Page 30 of The Shapeshifter’s Secretary (Charmed Away Temp Agency #3)

CHAPTER THIRTY

Taron didn’t want to give Tony a chance to change his mind, so he brought him straight down to Supernatural Resources to start on the paperwork. Since they’d been the ones trying to find a secretary for him, they were all happy to hear he’d found someone who could keep up with him. Tony looked a little bewildered and ensnared Taron’s heart a little bit more when he said he liked working with Taron with a confused frown. He didn’t understand why people acted like the job was hard. Taron could kiss the man.

While one of the SR employees walked Tony through his paperwork, Taron went looking for Brennus. The griffin was the head of SR and needed to be informed of their relationship. He definitely wasn’t the only one dating in the company, but it meant that raises, bonuses, that kind of thing, all had to go through Brennus instead of him to make sure it was fair.

He knocked on the griffin’s office door and entered without waiting for a reply. Brennus sat behind his desk, a phone to his ear, and an exasperated expression on his face. “Yes. Yes, I understand. I’ll send someone down to take a report. Thank you.” He hung up and sighed heavily. “Do you know the concept of knocking?”

“Yes,” Taron answered honestly. It wasn’t actually possible to lie in front of a griffin. Besides, he liked ruffling the man’s feathers. It was fun.

“What do you need, Taron? Don’t tell me you’ve caused more trouble for me to handle.”

Taron wrinkled his nose. “I can’t believe you’d say that. I ne–” The magic cut him off and he scowled. “It was never intentional.”

Brennus dipped his beak in acknowledgement. “Which is why I put up with you. So what do you need?”

“I’m hiring the newest temp as my permanent secretary, but he’s also my boyfriend. Thought you’d want to know.”

Brennus’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Is that going to be a distraction for you?”

“It’d probably be more of a distraction wondering where he is and if he’s alright,” Taron replied. “He’s disabled, and it makes me feel better to keep an eye on him.”

“Hmm… I’d like to meet him first before I sign off on this. Is he here?”

He didn’t doubt for a second that Brennus would love Tony, merely because he could keep Taron in line with just a smile. He understood the need for Brennus to check for himself, though. “He’s filling out paperwork,” Taron said with a bob of his head. “Come on. I’ll introduce you.”

They headed out together to the outer office. Someone had stuck Tony in an empty cubicle so he could fill out the paperwork. Aoi, a kitsune who worked directly with Taron a few times, sat in a chair beside him, pointing out different sections so he knew how to answer them.

“Good morning,” Brennus said, interrupting them.

Tony used the chair to turn so he didn’t hurt himself with twisting. Taron smiled approvingly. Anything that made Tony less pained was better.

“Good morning,” Tony replied hesitantly. His gaze flicked to Taron, who was quick to reassure his nervous boyfriend.

“A thaisce, this is Brennus Brightbeak. He’s the head of this department and a friend of mine. Brennus, this is Tony Decker. He’s been working with me for a few weeks now and hasn’t run away yet.”

“A vast improvement from the last few,” Brennus said dryly before offering a claw to Tony to shake. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Decker. I hope you don’t mind me asking you a few questions. We’ve had difficulties hiring someone to help Taron in the past, and I want to make sure I’m not wasting our time or yours.”

Well, that wasn’t very confidence inducing. Taron made a face at the griffin, showing his displeasure. Brennus, of course, ignored him, turning to Aoi instead.

“I’ll take it from here. Thank you.”

She vacated her seat with a friendly wave to Tony before heading back to her desk. Taron was glad she was the one who’d been helping him. Not all supernaturals liked humans. He wanted to keep those away from Tony. No one was hurting his boyfriend and getting away with it.

Brennus sat in the vacated seat, raising an eyebrow at Taron when he stuck close to Tony’s side. “We don’t need you for this part. I’m sure you’re busy.”

He opened his mouth to protest, he didn't want Brennus somehow talking Tony out of taking the job, but Tony answered for him.

“You actually have a meeting with research in ten minutes,” he said, looking up at him. “You said you didn’t need me to take notes for this one.”

That’s because the meeting wasn’t about any current project. It was a personal project he was commissioning. But now that he thought about it, this was the perfect opportunity to sneak away to have that discussion without Tony catching wind of it. He had spent most of the morning trying to come up with an excuse about why he didn’t need Tony with him and had come up blank. He was just so adorable, nothing ever sounded plausible enough to leave him behind.

“Right. I forgot about that. I’ll head downstairs then. I have my phone on me, Tony, in case you need to contact me.”

Tony shot him a frown. “Put that on silent while you’re in a meeting. You’re not supposed to play with it.”

