The Wolf’s Contract Marriage by Layla Silver

Chapter 5 – Caelum

Teagan tried to start a conversation twice on the drive into work, but when I responded with little more than distracted, single-word replies, she lapsed into silence and left me to my thoughts. Part of me was grateful for the courtesy. But, unfortunately, the other part of me was too distracted and discomfited to pay much attention.

I'd gotten used to having my space to myself and, in light of Camilla's determination to use every possible thing against me, I'd essentially sworn women off since the divorce. So it had been a long time since I'd walked into the kitchen in the morning, my head already full of the day's to-do list, to find myself face to face with a gorgeous, sleep-rumpled woman, all lush curves poorly concealed by the thin fabric.

I'd been woefully unprepared and, as if that wasn't humiliation enough, it was clear she'd noticed. I'd kept to the opposite side of the kitchen, but it hadn't done me any good. When she'd leaned on the counter with that knowing look on her face, I knew that I was a goner. I found myself having the sudden, stark desire to put both our coffees aside, bend her the rest of the way over, shove her sleep shorts to her ankles and push deep inside her. I got the distinct impression she'd be a playful lover. The kind who liked a quickie and was prone to teasing when she wanted one until you were just mad enough with lust to give in.

Now she was sitting next to me in a perfectly modest and respectable white shell top and loose, wide-legged capris, with a beat-up laptop tucked into an oversized handbag resting between her feet. Innocent. Innocuous. Incredibly distracting.

You can’t afford distractions,I told myself sternly. There was still an insane amount of work to do on the job site today, and Camilla's machinations continued to churn around in the background, and Octavia's future was at stake. If Teagan could help me get my daughter back, then we'd work out a business arrangement. If she couldn't, then it didn't matter how beautiful she was or that I'd felt a little spike of protectiveness and anger on her behalf when she'd admitted to learning early how to carve out safe places for herself because no one else would. My first responsibility was to my daughter. If Teagan didn’t play a role in that, she couldn’t be mine to desire or touch or protect… no matter how badly I suspected I was starting to want her to be.

Teagan glanced over when my phone pinged. Sliding to a stop at a red light, I grabbed the phone. As expected, it was Sister Margaret assuring me that Tavi made it to homeroom. My stomach clenched in a fury at the added note that she seemed a little upset and hadn't had any breakfast. They'd make sure she got some, of course—there were benefits to sending your child to an expensive private school. But knowing that Camilla had failed at something as essential as feeding our daughter before school reinforced everything I'd spent the drive telling myself. I couldn't afford to lose focus or waste time.

“Is everything all right?” Teagan asked quietly.

“Octavia didn’t have a good morning,” I gritted out, stepping on the accelerator as the light turned green. “The school texts me,” I explained, taking the next corner. “Every day when she gets in.”

“Hmmm.” Teagan considered that. “That’s convenient.”

"I pay for it," I informed her flatly. "Right now, it's the only thing I can do to keep her safe and happy."

"The fact that you're willing to help so much must mean a lot," she answered softly.

We fell back into silence for the last short stretch of the drive, but something about her quiet approval soothed me.

Barry’s vehicle was already in its parking space and empty when I pulled into mine. Teagan got out with me, glancing around with wide, curious eyes.

“It’s not much to look at,” I said, gesturing toward the ramp that led into the office trailer. “But we’re nearing the end of this project, and we’ve been dismantling back-end infrastructure as we go. The casino wants us off-site so their grounds people can get in here as soon as feasible.”

“Do you have your next project lined up already?”

“Not yet.” I left it at that as I pulled the trailer door open for her. There’d be time later to explain what a massive can of worms that decision promised to be.

Alice and Barry both looked up as we entered. Their eyes widened almost in unison—something that would have been more amusing in other circumstances.

“Teagan,” I said as professionally as I could, knowing there was no way to avoid embarrassment and willing myself just to brazen through it. “This is my business partner Barry and his other half, Alice, who is also our Office Manager extraordinaire.” Teagan moved forward with an easy smile to shake their hands while I continued, “and this is Teagan. Long story short, someone stole my identity, set me up on a match-making site, and lured her out here. She’s staying with me until we get to the bottom of things.”

If I’d expected outrage or alarm, I’d have been disappointed.

“Really?” Alice eyed Teagan with interest. “Well, it’s lovely to meet you, dear. I assume you’ll be staying in the office with me today while the boys go out?”

"If that's all right," Teagan agreed. "I brought work, so I won't be in the way."

“Nonsense, I could use the company.”

Watching the two women take to each other instantly left me feeling absurdly awkward and out of place.

Barry jumped to my rescue. “Right, well, we’d best be off, Caelum. Rivets won’t count themselves.”

"Yeah." Grateful for the escape, I dumped my satchel, swapped out my shoes, grabbed my hardhat, and hustled him out the door.

“She’s a pretty thing,” Barry commented as soon as we were what he apparently judged a safe distance from the office. “And friendly.”

“So was Camilla until you got to know her,” I fired back, agitation crawling beneath my skin.

“You don’t think she’s like that?” His face scrunched in dismay.

"I've been fooled before." I winced at how harsh I sounded and blew out a breath. "I don't know," I admitted as we nodded to the crews already at work on the unfinished section of the building and headed toward the part due for an inspection today. "I think she means well. And I’d have to be blind not to notice she’s a head-turner. But Tavi has to come first. I can’t afford to make any more stupid mistakes.” I frowned. “And the fact that she’s here because someone else was playing games is a red flag too big to ignore.”

“Fair enough.” Barry clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Alice and I will help you get to the bottom of things,” he promised. He gave me an encouraging grin. “Just as soon as you’re done counting rivets.”

