“Pale blue.”

Aubrey grinned without looking up from his laptop. Matt had been at it for almost thirty minutes now. It was a wonder that Martha and Mom hadn’t smacked him upside the head yet. On second thought, no it wasn’t. Mom and Martha thought Matt hung the moon. He’d become the baby of the family. Used to being the responsible oldest, he was eating up all the attention that came with now being the youngest. His new thing was to playfully blame anything and everything on Aubrey, Keaton and Chay.

“Medium red brown.”

Keaton popped his head in through the French doors. He and Chay had been outside working with Carson all morning. “Make him stop. He’s driving me crazy.”

Carson stepped into the doorway beside Keaton. “When does the new coffee bar go into the Atlanta Buchanan?”

“What’re you supposed to be doing?” Keaton glared at Carson.

Dropping his head, Carson sighed. “Practicing my shifting.” He disappeared again.

Aubrey bit his tongue to keep from laughing. His brother was a hard taskmaster. “The workers start on Monday,” he called to Carson. All the remodeling was set to start Monday. He’d even gotten Boskie to head up the renovations while Aubrey was on vacation. No way was he telling Carson that though. It was a great way to keep Orin away from Carson, and Aubrey wasn’t too proud to take advantage of Boskie’s repentance.

Aubrey turned his attention to Keaton again. “How’s he doing? Am I going to get my assistant back before you go back home?”

“Nope.” Keaton grinned. “I’m putting him through his paces, and you can have him back next Tuesday when Chay and I leave. At which point I’m turning his education over to Matt.”

The disembodied voice drifted in from the parlor. “Red brown.”

Aubrey and Keaton both looked toward the office door.

“I think that thing is going to mysteriously lose its batteries.” Keaton nodded.

“No, it isn’t. He’s nervous about the party tonight. I’ll take care of it. Go teach Carson.” Aubrey pointed outside. He needed to comfort his mate apparently. It was understandable. It wasn’t every day a guy had a party to celebrate his mating.

From outside Chay laughed at something Carson said.

Keaton groaned. “I’m going to kill Carson if he doesn’t quit flirting with Chay.”

Aubrey chuckled and hit send on the email he’d just finished. Carson was a flirt. If he wasn’t flirting with Chay, he was flirting with Matt. Aubrey didn’t mind too much though because if Carson was okay enough to play, then he was going to get through the transition to being a werewolf just fine…Aubrey hoped. They had kept Boskie away from him and no one had mentioned that Orin was his mate yet. Aubrey wasn’t looking forward to that conversation.

“Gray blue.”

Gray blue? Aubrey grinned. Did they have anything that color? He took off his glasses and set them on the desk.

“Pale yellow.”

“Aubrey…” Keaton pointed toward the parlor. “Please…” It spoke volumes of Keaton’s affection for Matt. Otherwise he’d have yelled at Matt himself.

“Okay, okay.” Aubrey waved his brother off. He was done with work anyway. Now he had the next week to chill out at home with his mate. No time like the present to start. He’d been anticipating this all afternoon. “Matt? Can you come here a minute?”

Keaton disappeared from view and immediately started handing out orders for Carson. Poor Carson. Keaton was like a mini Hitler.

“Pale orange brown.”

Okay, he knew they didn’t have anything that color. Aubrey chuckled and closed his laptop. “Matt?”

“Coming.” A few seconds later, Matt appeared in the doorway. He had on a pale-green short-sleeved button-up shirt, khaki shorts and a pair of khaki-colored socks with his black dress shoes. “Yes?”

Smiling, Aubrey crooked his finger. He was really going to have to work on his mate’s fashion sense.

Matt came forward, his shoulders not held as high as Aubrey would’ve liked. Oh yes, Matt was definitely ill at ease. He set his color identifier on Aubrey’s desk but not before pushing the button.

“Dark brown red.”

He looked at Aubrey. “Mahogany?”

Chuckling, Aubrey nodded. He scooted his chair back and took Matt’s hand. Pulling Matt to stand in front of him, Aubrey looked up. “Why are you nervous?”

“I’m not ner—”

Squeezing his mate’s hands, Aubrey cocked a brow.

Matt’s cheeks turned pink. “What if the pack doesn’t approve of me being your mate? What if they don’t like me now that you’ve claimed me? What if my family’s plane isn’t on time?”

The reaction was just too cute. Aubrey hadn’t seen the unsure and almost bashful Matt in nearly two weeks. Not since they’d come back from New Mexico. Matt was almost always bubbly and full of energy, especially here at Reynolds Hall.

He loved this man and all his different moods. Grabbing Matt’s waist, Aubrey stood. He lifted Matt on to the desk then caught Matt’s face in his hands. “They will love you even more. They all know you’re my mate. That was on the invitations Mom sent out. I’ve already received calls or emails from over half of them telling me congratulations and asking when you were taking over my mom’s responsibilities in the pack. Your family’s flight is on time, I’ve already checked it.”

“But what if—?”

“Shh…” He put his finger to Matt’s lips. “No matter what, I love you and we’ll figure it out together. Okay? Stop worrying.”

Matt took a deep breath and leaned into Aubrey’s hands. A soft smile flitted over his lips, and he closed his eyes. “I love you too.”

Man oh man he adored that look. It was a cross between innocence and bliss. It amazed Aubrey at how easily he could relax his mate with just a bit of reassurance. Matt trusted him. Aubrey was hard in seconds flat. Groaning, he dipped forward and brushed a kiss over Matt’s lips.

“Ahh…” Resting his arms on Aubrey’s shoulders, Matt opened right up and let him in. The kiss started out soft and lingering until Matt wrapped his legs around Aubrey’s waist.

Feeling the ridge of Matt’s erection against his own sent Aubrey’s lust soaring. The next thing he knew, his cock was being squeezed and stroked. He moaned and leaned into the touch.

Matt’s impatience took over, and he began kissing his way down Aubrey’s neck, tugging at Aubrey’s clothes.

They should stop. Anyone could walk in. Hell, the doors were open, but Aubrey just couldn’t bring himself to give up the pleasure of his mate’s fumbling hands long enough to either shut the doors or go upstairs. Matt’s eagerness was impossible to resist. The musky smell of his lust penetrated Aubrey’s brain and spurred him on.

Once he got Matt’s shirt untucked he started to work on Matt’s pants. But he couldn’t get the damned zipper down. He growled and tugged until Matt fell back onto the desk and unfastened his own pants.

Aubrey leaned forward, intent on kissing those swollen lips again, but his hand landed on something, making him slide and land half on top of Matt.

“Oof,” Matt grunted.

“Pale orange.”

Abandoning his buttons, Matt started giggling. “I’m an Oompa-Loompa.”

Aubrey moved his hand off the color identifier. Shaking with silent laughter, he kissed Matt’s stomach where it was revealed by his untucked shirt. Maybe the silly thing was going to mysteriously lose its batteries after all. “Yeah, but you’re my Oompa-Loompa.” And Aubrey could live with that…quite happily.