Page 47 of Instant Bond

His eyes darted up from his plate to lock onto mine. A really beautiful, gorgeous, perfect smile spread across his face as he processed my words.

“If we’re using falling analogies, then I’m fairly certain I dove head first off a cliff for you already.”

His answer was exactly what I needed and wanted to hear. Moving the containers of food off the space between us and onto the table, I shot like a bullet into his arms, pressing my face into his chest and breathing him in. He wrapped his strong arms around me, squeezing me tightly before kissing my hair.

For the first time in as long as I could remember, everything felt absolutely perfect.

KARTER

I WAS MONITORINGa meeting between the marketing and production team, but for me monitoring just meant sitting there and looking intimidating so nobody screwed around or got off track. I kept one ear on the various voices around, but my mind was wandering.

A week had passed since Cameron had agreed to move in with me. We’d worked out the details, which included explaining the move to Ty. At least he’d been thrilled by the idea. I’d had dinner with them at their apartment three times over the week and it seemed he loved having me around.

His adoration gave me a strange sense of pride, and made it easy to enjoy his presence. Not to mention he was genuinely funny and adorable without even trying. Most adults couldn’t even manage that. Then again, he had half Cameron’s genetics so the adorable part would have been pretty impossible to avoid.

The movers I’d hired had finished unloading the boxes with all of their stuff into my apartment this morning, which meant it would be the first night they’d stay with me. Ty would be dropped off at his new school bus stop, directly in front of the building, and there was a city bus stop there too, so Cam could easily get back and forth to the restaurant. I didn’t like the idea of him going back to work where he’d been attacked but as far as I knew nothing like that had ever happened there before, and the man who’d attacked him was in custody.

He still hadn’t verbalized to me whether he’d sleep in my bedroom or not. I would be fine with it either way, like I’d toldhim, but the thought of having him asleep beside me, waking up next to him, was almost too heavenly for words.

I thought back to the packing process, of which I’d been present for some of, and how cute Ty’s stories about each individual toy had been. He was so happy and so bright, it was ludicrous to think that someone had actually made a report about his wellbeing and safety. There was no way it had been done in earnest or with any genuine concern. I remembered one of the conversations I’d had with Cameron about it, when he’d been brainstorming who could have possibly been behind the report.I didn’t think I had any enemies, he’d said, with genuine hurt and confusion shining from his pretty hazel eyes.

My stomach dropped, the blood in my veins turning to ice as the sentence replayed in my head over and over. Enemies. He didn’t have any enemies. He didn’t have any enemies, but I did.

Lucas had snatched my phone from me and read Cameron’s contact name on the screen for our text messages. He’d known that the person I was texting and the person I’d brought in for product testing were the same. It would have been easy for him to get Cameron’s full name from the accounts payable department. They’d needed all of his information on file to pay him for the review thing I’d made up.

I stood suddenly, the chair I’d been sitting in making a harsh scraping sound on the floor as it was shoved back. Every pair of eyes in the room snapped to me. One of our junior executives, standing at the front of the room in front of a projection of a financial document, cleared his throat.

“Are you okay, Mr. Morrison?”

“Fine,” I bit out. “I’m afraid I have to leave early, but send any pertinent information to my email.”

“Yes, sir,” he agreed immediately, watching me with round eyes as I exited the room like a fired bullet. The meeting was going to be over in a few minutes anyway.

Back in my office, I barreled to my chair so I could use my computer. I opened up the most popular social media site I could think of, the one everyone and their grandma had an account on. In the search bar on the side, I typed in his name. Cameron Taylor. And there he was. His profile picture was a cropped version of the one he’d sent me of he and Ty in front of the duck pond.

His profile had no restrictions that I could tell, no privacy limitations. I only had to scroll past a few memes and generic positivity posts before finding one he had personally typed.

“I always knew Ty was a star! Lead role in the first grade production of Peter Pan! #prouddad,”followed by a ridiculous amount of heart and star symbols. Groaning, I leaned back in my chair, rubbing my fingers on my temples. It all seemed so obvious now I wondered how I hadn’t immediately suspected him. And things had been far, far too quiet since the incident at the hotel. He hadn’t shown up in my office or bothered me even once. How could I have been so distracted?

Pulling my phone out from my jacket pocket, I typed out an urgent text message to a friend, asking if he could meet me as soon as possible.

Anthony Becker was someone that I’d gone to private school with all through elementary, middle, and high school. Then we’d gone to the same college, though I’d taken business classes and he’d taken political science before moving on to law school. Now he was an attorney at a prestigious law firm, and married to an omega that we’d also gone to school with.

“Karter!” He greeted me with enthusiasm as he opened the door to his office, closing it behind me. “Good to see you, man. We haven’t sat down together since… When?” He wondered.

“St. Patrick’s Day,” I reminded him. They’d had a silly themed party at their house with dyed beer and Irish food. “How’s Malik?”

“Oh, you know.” He tilted a hand back and forth in the air. “He wavers back and forth between his undying love for me, and cursing my existence for putting him in his currentcondition.”

I chuckled a little at the description. Anthony’s mate was pregnant with their second baby. “Funny, he seemed happy about it last time I saw him.”

“He’s over the moon. You know he likes to bust my balls any chance he gets.”

“I know.” They’d bickered like rabid house cats all through school before getting together in college.

“Anyway, what’s up? Your text seemed urgent, so I cleared my schedule for you.”

“I appreciate it,” I said honestly. “I’m not sure what to do or if there’s even anything I can do. I just need your advice.”

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