by Cara Adams
“Curtis is out on the lot at the moment, measuring up for a shoot. Is there anything you haven’t seen yet that you’d like to visit?”
“Why don’t you give me a quick tour? I’ve walked past a lot of things but don’t know much about any of them.”
Autumn was truly fascinated for the next half hour. It was one thing to peek into a room full of fabrics and racks of clothing, but quite another to meet Zara, the genius who made a yard of rough fabric loosely wrapped around an actor actually appear to be a pretty dress. Or Raegan, who slapped a couple of rollers of different colored paints onto a sheet of wood, and standing back from it she would have sworn it was a mountain scene. By the time they returned to Nicholas’s office she was in awe of the people who worked here and spun such amazing magic.
Curtis arrived just as Nicholas’s coffee machine beeped to say the brew was ready. “Perfect timing,” she said, smiling at him.
“He does it every day. The man has a genetic link to coffee,” teased Nicholas.
“So, tell me the news,” she pleaded, suddenly nervous. Would they move the studio to Carnal Connections? Would the community reject the plan? Would Curtis and Nicholas lack the money to go ahead even if the community gave the idea their approval? And why did she care so much when this romance could never last anyway?
“The county commissioners are having a meeting next week and will discuss selling the road and the land reserved on either side of it at that meeting. But the official I spoke to said they are ‘positively oriented to sales of unused assets,’ which sounds very hopeful to me indeed,” said Curtis.
“Hell yes.” Nicholas pumped a fist in the air.
“Several developers have expressed interest in principle, but I’m not going ahead with anything there until we find out if Carnal Connections will let us move in.”
“And that’s the glitch right now. Larry wasn’t terribly positive. He has David, Sam, and now Galen upsetting everyone and making his life difficult. The last thing he needs is for us to build next door to them and jeopardize all the security arrangements they’ve worked so hard to put into place,” said Nicholas.
“And unfortunately, that’s perfectly reasonable of them,” added Curtis.
“Well, we just have to show them the security will be fine. You guys are the movie gurus. Can’t you do something magical with lights and cameras like you did the first time the rogue panthers went to Carnal Connections?” asked Autumn.
“You’re just full of witty remarks, aren’t you,” said Nicholas.
“No, she’s right. Let’s think about that. Carnal Connections has already gotten good coverage with CCTVs wired up into trees to give a panoramic view of the fence line and approaches to their land. It shouldn’t be too difficult for us to film our fence line, especially where it joins their land,” argued Curtis.
“Even if you just put up big signs on all the fences saying, ‘Security cameras constantly filming,’ wouldn’t that help? People might be wary of doing anything illegal then,” said Autumn.
“That’d be an easy first step. But the cameras themselves would need to be wired to a constant electrical power source. We’ll need a stack of cabling anyway, but we can’t have visible cable all over because we don’t want it destroying distance shots,” added Nicholas.
“The first step will be to get a scale map of the land so we can plan where we want to lay out our scenes,” said Curtis.
“Google Earth and Google Maps.” Autumn was happy she could provide a genuine answer at last.
“Good point. Let’s do that,” said Curtis, grabbing his cup of coffee and moving to his desk to switch on his laptop.
Autumn sat on the edge of the desk as the men ran various programs defining the area they thought would be for sale, marking the boundaries, then sketching in the best places to build the sets. She’d been really surprised to see how little land they actually had out back at the movie studio. When Ramona had mentioned filming horses, she’d imagined a huge grassy field with horses racing across it. In fact the area was like a rather cramped baseball diamond but with painted fields extending behind the horses so they’d appeared to be in the middle of the field when they were just at the beginning of it.
She could see how excited her men were at the idea of having an area as long as the country road, maybe half a mile and likely two hundred feet wide. Of course they had to rebuild the structures to house the indoor sets in that length, but even so they’d have way more land than at present. Even with a parking lot—which they also used for filming at present and would likely do again—and a large building for indoor filming and storage, the possibilities were amazing. She couldn’t help but be excited for Nicholas and Curtis.
