A/N: Wrote and edited so of this and the next on a plane trip this morning, so if you see glaring mistakes - let know!
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***[POV: Semi-Panicked Suitor]***
The penthouse apartnt felt too quiet, even with the city humming fifty-nine floors below. I’d been pacing between the kitchen dining area I rarely use and the living room I never have ti to relax in for the past half hour.
Checking my phone every thirty seconds for updates like so lovesick teenager. Or if I’m being nice, a mid-level manager who is very worried about the success of a project proposal.
My own al sat cooling on the dining table - the sa beef stew I’d had my chef prepare this afternoon, thinking to send it tomorrow and claim it was leftovers. But I got the opportunity to send it today because she... never sent another ssage.
Worried for a mont, I take another small bite of the food to make sure it seed okay. The first ti it felt like cardboard in my mouth during the few bites I’d managed.
How could I enjoy it when I didn’t know if she was even going to accept what I’d sent? One again I run my hand back through my hair over my forehead while muttering a word I’d heard her use.
"This was presumptuous..."
My phone buzzed with a pair of ssages... that were both only from Claire. I’d called her instead after she tried playing dumb with her first ssage, but I see it again..
BK: [What advanced tracking on your Beta? I have no idea what you an!]
I could practically hear her fake innocent whistling through the text. Claire’s thods of information gathering had beco so sophisticated with full access to the technology she wanted that I’d stopped asking for details.
Plausible deniability worked better for both of us. Though it probably wouldn’t hold up in any serious legal case.
BK: [Packages delivered successfully. Luca says she’s... formidable. Also fast reflexes.]
BK: [And to not send things next ti that he has to try and forget. What else did you send her, boss?]
K: [Thank you. And tell Luca he can go ho now.]
BK: [Already gone. Practically ran to the elevator in the security cam. I think your Princess intimidated him sohow.]
Despite my nerves, I smiled at that. Of course she had. Citra had a way of commanding any room she entered, even when she was trying not to.
Especially when? It is one of the things that draws to her, even from those very first monts inside that pawn shop when she stood there looking... prickly.
Now that I know she has it, I set the phone down and forced myself to take another taste. The rich broth and tender at were exactly the kind of comfort food I’d requested.
Sothing that might be a bit heavy for a human on the eve of an interview the next day that involves looking her best. But I’d seen her scarf down everything at the food truck park and still look just as beautiful.
But I admit... part of hoped she wouldn’t go through with it. To wrap her in layers and never let others see her or covet her.
My phone chid and a photo was sent to from my Princess... so I reined in my possessive thoughts. At least for as long as I could and as much as possible.
The first photo was as artfully composed as most that she shared with - the thermal container sat open on what looked like her kitchen counter. The food no longer arranged quite as it had been when the chef plated it.
More than half of it was already gone. She’d clearly been hungry and the thought that what I have sent for her this evening was filling that need sent such warmth through my chest.
One that made realize how bad I might have taken a rejection to eat it. Maybe not overtly, but in subtle ways like how the food had been so tasteless until now... where I’m hurrying to keep pace and every spoonful feels like the best dish I’ve ever had.
I look again at the lighting, the angle, even the placent in the shot of the note I’d written - everything showed an instinctive eye for photography that I didn’t possess. But my mate...
I actually choked on my own stew for a while after the second photo arrived. One that was all the reasons I didn’t want her to pursue this career rolled into one. Citra sat with a spoon held delicately and lazily between her fingers and poised at her slightly shiny lips.
But it was also the way she was looking at the cara - those pale grey eyes eting the lens with very deliberate playful intensity. And her exposed pink tongue was fully darting out with the task of cleaning the ssy stew broth from the back of the spoon.
Making it altogether... shoot heat straight down to my core as I gripped and cracked the edge of my dining table with a fur covered arm. I regret never spending on the reinforced one, but I never thought anything close to this would ever be a... problem?
This wasn’t accidental. This wasn’t just showing part of her al. This was her performing for to get a reaction. Citra was getting bolder and more intentional about the effect she had on .
And Lunar Goddess help , it was working so well that I’m afraid if she isn’t quick enough with her demand next ti - I might not be able to hold my wolf back. If we et privately, it will have to be the sa way she’d taken control before.
My clawed hands shook and refused to return to the human state. So I’m forced to use another option. One of the main reasons I hired software companies to build it in the first place.
"Lodestar, reply. Just sitting down to eat the sa thing. How was your day?"
A safe response devoid of what I was actually thinking. Which involved running across the distance imdiately and showing her exactly how that tempting photo was affecting .
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