Because Caspian had almost not gone to the club, at least not right away. He had wanted to stop by the mansion to wear something that didn’t threaten to give him a heatstroke.
Getting Asher on the bed and helping him cool down was the easy part, even getting a doctor to look him over went over easy. The tough part was that the Alpha refused to let him go.
"Asher, you’re burning up," Caspian muttered, resigned to catching whatever it was Asher was coming down with.
The doctor had said his symptoms pointed to a fever and as long as it didn’t escalate, he would be fine in a few days with enough bed rest.
"Don’t go," The Alpha mumbled, half-delirious but still holding onto him.
"I’m not... wait... I’m not going..." Caspian struggled to get his mate’s grip off him, getting halfway off the bed only to get dragged back into Asher’s oven for arms.
He just wanted to sit beside the bed, or even at the edge of the bed, anything to get away from Asher’s high temperature.
But there was no chance of that, and Jael wasn’t back yet, he was going to be stuck here for a while.
Lake watched intently as Davian showed him all the backlog of emails he had, as well as important files from a variety of companies and he could already feel a headache coming on by just looking at it.
"Have you been handling all this by yourself?" He slowly turned to the Alpha, he was perched on his legs so he could better see Davian’s screen.
Davian wore a guilty expression, when it was routine for him, it hadn’t seemed like a lot of work.
But now that there were things he actually wanted to do, it made him realize how many of his hours he had put into a lot of unnecessary paperwork that could easily be handled by someone else.
"More or less," He cleared his throat.
Paperwork was numbing and it made days speed by, he didn’t want to be numbed out anymore though, he wanted to cook Lake’s meals and be present through every single stage of his pregnancy.
"Yeah we’re getting a secretary for this," Lake said decisively, "Matter of fact, we’re getting several secretaries..."
He trailed off and took over scrolling through the emails from Davian, intently peering at the screen.
"Most of these can be handled by the executives themselves, they all just need to send in a monthly report," He suggested. "That would almost completely cut down the paperwork you would have to deal with..."
Davian should have been focused on the important conversation they were having but he was zoned out staring at Lake.
"And if the executives need to make a very important decision that requires your input they can schedule a meeting..."
Davian had never noticed it before but Lake had strands of sun-bleached hair which stood out in his locks of dark brown hair.
"You might not need a secretary for the paperwork after all but the calls will require a secretary to attend to them..."
Davian could reach out and run his hand through the Omega’s hair but he doubted that Lake would appreciate that while he was making such important suggestions...
"...the important calls can be added to your schedule and the rest can be rerouted to whoever is going to handle it."
In a bid to better focus on Lake’s words, Davian’s gaze dropped to the Omega’s lips, instantly hearing nothing but white noise.
"There’s also all the paperwork you already have possession of that will have to be filed properly..." He went on, unaware that Davian was zeroed in on his lips.
"...so maybe two secretaries," Lake concluded, laughing softly.
That snapped Davian out of his haze, "Right, two secretaries." He had no clue what brought them to that conclusion but he couldn’t bring himself to care.
He also completely trusted Lake, and he didn’t care much about what happened to his Mafia house.
Lake’s phone rang then, and he picked it up while seated on Davian, getting a little too comfortable with using the Alpha as furniture.
"I’m sorry," The Omega began with an apology, sounding miserable.
The alarms in Lake’s head went off, "Caspian? What’s wrong?"
"Asher is sick, and he won’t let go of me," He complained petulantly. "It’s like being next to a heater."
Lake’s face twitched but he kept it together for the sake of his friend. "There’s no way we can go shopping together," He said gently, knowing that that was the reason that Caspian called him.
"Yeah, I’m really sorry about that," He mumbled.
"It’s fine, tell Asher he’ll make you sick if he doesn’t let you go," He advised before saying his goodbyes.
"Asher is sick?" Davian muttered with disapproval when the call dropped, trying to picture the Alpha being sick and failing.
"Yes," Lake said with barely held back laughter.
"And you were supposed to go shopping with Caspian tomorrow?" Davian repeated, the wheels in his head going around.
"Yeah, I hadn’t mentioned it yet," Lake pushed his hair back, turning to face Davian more so that he would strain his neck talking to him.
"I wanted to get an outfit for the festival, so I decided to go shopping for it." He explained, although now that Caspian was taking care of his sick mate, he doubted they would still be going shopping.
"I can take you shopping," Davian offered, his voice quiet.
Lake’s eyes went wide, shopping with Mafia King Davian? "You..."
"I don’t mind," Davian said in a rush before he could get his words out, "And I’ve got a good eye for fashion."
The laughter that had been bubbling in Lake’s chest this entire time spilled out, he leaned his upper body against Davian.
"I wasn’t about to turn you down." He reassured the Alpha, "But were also supposed to get our nails done and a bunch of other things."
Davian didn’t lose his serious expression, "I don’t mind," He repeated, dead serious.