* * * *
That night, Autumn sat, fully dressed, on her own bed with her pillows pushed behind her back as she leaned against the headboard. It had occurred to her that likely it was time she got her own ducks in a row. She’d been so busy thinking about everything from Leticia’s point of view, or from Nicholas’s and Curtis’s position, that it’d only just occurred to her that it was about time she actually sat down and decided what she wanted herself.
What do I want? I have a home, a community that accepts me, friends, a job. What more is there in life than that? I get paid to do something I love doing. Knitting, sewing, crochet, craft. Millions of people stuck in jobs they hate or worse, unable to get any job at all, would kill to be in my position work-wise.
I’m surrounded by friends and community. People who don’t try to change me. Who accept me as a female, as part human and part panther. Again, the world is full of lonely people who long to have friends or who aren’t accepted because of something that they can’t change, maybe their gender, or their religion, or their sexual orientation. I am accepted and loved.
Autumn looked around her room. She’d lived in this room in the main building at Carnal Connections ever since they’d left the farm and come here for shelter when the rogue panthers had first become active in this area. She had a bed, a comfortable chair, a small table, and a pile of boxes filled with the craft things she used all the time, plus a closet for her clothing. Mostly when she needed space to work she set her things out on a large table in her favorite small communal sitting room on the first floor. If she needed more space than that, there was always the barn.
Again, it was all she wanted. If she was hungry she could go to the communal kitchen and make a snack. She didn’t even need to visit the grocery store because almost anything she wanted would be there. “Truly I’m spoiled. All my needs are fulfilled all the time.”
Then Autumn thought of all her friends forming partnerships and settling down. Yes, that was the next step. Forming a family of her own. Her mother and father had been very happy together. For a long time there’d been a lack of female panther shape-shifters, so her father had mated a human woman, which was why Autumn herself was a half-blood. There’d been a ten-car pileup on the interstate the November Autumn turned twenty. Her parents had been in car seven. Hit front and back, jammed into the middle of the chaos, they’d had no hope of survival when one of the other cars had caught fire. Fortunately, the pack had continued to care for her. But now that so many of her friends were forming relationships, Autumn accepted a need deep inside her to be mated, too. And not just mated, but mated to Nicholas and Curtis.
“But why a wolf and a human? And why two of them? Why not a panther? One panther like Josh, or Pete perhaps?”
“Because Serena will scratch your eyes out,” she answered herself then giggled. Yes, Serena might get upset if she looked at Josh or Pete, but the fact was, she simply wasn’t interested in them. She’d had occasional boyfriends over the years, but no man excited her the way Curtis and Nicholas did. Curtis and Nicholas. So often she thought of them as a single unit. NicholasandCurtis, or CurtisandNicholas. And in many ways they were very similar to each other. They thought alike, they were business partners, they even finished each other’s sentences sometimes or seemed to k
now what the other was thinking.
But in other ways, important ways, they were quite different from each other. Nicholas Sullivan, the werewolf shape-shifter, had a solid build, although he definitely wasn’t fat. She’d seen him naked often enough to know his muscles were hard and real. His brown hair had a tendency to curl if he let it go too long between haircuts. She’d only seen him as a wolf very occasionally and then briefly, but his fur was a mid-brown and his eyes stayed the same amber color.
Personality-wise he wasn’t bossy or arrogant but more definite. Yes, definite. That was the word for Nicholas. He knew what he wanted, where he was going, and how to get there. So he sort of drew other people along with him. Just like in the dungeon the other night. He worked out how to move them where they needed to go and just did it, without waiting for instructions or permission.
Curtis Cole was thirty. She remembered Gaynor had baked him a cake for his birthday. The Dom was tall and lean. Again, there was no fat on him, it was all stringy muscles and very nice to hold on to. Curtis was more inclined to sit back and watch people. But when he decided it was time for him to take charge, no one was left in any doubt at all about what he wanted. He didn’t ask, he commanded.
