthy alphas with appetites that need filling. ”

“Oh gods, Popi no.” He held up his hands, trying to ward off the situation he’d caused because he’d been a daft ass, thinking this was a good idea. Now all he wanted was to run and hide, to pretend he’d not been this stupid crazy over an omega to be in this situation in the first place.

Popi took hold of his hands and dragged him to the bed, encouraging him to sit on the edge.

“Now listen to me, I might be an omega but that doesn’t mean I don’t know what an alpha’s needs are.

Yours are as valid as any alphas in this house.

So, talk to me about the things you’ve done to attract Ziggy.

What you like. Then we can move forward from there. ”

Silas’s back molars ground together as he met Popi’s gaze, one that held a determination he would never escape. “I liked to order all different meals to see what he liked best when we were alone in the office… after…”

Popi beamed at him. “How lovely. What else?”

“He likes… pretty…” he swallowed to get rid of the dryness in his mouth. “Underwear.”

“Do you mean lingerie?”

No escape.

No escape.

No escape. Silas nodded, glad there was no mirror for him to witness the furious heat filling his cheeks.

“I always wondered about doing a male range of lingerie but your dad didn’t think there’d be a big market for it.”

“I’m not sure about that, Popi.” Maybe distracting from this conversation was for the best.

Popi’s expression turned thoughtful as he waved off what Silas said, continuing on. “You could create a range…” he tapped at his lips. “You could work with one of our designers, make it specific to Ziggy. Could you imagine if the silk held some of Ziggy’s designs?”

Silas, who intended to fob Popi off, stared wide eyed at him as he felt a buzz of excitement.

The thought of seeing artwork on silk, when he considered how much of the silk outfits covered Ziggy’s tattoos, was mesmerising.

Then he blinked when it fully registered what Popi had said. “What designs are you talking about?”

“Why, Ziggy’s. The boy is very talented. He sells his tattoo designs as well as creates them for his own skin.” Popi’s brows arched. “Didn’t you ask him about them?”

“I…”—the lie withered on his lips at the light in Popi’s eyes, challenging him to utter it—“no, I didn’t.”

“What did you talk about?”

The inward cringing as he held Popi’s gaze was real. “We never talked about things outside of work,” he admitted.

“Silas! Shame on you. Are you telling me you know nothing about Ziggy except what he’s capable of at work and when he’s naked?” Silas gave a jerky nod. “I thought I’d brought you up better than that!”

“I’m sorry.” What else could he say? He was sorry. Sorry he ever thought that Ziggy didn’t deserve more than he gave him. “But aren’t I here now, suffering to make it better? Doesn’t that count?” he pleaded, despising the look of disappointment Popi wore.

Popi sniffed and a sheen of tears made his eyes glitter, causing Silas to feel like utter crap for being the one to put them there. “You’ll need to do a lot more than that to win that boy's heart. Lucky for you, I’m here to help.”

He sniffed once more, and that stopped Silas from uttering any kind of protest. “What do you want me to do, Popi?”

Silas was careful not to spend too much time looking directly at Ziggy, who sat next to Bowie.

Their heads were bowed together as they whispered about something his wolf side could not pick up.

Once Popi had worked through his tears and forgave him, they had set his plans in motion.

Silas did his best not to think about them, when they brought back how foolish he had been.

He was moving forward and if he had to make a fool of himself to claim Ziggy, then so be it.

As long as that didn’t involve him crying in front of his brothers like Taylin. He drew the line at that.

The designer he’d commissioned to make samples of printed silks using Ziggy’s artwork, which he’d bought from Ziggy’s website, which Popi had directed him to, was already making progress.

That was step one. Step two was getting Ziggy to open up about himself.

Popi had every right to be upset when they’d done many sexy things, but not once had Silas asked anything personal.

Step three was to do things that would be construed as a date. That would be trickier on the ranch, but Silas had some ideas about that and was going to use Cassidy and his chickens to help.