His boyfriend knew him so well. Taron wasn’t even offended. He kissed Tony’s cheek and smiled brightly at him. “I promise I won’t touch it unless you call. See you in a little while.”

It felt weird to walk away from him. Since Tony started, Taron had hovered and stuck close to the office. Even when he felt itchy to wander, he never went too far. He didn’t want to stray away from Tony for too long. Maybe after the poor man could function without pain, he’d feel confident enough to resume his walkabouts, but for now, he was content to stick close. Tony didn’t seem to mind his hovering.

He took the stairs down to the research floor to burn off some excess energy. Energy he could’ve burned off in bed with Tony if they didn’t have that stupid rule. Granted, it was necessary, but he still hated denying himself with Tony so close. Hopefully Zephyr would come around again soon, so they could take Tony back to bed.

Stumbling a little, he came to a halt in the middle of the staircase. Did he just willingly say he wanted Zephyr to come around? What was wrong with him? Yes, he wanted to have more sex, but that didn’t mean he was looking forward to Zephyr coming around. Right? Right! He wasn’t! He slapped his cheeks a few times, trying to get his head on straight. It was only because he couldn’t sex up Tony without Zephyr’s magic to make it pain free. That was it.

Ever have your subconscious roll its eyes at you? Taron’s subconscious was definitely rolling its eyes.

“I don’t have feelings for the thunderchicken,” he growled under his breath.

Subconscious didn’t believe him.

Determined to focus on anything other than the annoying thunderchicken, he hurried down to the research floor and gave the vampire receptionist a wide smile. “Hello, there. I have an appointment with Hugo this morning. Is he ready for me?”

Her smile was amused when she said, “Mr. Washburne is in his office, Mr. Cunningham. We all know better than to assume you’ll show up on time. You’re either early or late.”

Taron flashed her a pout. “I’m only a little early this time. My new secretary said my appointment was in ten minutes.”

She glanced at her watch and then raised an eyebrow at him. “How much time does he give you to get here?”

Good question. He pulled out his phone, sending a quick text to Tony.

Taron: Did you give me extra time to get to my meeting?

Tony: Yes… I like to give you a buffer in case you need to wander a little. Is that okay?

He was in no way angry at Tony for finding a loophole. It was true that sometimes he got distracted on his way to wherever he needed to be. It was better to be early than late, too.

Taron: I adore you.

It took a second before Tony texted back and Taron could almost imagine how red his face was when he sent it.

Tony: I like you too. Have a good meeting.

With a happy sigh, he gave the receptionist his attention again. “You’re right. He tells me earlier times in case I get distracted. He’s smart like that.”

Smiling, she shook her head. “Whatever works. Mr. Washburne is ready for you, so feel free to go back.”

He gave her a wave before heading around her desk. The offices on the research floor were along the walls, while all the testing was done in the open spaces in the center. Some rooms were walled off with mobile walls they created to open or close off space as needed depending on what people were working on, while others were more open. Project Thunderchicken was being developed in one of the closed off rooms on the right, so no one would get any accidental shocks while they were testing the devices.

Hugo’s office was as far away from the elevators as possible. He wasn’t a friendly guy in general, only polite when he needed to be, and only with a select few people. Taron just happened to be one of those people. Part of it was because it was hard to dislike him, everyone loved him, but he also had a major hand in getting Hugo the job and keeping him happy. He knocked twice, and this time waited to be invited before entering. The demon would bite his head off if he came in uninvited.

“Come in,” Hugo said gruffly.

Taron poked his head in, tipping his head at the glowering man. “Is it safe to enter?”

Hugo dipped his chin once. He did some smaller projects on his own in his office, so it was always safest to ask. Taron swept into the room, closing the door behind him. He frowned at the dark interior. The shades were pulled down and the only light came from the slivers that cut through the gaps and the glow from the shades.

“Is there a reason you’re working in the dark?”

“It gets too hot in here,” Hugo complained, his focus on whatever he was tinkering with on his desk. “If I turn up the AC, it affects Ilyra’s office, and she bitches at me.”

Taron made a face. “I’ll have my secretary look into it. Maybe we can tint the windows or something.”

That softened the demon a little and he finally lifted his head to look at Taron. “What’d you want to talk to me about?”

Careful to watch where he stepped in case there were any errant experiments on the floor that he might accidentally tread over, Taron made his way to the desk, perching his butt against the edge since both chairs were covered in electronic parts, and Taron didn’t dare move them. Hugo didn’t even blink at his familiarity. He was nice like that.

“I need to commission a new project. Have you ever worked with human prosthetics?”