Autumn decided that was why the two men got on so well together—because of Curtis’s ability to leave people alone while they were happy and heading in the right direction. He only took over when things were stuck or derailed. Autumn smiled. Yes, she really did like that about him. She didn’t think she’d want a relationship with someone who didn’t let her live her life as she wanted to live it. Although it was incredibly freeing to relax and know that for a set period of time she didn’t need to think, or plan, or worry. Curtis had everything under his control.
Did she love them, or was she just attracted to them as she’d insisted previously? It was time to be honest with herself. She did love them, just as she knew they loved her.
Moving in with them while the fun lasted? Yes.
Sex with them? Hell yes!
But did she want to mate for the rest of her life with these two men? A wolf and a Dom. Now that was a much more difficult question. A relationship for the time being sounded fine. But a life-long commitment?
“I don’t think so.”
* * * *
“Larry, it’s Nicholas—”
“—and Curtis. We’ve got the cell phone switched to speaker.”
“That sounds serious. I take it you want to talk more about moving in here?”
“It’s not exactly moving in. The county commissioners are interested in us buying that dead-end road at the southern end of your property, plus the land that’s reserved either side of it. That’s where we’d rebuild the movie studio,” said Nicholas.
“Subject to us getting a decent price from the developers buying the existing land the studio sits on,” added Curtis.
“So you’re serious about moving ahead with that plan?”
“Absolutely.”
“Yes.”
“Right. I’ll need to pull a few people together to talk about it before I can make a decision. Omar because it’ll affect the safety of his pack, JB because of construction, likely a couple of others. How does Friday at ten suit you for a meeting? Or are you filming then?”
“The series of advertisements we’re filming right now is going well. We’re able to reuse the same sets for a lot of shots, which is saving us both time and expense. A morning off work won’t hurt,” said Nicholas.
“Good. Likely we’ll meet in the barn then. See you,” said Larry, clicking his phone off.
Nicholas looked at Curtis and grinned, then they high-fived each other.
“I reckon we can pull this off,” said Nicholas, happiness rushing through him almost like an orgasm.
“It’ll be a huge amount of work, but we’ll be able to contract for a lot more projects once we have the extra land. Besides, if some of the community there are willing to work for us that’ll be even better than just hiring whoever turns up on the day. We’ll keep the good workers and try to use Carnal Connections to fill all the gaps.”
“I agree with you, and I really think this will work.” Nicholas was trying not to bounce up and down like a little kid at a birthday party.
“And then we claim Autumn and mate with her.”
“Fuck yes!” Fucking Autumn. Now that would be the best part of it all.
* * * *
By Friday morning, Nicholas had spent a lot of time planning and preparing for this meeting with the people from Carnal Connections. Since mating Autumn was his main aim for the future, it was intensely important that he not antagonize them over the move. He and Curtis had gone over and over every possible consideration until his head was aching, but the worry about their proposal being rejected was enough to make him physically sick, so he sat in his office and went through everything one last time.
“Raegan!”
“Huh?” asked Curtis, looking at him with a puzzled frown and raised eyebrow.
“Larry said JB would be at the meeting. We need Raegan to come with us. If they start talking algebra and geometry, I’m going to be lost.”
“Why would they talk geometry and algebra? This isn’t a mathematicians’ convention, you know.”
“Yeah, but that’s how builders talk, isn’t it? I just know that if I can see everything through the lens of the camera it’ll shoot just fine. But Raegan will understand if they start talking about angles and distances and stuff.”
Curtis patted his arm. “Whatever floats your boat.”
Nicholas raced out of the main building and over to the storage shed where he knew Raegan was working.
“Can you come with us to Carnal Connections in a half hour, please? Larry said their builder, JB, would be at the meeting and I just know he’ll ask me some question I can’t answer but that you can.”
