“I want to do this,” I said. “Let him take us out somewhere low-key. He can’t pull shit in public, and we don’t need to go any further than that. Not unless we want to. Tris?”
“This is what you want?”
I was an upper-class princess so I knew all about reading the subtext, but with Tristan, it was all so dense. He was going to say yes, of course he was, but was that because it was what I wanted or because he did? Our desires were so fucking tangled in each other, we’d grown like conjoined trees, completely enmeshed, becoming who we are as adults together and we’d do this too. I looked Len over speculatively. Was he the one who’d put the offer in for Tris? The flowers seemed to say no, but… Only one way to find out.
“Yes. Take us somewhere chill, Len, with good food and a nice ambiance. I’m still a little hungover.”
His smile was blinding when it came.
“I know just the place.”
“Is everything OK?” James asked when we pulled away from Len, Tristan still holding the flowers. He searched my love’s face before turning to me for an answer.
“Fine,” I replied, situating my social smile. “We met Len last night, and he decided to surprise us here. We’re going out to have a bite to eat.”
“We?” He looked Len over more closely as the big alpha waited by the door. “He’s an alpha. I didn’t think…you…?”
“Share alphas?” I said pertly, cocking an eyebrow. “Yeah, we do. You know more than anyone what our relationship is like.” I looked over James’ shoulder at the drawing on the wall. “We experience everything together.”
“I…didn’t realise.” That last came out in a great gust, those full lips pursing as his eyes dropped down to stare at mine. “Obviously I knew about your bond, but…” He frowned, the skin creasing then smoothing. “I assumed—” A sharp snort. “I don’t know what I assumed.”
“You assumed an alpha would come between us,” I replied, cocking my head, somehow feeling like a naughty little girl right now. Chadwick might draw naked people for a living, but he seemed curiously prudish. “They do, for a short period of time, and then it’s just us again.”
I stared, waiting for him to decode the innuendo, but even expecting it didn’t prepare me for the heat in his eyes. He straightened up, making me aware of just how tall he was, the lids of his eyes falling halfway closed as his tongue slid across his full bottom lip.
Dear god, I needed to stop meeting hot alphas outside of my playroom. If we were in Apothecary right now, I’d have him and Len naked and wanting before us, ready for when we—
Wait, what?
I darted a quick look at Tris, who made it clear that he was picking up the way I was responding, if not the specifics as to why. And so was James.
“So yon alpha is going to take the two of you out on a date?” he asked, low and throaty.
“Yes, Dad,” I replied, then smirked. “I promise I’ll be home by…whenever the hell time I want. It’s been good to see you, James, and congratulations on the show.”
That was a brush-off if ever there were one, but this was an alpha, no matter how civilised he might seem. His smile, when it came, was wicked.
“Good to see you two as well.” His eyes slid over us, and it wasn’t with an artist’s dispassionate eye this time. “I find myself thinking often of that day, when you sat for me. I’d give almost anything to have the chance to do so again.”
“To draw us?” There was a challenge in Tristan’s question.
“Draw, paint, observe. I think you’ll find there’s not much I’m not willing to engage in. I could’ve sold that artwork a million times over and found I never could, much to Carl’s chagrin. Instead, it hangs on my wall, seen only by me.” His focus shifted to the doorway. “Bring your sister, your alpha, whomever will make you feel comfortable. Just come.”
He reached in and pulled a business card from his wallet, handing it over to Tristan, the two of them stilling as their fingers grazed. I shook my head slowly, knowing now what was going on.
Despite the suppressants, Cress was right—we’d been flirting with the edge of frenzy for too long and were about to tip over. Our responsiveness led to the alphas pushing themselves forward, subconsciously sensing a need to mate and wanting to
be the ones to fulfil it, and us wanting to let them. I looked at James, then back at Len, seeing a truly debauched setting inside the playroom, each of them stripped bare, with us beside them. We would move around them like dancers, our movements synchronised, as we each stroked the alpha in front of us. Could it go further? I studied my love, imagining him being pushed down on the bed next to me, his fingers tangled in mine, our lips fused together as they…
“We need to go,” Tris croaked out, grabbing my hand with his free one and jerking me away, right as James’ hand reached out, but for what? He looked quizzical himself, as if wondering what the hell he was doing, but I knew. I stared over my shoulder, recasting the well-dressed artist naked and hard and wanting in my mind before shooting him a cheeky wink.
“We need suppressants,” Tris hissed as we walked to the door. “If we’re to go out with this alpha, with multiple alphas.”
“No,” I replied, a devil inside me answering in my stead.
“Kit, I can smell your need, and if I can, they can. We’ll have a fucking riot on our hands if we walk into a place smelling like this.”
“No,” I insisted and then moved in close to Len, so he’d smell exactly what I was feeling right now.