“Who helps you?”
“It’s my job to provide and look after people. That’s what I do,” he insisted, some of the calm fracturing in his voice. “That’s what an alpha does.”
Except his dad, the most important alpha in his life, didn’t.
“And what does an omega do?”
“I don’t need an omega, Lils, I need you.”
That, that little moment of raw need that bled through his calm, that’s what I was looking for. It told me exactly what was required right now. He hadn’t put his shirt back on, so goosebumps prickled across his skin as I smoothed my hand across his chest until his hand covered mine.
“Lily, I’ll leave you here to relax. You don’t need to—”
It was comical, the way his eyes went wide when I jumped up and pressed my lips to his, but being an alpha, he quickly took over. His breath hissed as he cupped my jaw in his hands, his mouth seeking to discover every inch of mine.
“Fuck, beta…” Another searing kiss. “You better get in that bath.”
He pulled away, trying to regain some cool as he busied himself with turning off the taps.
“I don’t want to be the kind of mate that hides away in the bathroom, her mates on tenterhooks outside,” I said, though to be fair, I wasn’t sure if that was the case with Grace. “So, I’ll get in, but only if you will too.”
Jasper’s head jerked up, and he stared at me with eyes of purest silver, his beast using every sense he had to ascertain if I was being sincere. I smiled slowly, feeling a tiny moment of control in all of this chaos.
“Yeah?” he asked, part growl, part rasp.
“Yeah,” I replied with a nod.
Chapter 50
Jasper was beautiful.
He would likely have hated me calling him that, but there was no other word for it. I stopped midway through stripping off just to stare, because… damn. All of the brothers were massive, muscular men, and Jasper was no different, apart from one thing. Aussie Rules tends to favour powerfully built, but fast, players and that’s what his body was like. Long, lean muscles with plenty of bulk, but on him it was somehow elegant.
“You keep looking at me like that, beta, and we’re gonna make a real mess in here,” he said with a growl. “Get undressed or I’m taking over.”
I shimmied out of my jeans, feeling curiously vulnerable in the brightly lit space. Cold marble tiles and plenty of down lights didn’t exactly favour a woman with a less than perfect body. Jasper didn’t seem to care. His eyes raked over me so intently I could almost feel his gaze on my skin before he shook his head and then pulled me closer. A small, short brush of his lips against mine and then I was collected up into his arms, and the two of us dropped down into the hot water.
“Stop thinking so much,”he told me.
“How the hell do you know what I’m thinking?” I asked. “Please god, let that not be an alpha thing.”
“We’re not psychic, more’s the pity,” he said, tucking me in tighter against his body. He rested his head against the porcelain rim and I laid along his body, feeling just how much he was enjoying our connection. “Your energy’s restless. You keep shifting just a little bit and I feel every little wiggle.” I moved my arse experimentally, drawing a groan from him and then his hands slapping down through the water to stop me. “Just relax, beta, or I’ll be forced to make you.”
I snickered as I laid my head back on his shoulder, but it didn’t take long for the external thoughts intruded, again.
“I feel like I should be with Evie,” I said. “She’ll be loving the marsupial walk so much and want to go on and on about whatever she learned about the different species today. She’ll want to hold someone’s hand in the dark, but she’ll feel like she’s too much of a big girl to ask. She’ll… be wondering where her new nanna is and where I am and—”
My litany was stopped, a strong hand going to my sternum and pushing me back against Jasper’s chest, forcing me to take a long breath and then let it out.
“And you need to learn to share.”
“What?”
I spun around in the water to face Jasper, his arms going to the rim of the bath as he regarded me.
“She’s our cub too. Sometimes it’ll be one of us comforts her, not you. Sometimes she’ll come to us for advice. Sometimes she’ll want to hide things from you, just like she’ll want you to stay quiet about other things she wants you to know but not tell us. Every problem, every challenge and every victory isn’t just yours anymore.”
I stared at him then and I could see him almost flinching under my steady regard.