A huge thank you to my editor Tex Beethoven for another amazing job and collaboration, thank you Tex you rock!!!
Book 1
Chapter 25
Monday morning saw Lily and Dante repeating their drill from the previous Monday of waking up early and loading the truck to head to the compound and unload it before beginning their Pack duties. It was scheduled to be a standard day, except that they were to meet Rose for the final reveal of their remodeled suite that afternoon after they'd wrapped up everything else. No, it wouldn't be okay for them to pop in for a look before late afternoon, Rose and her team still had hours of finishing touches to complete.
The day passed quickly for them both, Dante's morning history lesson and then instructing in firearms went well with no big surprises, and it was the same for Lily's morning. Late morning and early afternoon trainings were solid sessions with both Dante and Lily really beginning to shine in their Enforcer abilities, even the ones where a few weeks ago they'd been novices. Dante's wolf had been large and powerful from the beginning, but now was also becoming rather skilled as a technical fighter. And his human was getting ready to add his second practice katana.
Lily had made great strides in her hand to hand as well as in firearms, and she was refining her already formidable dual dagger skills to where she would be an almost unstoppable opponent in any confrontation. The constant devotion of such a large chunk of time each day, paired with it now having continued for a few weeks, were producing impressive results for them both. Her earlier claim to Dante of being fast and dangerous was proving to be no idle boast.
The afternoon was spent with Lily working with Odin on the family business and Dante on his security company, before they came together later on to handle Pack business. With a couple hours remaining before dinner, they wrapped up and Lily and Dante headed to meet Rose at their suite.
Rose met them outside the suite in the hallway and the mated pair was clearly excited to see the finished remodel.
Lily said to Rose before they opened the door, "Rose, we just want to say thank you for not only doing a terrific job which we can't wait to see, but also for working around our timetable for your available work days. We know that wasn't easy, but we really appreciate it and I know it worked out well just like we had hoped! We absolutely loved what we saw last weekend: the living room and bedroom were amazing! The hammered brass tabletop was a lovely accent, and I can't say anything at all about my portrait above the bed without saying too much, if you know what I mean."
Rose smiled broadly, absolutely thrilled her hard work and effort but most of all her artistry, had been noticed and appreciated. "I'm very glad you both liked it; we had to really rush to finish everything up today, but I believe it all came out well. Let's head in and see the final two rooms."
They walked into the living room and headed left to inspect the two additional rooms in their suite. They entered the small wing through a single door leading to a hallway leading straight back with identical walls and carpet to the living room and bedroom. It had a door on each side. They opened the left-hand door and stopped in at the nursery first.
Rose led them in and explained what she and her crew had done. "This is just a generic nursery right now, only a placeholder for the room until you become pregnant and want to personalize it; we went with a sterile, gender neutral look for now. We painted the walls a light cream color, using black and light gray accents throughout. There's a changing table, a dresser and a standard crib, all accented with sharp, narrow black lines to bring out the color contrast in the room. The one little touch that I can see remaining once you get pregnant is the wolf and moon mobile hanging over the crib."
They looked around and as a placeholder nursery it was perfect, and they said so. Rose next led them out of the room and down the short hallway to the completed office on the right.
Once again Rose explained everything. "We used the same colors in here as for the rest of the suite except the nursery. Rust on the top two thirds of the walls and creamy tan on the lower portion and the distressed crimson-red painted molding between the two. The large area rug which gives you a nice cushion to walk on, is the same rust color that's on the walls, but with swirls of red and black and cream to draw the eye. Since you both will require plenty of desk space, we custom-made one huge desk out of dark cherry that wraps around the entire back side of the room in a U
shape, as you can see. The middle section abuts the far wall, but I didn't think you would wish to work with your backs to each other, so the two legs of the U have generous alleys behind them for you to walk and sit and place more filing cabinets or whatever as you wish.
"On Lily's side of the room we have a large bookcase as well as a few filing cabinets, all of them constructed of the same dark cherry. There is a large computer display on a swivel near the back wall that you can either hook up to a desktop computer or a laptop to increase the screen size for whatever you are working on, that should be particularly useful for meetings. There are also pictures of the two of you, including a special one on the far wall above Lily's side of the desk for some eye candy."