***

I told myself that I'd absolutely intended to go back to the office and take Teagan to lunch. I wasn't a coward, and I didn't run from difficult situations. Besides, it wasn't like either of us had anything packed, and she'd had to forage pizza for breakfast because I hadn't managed to either keep the fridge stocked or plan ahead last night.

Then the work crews discovered a significant flaw in the last shipment of materials they were supposed to use in the day's build. Both Barry and I were swept up into the mess, rushing to document the problem, report it to the supplier, and arrange for new materials to be delivered immediately to stop the project from falling behind in the eleventh hour.

By the time we dragged ourselves back to the office, it was nearly six. We were both tired and ravenous. Alice and Teagan were still there, waiting for us, both of them obviously working on some kind of paperwork-related project.

“There you are!” Alice exclaimed when we entered. “You got everything sorted out, then?”

“Finally,” Barry agreed. “Come on. I need a steak and a beer or three.”

Alice fussed over him while I swapped my shoes and grabbed my bag. Teagan gathered her own things and followed me out to the Kia.

“Steak and beer for you, too?” she asked.

“Curry,” I said without thinking.

"Yeah?" Teagan asked, shooting me a curious look as we each slid into our seats, and I started the car.

“Unless—do you like curry?” I asked, belatedly remembering my manners.

“I do, actually,” she smiled.

“Perfect.”

The drive was short but full of turns and deposited us on a back street where I wedged the car into a tight parking space and led Teagan toward a door with chipped paint and the word Abacus spelled out in ancient neon letters. To my pleasure, she seemed delighted by the prospect of exploring a little local dive instead of alarmed by the state of the street. I inhaled deeply as I pulled the door open, letting the rush of spice and heat soak into me and ease the strain of the day.

“Mmm,” Teagan hummed happily.

Instinctively, I pressed my hand to the small of her back and guided her toward the menu board along one wall. "Everything's good," I promised, nodding at the list. "Order as much as you want because I'm going to."

She laughed softly. “I always start with butter chicken,” she told me. “And then work out from there.”

"Good choice." Heading for the ordering station, I found a genuine smile for the proprietor. "Aditi."

"Caelum." She scowled theatrically at me. "You are so thin! What have you been eating?" Then she spied Teagan, and her face lit up. "You have company!"

"I do," I agreed, already feeling better despite myself. "And I need to feed Teagan well."

"So, naturally, you came here." Aditi nodded seriously. "Order up then!" She waved at me impatiently.

Chuckling, I rattled off a list of favorites: butter chicken, yellow curry, naan bread, malai kofta, and papdi chaat. Then, grabbing two bottled Shikanji lemonades from a small cooler at the end of the counter, I handed one to Teagan and forked over my credit card. When Aditi was finished ringing me up, she bustled into the back, leaving us in the quiet of the almost empty shop.

"We missed the rushes," I observed, cracking open the bottle and taking a long sip. It was fantastic and citrus-bright on my tongue, and I relaxed a little more. "They're packed during lunch straight through until around three most days, and they'll have lines out the door again in another hour or two for dinner."

“Are they a local mainstay?” she asked with genuine interest. “Or do you locals try to keep the secret to yourselves?”

“A carefully hoarded secret, for sure.”

“I’m honored that you shared it with me, then.”

"Shall we sit down?" I offered, turning around and gesturing at the charmingly mismatched tables and chairs in the central part of the restaurant behind us.

“Sure.”

Without thinking about it, my hand found its way to the small of Teagan's back again as I guided her gently through the restaurant. Finally, I sat her down at the table I wanted. It was beside a discrete set of windows, far enough away from the hustle and bustle of the main restaurant, but not so far out of the way that we'd be forgotten about.

"I never thought spending the day at a construction site would be so interesting," Teagan mused, with a minor, upward quirk of her lips.

“You say that,” I replied with a nod and another sip of lemonade, “but you try spending an entire day purposefully looking for mistakes that genuine, hard-working guys have made, and then get back to me.”

“That's okay,” she hurriedly replied. “You seem to have everything well in hand.”

Inexplicably, I found myself chuckling at her words. It had been a long time since I'd felt relaxed enough to let my guard down like that, especially around a woman.

“You are quite something, Teagan Lang.”

"Why, thank you," she replied with a wink and a mischievous sparkle in her eye. "You're not so bad yourself."

I was going to say something else, quite what I wasn't exactly sure, but my words died in my throat at the reappearance of Aditi balancing plates piled high with food on both of her arms. “Order up,” she said as she placed the dishes in a circle on our table.

“Thank you, Aditi,” I said fervently as the spicy smells from the various curries wafted under my nose. “As always, you do not disappoint.”

“You always say that, but you don't come here often enough,” our hostess chided me gently. “Show your pretty face around here more, and then I'll believe you.”

"I'll see what I can do," I promised before I grabbed an empty plate that was sitting at my elbow and piled it high with the various foodstuffs before me. Then, through my eyelashes, I saw that Teagan was doing the same.

For a long time, the only sounds coming from our table were cutlery scraping on crockery and appreciative noises when Teagan tried something particularly delicious.

However, it wasn't long before we were both pushing our dishes away, and the plates that Aditi had brought us had much less on them than before.

“That was delicious,” Teagan said appreciatively. “I've never had curry like that before.”

“Curry at Abacus is always good.” I took another sip of lemonade to wash away the slight burn of the food.

"Now that we've eaten, I think we should talk." Teagan's face was solemn, something I hadn't seen on her since we'd first met.

I swallowed down the rampant trepidation I could feel rising in my chest with difficulty. "We do?"

“We do.”

“Okay then.” I gestured for her to continue. “I'm all ears.”