He’d had several calls with Ethan about what was going to happen when they arrived later today and if he’d been shocked that Silas was using a cabin and sharing with Ziggy, he acted like he’d not noticed.

That was step four. Share space so Ziggy couldn’t walk away without giving him a chance.

This had been Popi’s idea, and he hoped it didn’t backfire.

As there were sixteen of them, two of which were mated couples—yes Silas could have easily arranged it so that the PA’s shared with each other, but he wanted nothing to look suspicious—he used Ethan to make it appear he had sorted the pairing for sharing cabins.

The one thorn in his side was the asshole lounging back, smirking at him. Jupiter was going to get a dose of ranch life with a raccoon and not Silas’s sweetheart. No, that would never happen.

“You ready for country life?” Silas asked Jupiter, all teeth and attitude. His brother liked to wind Silas up over having Ziggy as his PA any chance he got. Or that was how it seemed to Silas.

Jupiter’s grin spread like damn sunshine. “You bet. All those cowboys in… leather chaps .” He licked at his plump lips as if preparing to eat something tasty.

“Dream on,” Booker choked, his laughter booming. “Horse shit is what you’re gonna get and a sore ass from—”

“Don’t say it,” Rue groaned as if in pain. “You know he’ll only twist it around to sex!”

“Yet you’re the one bringing it up, little bro. Why is that?” Jupiter’s gaze flickered to the PAs but Silas wasn’t sure which one Jupiter was meaning.

Rue glared at Jupiter. “Not all of us are—”

“Sex gods? Yes, I know.”

Kodi slapped Jupiter's shoulder, chuckling. “You can dream.”

That got Rue and Booker laughing, whereas Laken just rolled his eyes.

“Is this how the next week is going to be?” Laken questioned, looking between his brothers. “’Cause if it is, I’ve got better things to be doing.”

“Like what?” Kodi challenged. “Chained to your laptop, picking holes in whatever Isley is doing?”

Isley didn’t so much as glance in their direction at the mention of his name, but Silas witnessed how he tensed and his lips trembled. He made a mental note to talk to Laken about it when they were alone. All Laken did was raise his middle finger at Kodi.

“Where are we staying on the ranch?” Rue asked, changing the topic, not that it was much better when Silas had hoped he’d have a little longer before dealing with complaints about their accommodation.

“In the cabins we have for these types of corporate package deals.”

“Cabins?” Jupiter’s brows drew together and Silas kept his expression blank, but inside he was grinning at the look of uncertainty Jupiter wore. “What cabins? You have a ranch house, don’t you?”

“I do, but we aren’t using that. We’re sharing the cabins.”

Jupiter’s brows nearly touched his hairline. “What the fuck? I’m not sharing!”

“You are. We all are.” Silas swept his hand around the plane. “No one is any different here Jup.”

The cabins were rustic, basic, but it made no odds to Silas. He was used to roughing it. And sharing with Ziggy? Yeah, he had no issue using a cabin when it came with a sexy snake.

“Are you fucking serious right now?” Jupiter snapped, drawing everyone’s attention to him.

“Totally. And you’d know all this if you’d read the information Ethan emailed y’all yesterday, to prepare for this week.”

Jupiter glanced at Kodi. “Did you read that long-winded shit?”

Kodi shook his head, his attention shifting to Silas. “You did this on purpose!” he accused.

“Nope, you did it to yourselves. And remember, this was Dad’s idea! So you can take it up with him when we get back.”

He caught Ziggy’s head turn and the flash of… was it concern? He offered him a reassuring smile, only for Ziggy to glance away quickly.

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

He was coming up with so many damn metaphors of late to keep himself from going crazy with the worry Ziggy had gone on an actual date with someone else before Silas had his chance to fix things.

It didn’t help when Jupiter had once more gone on about Ziggy dating Officer Meres, driving Silas to lock himself in his bedroom to stop from throttling his brother.

Silas didn’t resist, his gaze lingering in Ziggy’s direction. Please don’t let me be too late!