Dante looked more closely and blushed a little when he saw it was a picture of him shirtless. It must have been taken during or after a sparring session, since he was sweaty and very pumped up and ripped. In this 'visual confection', he had a hard look on his face, and he could see why Lily had picked it.
Rose continued. "On your side Dante, we have a bank of six large monitors, all mounted in a grid pattern for your computer and programming work. We didn't pick out any computers for you, knowing you would want to do that yourself, but everything is ready for a plug and play setup. At the far end is a padded worktop for any electronics work you'll need to do at your desk. At least slightly inconspicuously behind the door when it's open, we have the massive free-standing safe you requested. It can hold any sensitive documents you may want kept safe, as well as money, jewelry or weapons. It has a biometric lock for quick and secure access. Opening it will require one of your fingerprints, as well as a 3-digit code so nobody can open it even if they should manage to render one of you unconscious; you two can set that up for yourselves after we're done here.
"Lastly, you can see in this corner couches and chairs set up as a place to sit comfortably during meetings or visits. You each also have an oversized and comfortable executive chair at your desk. Dante, Lily also left you a visual treat on the far wall above your side of the desk for whenever you need an ummm... lift."
Dante saw a large picture holding court over his desk. He walked over to take a closer look and smiled lasciviously at what he saw. It was Lily topless and holding her breasts, displaying most of them, but covering the naughty bits with her forefingers, and wearing only a small, lacy red thong. She was leaning against a front fender of his Chevelle, which was parked against the back wall of the Manor House. The wooden wall provided a great backdrop, contrasting nicely with the black paint on the Chevelle and Lily's creamy skin and her red hair and panties. The picture was a tasteful combination of colors, artistically laid out, and damned sexy. It was framed in red carved wood that matched the color of her hair and little panties.
Dante, grinning like an idiot, turned and faced the girls. "By Luna, is that a sexy picture; when did you get this done? I don't remember your taking those pictures, or even when you could have."
Lily and Rose looked at each other conspiratorially before breaking out in grins of their own. Lily spoke, "Rose and I met a few times last week to review her final plans, and one morning we slipped out back so she could take a series of pictures of me. We selected this one for the wall, but there are a few more, including some nudes. My final little surprise is that the rest of them are on a flash drive that you can use to create a screensaver for your bank of monitors, once you've set up your computers. I suggest you also have other screensavers for when we're not alone."
Dante's pants got tight and both ladies noticed, glancing down to provoke saucy smiles on their faces, making Dante's face heat up. He could practically see the naughty visuals they were picturing.
Rose wrapped up, pointing out the final details. "Like for the other rooms, we also set up a sound system so you can pump music into this room, and another of the special televisions that normally appears to be a framed photo, should you ever need a TV in here."
They all walked back to the living room, where Lily and Dante expressed their final thoughts to Rose. Dante went first this time, "Rose, you did better than our craziest expectations: a truly remarkable job! I have zero doubt that we'll be calling on you again in the future; you've secured us as customers for life! Should you ever need a reference, just let me know, and if you wish, you're welcome to use the before and after photos as examples in your portfolio. Thank you again, this is fantastic!" Dante gently hugged Rose, thanking her again.
Lily agreed with her mate, "It's just as Dante said, you did a fantastic job, and anything we can do to support your business, we will! You've got customers for life in us, and I've also really liked getting to know you better and developing our friendship during this time. We will certainly have you over in the near future just to visit and spend time together. Thank you; you did perfectly for us." Lily also hugged Rose, more exuberantly than Dante had felt comfortable doing.
Rose smiled back warmly and responded before she headed out the door, "Thank you both for such kind words. I'm thrilled you like how it turned out, and appreciate your support of my skills. I will certainly take advantage of your kind offer to be my references when it's appropriate. And Lily, I really enjoyed spending time with you and becoming your friend as well. I look forward to us spending more time together soon!"
Rose left Lily and Dante to settle in before they headed down for dinner. They unpacked their things from the prior weekend and changed into more relaxed clothing before it was time to head down.
Dinner was delicious as it always was, and they chatted with Odin, Victoria, Ben and Sara at the head table, telling them about the completed suite. Lily also told them about the excitement during their weekend's dinner date, which neither had thought to bring up earlier.
