Page 40 of Staff Only

Alan, however, was distracted, his eyes locked with Patrick’s. “Hi, I’m Alan,” he said, half in a daze.

“Patrick,” he replied, equally smitten. They seemed slightly in shock by the instant attraction between them.

Collette picked up on something immediately, her eyes darting between the two alphas. “You know, my grandson is an architect,” she said, nudging Alan in the ribs to push him forward a step in Patrick’s direction.

“Wow, really?” Patrick sighed dreamily. “That sounds really amazing.”

Emerson, who wasn’t about to waste this opportunity, winked at Collette and joined in, saying, “Hey, Alan, did you know that Patrick is secretly a romance novelist?”

Patrick blushed right down to the roots of his hair. “You can’t just tell people that,” he hissed from the corner of his mouth, before he chuckled awkwardly. “What he meant to say was—”

“Really?” Alan said, his eyes sparking with interest. “Have you ever heard of Jordan Kepler? I’m a massive fan.”

“You are?! He’s a good friend of mine!”

Seemingly without thought, Alan reached out and took Patrick’s hand and led him off toward an empty corner of the roof.

Emerson smirked. “Wow, that worked better than I thought. Looks like everyone will get their happy ending after all.”

“Speaking of happy endings…” I said slyly, trying to segue into our wedding night. I had no clue what Emerson had planned, but it was getting late, and I was more than ready for some alone time. Twilight had begun to fall, the strings of white lights giving the entire rooftop a dreamlike quality. Our children had long ago fallen asleep, passed around for guests to hold.

“Ah, yes,” he murmured, drawing me closer. He began to rock us side to side, dancing in place to the softly playing music. “Well, after this dance, we will make our goodbyes, and then I’m going to take you to one of our VIP suites. Your parents will be staying next door with the babies, in case we’re needed, but I think it’s safe to say she’s got things covered. You’ll be up all night being ravaged, and then I have a special breakfast in bed planned. I’ve taken all week off work to make sure my husband is properly taken care of.”

“That’s very thorough of you,” I said, sliding my hands inside his suit jacket and splaying them over his stomach. “Are you sure you can afford a whole week off?” I asked cautiously. I didn’t want him to think I was trying to get rid of him, but things were still a little rocky at times.

“Oh yeah, it’ll be okay. I mean, Cherie’s got the kitchen covered, and Emily swears she won’t leave the front desk unattended. And Connor is doing an acceptable job covering your shifts while you’re on pat leave.”

I bit my bottom lip, wincing. I’d been thinking it over for a while, but we hadn’t had a chance to discuss what came next. “Emerson, please don’t take this the wrong way, but… I quit.” It was the second time I’d said those words, but the sentiment was entirely different. It came from a place of love, instead of anger and fear and resentment.

He didn’t look at all surprised, and instead of fighting me on it, he gave me a sad smile. “Okay. I’ll miss you here, but I understand. And you know what? I think now that everything with the hotel’s finances is in hand, I can afford to work a normal amount. I might even have plenty of reasons to go home early.”

That word—home—sent a thrill through me every time I heard it. “And you know, I might even find a few reasons to come visit you… and your desk…”

I felt his cock give a little twitch against me, and he groaned. “Okay, that’s it, time to say good night. We have a wedding night to get to!”

Not only that, we had an entire future to get to…