Raegan straightened up from the pile of lumber he’d been working on and waved a hand at his paint-stained coveralls. “I didn’t wear my society clothing,” he said laconically.
Nicholas grinned. “Go see Zara. You’re a standard size. She’ll have something suitable for you to wear.”
Raegan shrugged. “I’ll see you in half an hour in the parking lot, then.”
“Thank you.” Nicholas walked back to his own office thinking, thinking, thinking. Was there anything else he’d missed? Dammit, this meeting was important. Things were looking really good for them to get that land beside the BDSM community, and not only would it help their careers, it’d ally them closer to Autumn’s pack and Nicholas knew her friends were important to her.
He could understand that. Finding Curtis had meant so much to him. A business partner and a best friend. Then finding Autumn, who fulfilled them both, was even more important. She was the final link, the piece that completed the jigsaw of their lives, that made them a family. Staying here wasn’t going to work for them to have a home. He’d actually been shocked to realize how old-fashioned the shower room really was. To be a family, especially a threesome having regular sex, a well-equipped bathroom was essential. That and a bedroom. For a moment he wondered about having a room where Autumn could work on her crafts, but she seemed happy to use that little sitting room over in the main building where people could visit with her. Still, before they planned a home, he really needed to check out her opinion on the matter. Meanwhile, he’d better get his act together. It was nearly time to go.
Nicholas jogged back to his office. Carefully, he filled his briefcase with the papers he thought he might need or even thought might be faintly useful. Soon the bag was bulging. Better to be safe than sorry, though. Like a Boy Scout, I need to “be prepared.”
Then he laughed. He was speaking in clichés. Which one of Autumn’s friends was it who liked to tell people where the clichés they used came from? Not Ramona or Gaynor, the ones he knew best. Nor was it Leticia, who had that nutcase father, Sam. Ah, Jubilee. That’s right. She and Carey had some kind of long-running trivia battle going on. Jubilee wou
ld know all about why he was thinking in clichés because he was worried.
Glancing at the time on his cell phone as he shoved it in his pocket, Nicholas hurried to the bathroom to wash his hands and face and check his hair looked neat before picking up his briefcase and walking out to the parking lot. He hadn’t talked about it with Curtis, but he knew the other man would be driving their SUV. It was back to its original white at the moment but would be painted red for the next advertisement they planned to shoot.
He wondered how many people who watched the series of advertisements would notice that somewhere in each one was exactly the same vehicle, just a different color each time. Or would they think they were different cars, but with the same number plate on each one? It was going to be fun waiting to see if the company that had hired them even worked it out.
Raegan was leaning against the SUV looking quite respectable in navy jeans and what appeared to be a hand-knit blue jumper with a cable pattern winding up the front of it. Nicholas grinned inside himself. Before he’d met Autumn he never would have noticed such a thing. “You look smart,” he said.
“One of Autumn’s failures. It looks mighty fine for a failure to me,” said Raegan.
“Huh? Failure?”
“Yup. See, the cable pattern twists to the right here”—Raegan pointed to an area near his breastbone—“and to the left here.” Raegan pointed at his shoulder.
Nicholas looked hard at the two places, finally pulling the middle of the jumper up near the top so he could compare them. “Well, only by looking at it with a magnifying glass,” he joked.
Curtis arrived then and they all climbed into the vehicle and Curtis took off toward Carnal Connections.
“I can’t imagine how Autumn made a mistake like that,” Nicholas said, continuing the conversation.
“What mistake?” asked Curtis.
“This sweater I’m wearing is one of her failures. Apparently, she followed the directions precisely but the cable pattern had an error in it. She knitted the sweater as per the instructions then photographed it and asked the people she works for why they wanted something with an error in it. None of them had even noticed, so they paid her then sent her more yarn and asked her to invent the right instructions for it,” said Raegan.