B: He’ll pick you up. See you in an hour.
An hour. I just stared at the phone and then looked at my wardrobe, sliding the door open and consulting it, before ringing Soph.
“Apparently, I’m going on a coffee date with one of Ben’s brothers,” I told her. “What the hell do I wear?”
My Perfect Arsejeans and a t-shirt was what we ended up with, along with some cute sandals. Casual, yet hot, Soph assured me. I felt anything but. No, I was more like a cat on a hot tin roof as I waited for everyone to arrive.
“Hey, Lils!” Taylor waved as he slid open the glass door at the back of the house and I nearly jumped out of my skin. Weirdly, I felt strangely disappointed when I saw he only had Ben with him.
Only Ben. Dear god, I’d gotten spoiled already. A few years ago, I’d have creamed my panties at the thought of that alpha strolling in the door.Because he’s so damn big, I thought, as he came in, somewhat sheepishly looking around before walking over to me.
“This place is lovely, Lils,” he said, only the breakfast bar between me and the big alpha.
“It’s tiny,” I replied. “It's three bedrooms, but only just. We didn’t need much, being just the two of us.” And that’s when he smiled. That there was no one else, that I hadn’t planned to fit anyone else in here, seemed to please him.
“Dad!”
Anything else he might have to say was cut off by the appearance of our daughter. She threw herself at Ben and he swept her up into a long hug.
“How about hugs for Uncle Taylor?” Taylor prompted, giving Ben the stink eye. “I used to be the favourite before you came along.”
“Dad’s gonna come and play action figures with me,” she said. “And you can come too, Uncle Taylor. You can be Thanos.”
“Thanos? Thanos! I’m usually Captain America.”
“Dad gets to choose first,” she insisted. “We have to be nice to guests, remember?”
“Damon will be here soon,” Ben assured me as our daughter dragged him down the hall. “If he doesn’t, just gimme a yell. I’ll sort him out.”
“If he doesn’t, I’ll go into my office and get some paperwork done,” I replied with a sweet smile, not feeling like any of that was true as I did.
But the fact that he had to say that at all made me feel even jumpier. What was this? Was he pressuring his brothers to come and meet me? Jasper seemed all too keen, but then there was Logan, and Thing 2 who I knew nothing about. As always, my mind raced, as if I could think my way into knowing what was going to happen, broken only by a sharp knock at the door. I frowned and walked down the hall, smoothing my sweaty hands over my jeans before then pulling it open.
“You?!” I said, which was very rude, but, damn. I looked up, up, up at a very familiar looking alpha. He grinned then, green eyes twinkling.
“Hey, Lily, I’m Damon.”
Chapter 22
The guy from the bookshop, the one who’d bought all those omega romances, towered over me. The flannel shirt had been changed out for a t-shirt that looked so soft I wanted to pet it, but he wore the same pair of jeans. And those apple green eyes stared down at me, twinkling.
“You… You're that guy. The one who came to my bookshop.” Dimples, honest-to-goodness dimples appeared. “You came and bought some books for your omega….”
I frowned, then took a step back. Had they—?
“Not my omega. You just assumed that.” He presented me with a familiar wrapped package. “Right after we got the news that our mate was a city beta, Ben and Logan ordered us to steer clear of you.” He grinned, something that seemed very like Jasper. “I don’t do too well with being told what to do.” He winked then. “Just tends to make me want to do the exact opposite. So I did some snooping, found out where you worked—”
“And came and did reconnaissance?” I asked.
He edged closer, reaching down and pushing the package into my unresisting fingers.
“I wanted to know. Not what Ben had with you. Not what Logan assumed. And not whether Jasper was right when he said about how good you look in jeans.” His eyes slid downwards, his grin widening. “He was correct, by the way. I just wanted to know.”
That sentence needed to be finished, right? He needed to add a noun at the end of it. What did he want to know? What did he need so much he was willing to contradict his own brothers’ orders? But as he edged closer, I got a sense of it, because whoa. I put up a hand, as if that would wield off the very big, very intense alpha vibes he was giving off. He watched me with a rapt fascination, those crazy green eyes taking in every damn thing in a way that reminded me of… No…surely not.
“Do you have a brother called Reed?” I asked, then, feeling the heat rush to my cheeks.
“Reed?” He looked almost stung for a second, then that devilish smile was back. “How do you know Reed? The man locked himself in his hotel room the minute we…”