Page 73 of The Vampire's Receptionist
Ronan snorted and shook his head, tucking Harlem under his arm. “Come on, baby. Let’s have lunch with your friends. I want to know what else you’ve been hiding from me.”
“I wasn’t!” Harlem whined, his tails drooping.
Ronan got him smiling again by nuzzling Harlem’s neck until he squealed and burst into giggles. Ronan seemed like a good guy. He took meeting Harlem’s old boss in stride and didn’t bat an eye when Dorian eventually explained how bad he’d gotten with spoiling Harlem silly. He only mentioned that he needed to try harder to give Harlem the lifestyle he deserved, which made him decent in Kian’s books. They enjoyed a long lunch together, and Kian kept his teasing to a minimum because Harlem was sweet and that pout worked on him just as well as it did on the rest of the table.
No wonder he was so spoiled.
As they were leaving, Harlem linked arms with him, practically skipping down the sidewalk.
“So, what do you think?” Harlem whispered, peeking over his shoulder to make sure the other two weren’t listening in. They weren’t; they were talking to each other as they walked back towards Ronan’s office.
“He seems nice, but I won’t offer a true opinion after just one meeting. We’ll have to do more double dates.”
Harlem beamed at the thought, bouncing at Kian’s side as he came up with ideas. Kian was slowly starting to accept that there were people out there who didn’t see him as someone to be wary about. Avery, Isaac, Tony, all their mates, and plenty of others in the office didn’t bat an eye at his heritage, even after finding out his last name. It might take a while for him to fully embrace the idea of having friends, but seeing Dorian interact with them, the ease he felt with them, made Kian want to try it. If only to ensure Dorian spent more time around the people who cared about him.
“For the record,” Kian interrupted as they closed in on Ronan’s office. “I don’t think you need to hide who you are from him. From what I can see, he looks one hundred percent invested.”
Harlem glanced over his shoulder at Ronan, his smile a little more shy. “You think so?”
“He looks at you like Dorian looks at me. And he’s my mate. So maybe be honest with him. He’ll love you either way.”
“I am pretty loveable,” Harlem agreed with a solemn nod. He burst into giggles when Kian rolled his eyes.
Looking over his shoulder, Kian studied his mate. He was coming to terms with being Dorian’s mate, trusting that Dorian loved him and would never betray him the way his ex had. He didn’t hide anything from Dorian anymore. They sat downtogether and talked about all their baggage, laying it out bare so there would be nothing else to hide. After living as long as they had, they knew how important communication was and even though it was one of the hardest things Kian had ever done, he felt better knowing that he didn’t have to hide from Dorian. His mate knew all his secrets and fears. And accepted every part of him wholeheartedly. No matter what.
Kian walked into Charmed Away with mixed feelings. While he loved the variety that came with the job, ever since he accepted that Dorian was his mate, he was reluctant to be away for him for very long. He got to stick close during the month while they hired new replacements, but now the contract was over, and he had to go back to the way things had been before. Dorian offered to hire him as his receptionist full time, but Kian worried that would get monotonous, and he would lose his mind after a while. Just because he was mated didn’t mean he’d changed all that much. He still thought the idea of staying in the same job for hundreds of years sounded like torture.
There were a lot of new faces around the office, people hired while half the company had been at Spellbound, to handle the workload here. A few recognized him and waved, and Morgan came bouncing over to say hello when he noticed Kian walking in. After saying hi, Kian headed for Morana’s office. She said she wanted to go over the work done at Spellbound with him. As liaison, he was the one who collected all the surveys when the contracts were up.
She was just walking into her office with a coffee in hand when he joined her. She waved him in, pointing at the seat opposite her desk as she sipped.
“Rough night?” Kian drawled with a smirk. She gave him a bland look before a smile tugged at her lips.
“Welcome back. Do you have the paperwork I asked for?”
Handing her the folder, he explained while she looked through it. “Most people only had good things to say. There was a guy in the marketing department who was causing trouble, but I spoke with Spellbound’s Supernatural Resources Department directly, and they promised to deal with him. We did lose two to Spellbound. They enjoyed the job there too much to leave, and since Spellbound had openings and they proved themselves during the temp contract, they got hired straight away.”
Morana sighed, flipping through the papers. “It happens more than you think. I don’t blame anyone for that, temp work isn’t exactly glamorous, but it does get frustrating. I was a little worried I’d lose you too when you told me you found your mate there. The last three workers who found their mates at Spellbound all quit.”
Kian lifted a shoulder. “I like being close to my mate, but I still don’t think I could handle sticking with one job for years on end. I’d be bored to tears.”
That made Morana laugh, and she set the file aside, beaming at him. “Well, I appreciate that. I did, however, come up with a compromise. I’d say about thirty percent of our staff is at Spellbound at any given time. It’s a big company and between vacations, maternity or paternity leaves, family emergencies, they always have spots that need to be covered at any given time. I received a call from one of the CEOs of the company, thanking me for our help. While we were speaking, he mentioned that he wished it was easier for them to get temps to the office without such a long waiting period. That’s where you come in.”
Kian tipped his head with a frown. “What do you mean?”
“I mean I’m opening a branch of Charmed Away that deals specifically with Spellbound Corps. You’ll have your own staffand can dole them out as you see fit, but their pay and contracts all go through Charmed Away. That way they won’t need to wait so long to have a job covered at any given time.”
“Okay…” Kian said slowly. “But why me?”
“It was a relief having you as liaison this past month,” Morana explained. “You handled small situations on your own and knew when to call me if things were beyond your ability. I trust you to care for the staff there and make sure they are well taken care of. And since you’re liaison, you’ll be able to temp throughout the building and cover what your staff can’t. So what do you think?”
It all sounded like a good idea, but Kian was so stunned that she chose him to run an entire branch of the company after less than a year that it took him a minute to wrap his head around all of it.
“I mean, it sounds good to me. And Spellbound is on board with the idea?”
She nodded solemnly. “The CEO I spoke to said it was a wonderful idea, and he would back it fully when presenting it to the board. I’m just waiting on a phone call to get the paperwork started.”
Kian couldn’t see any flaws with the idea. It checked all his boxes. His job would change however often he wanted it to, he’d be close to Dorian, and he’d get to keep taking care of others like he had the past month. He found he really enjoyed being the one people came to if they had any issues. None of the temp workers who had been at Spellbound the past month had any prejudices against him. He was just their boss, and they knew he’d help no matter what the problem was. He liked that.
“Okay. I’m in.”