“You don’t have to go playing Reed’s games if you want to step away from your daily grind.” He snatched my phone from me, then held it out for me to unlock, entering his number into my contacts. “I’ll come and take you wherever you want to go.”
And right now, where I wanted to go was home. I cursed Damon silently, because as we drove much more sedately up my street, the nice houses, the neat gardens seemed constrictive somehow.
Ben and Taylor came marching down the driveway when our car idled out the front of the house, but Damon just reached across and unlocked the door.
“Better run back to Benny boy,” Damon taunted. “But do it knowing he’ll be able to scent my seed between your legs.” I crossed them convulsively, glaring up at him. “Just need to remind my brother that our mate is a woman first, then a mother.”
And sure enough, when I stumbled out, Ben’s nostrils flared, his gaze spearing through Damon’s windshield before his brother roared away.
“So, Lils, how was the date?” Taylor asked.
Chapter 25
“What did he do?” Ben growled once I got inside. He went to grab my arm, but I shook him off, both of us pausing when we caught Evie watching every single moment of what was happening. “Evie, baby,” Ben said in a kind of warm comforting voice. “I need to talk to Mum about something real quick. Do you want to go down to your room? I’ll come and play Captain Marvel saves the world in a sec.”
“Mum?”
Her little voice was hard, wary and she narrowed her eyes as she stared at the spot Ben had grabbed.
“I’m fine,” I told her. “Dad and I just need to have a quick chat about something. Everything’s fine.”
“Well, I’ve gotta leave you to it,” Taylor said, grabbing his keys and shoving them in his pocket. “Soph and I are heading out to this nice little spot—”
“What?” Ben and I said simultaneously.
“We booked a table at this exclusive restaurant up in the Hills months ago, because they’re so hard to get into. You’ll be right getting home, won’t you, mate? Your brothers can come pick you up?”
Don’t say Damon can, I thought furiously.Christ, nor Reed nor Logan.
“Yeah, I’ll find my own way back to the hotel,” he replied.
“Right, well, I’m off then.”
“Thanks, Taylor,” I said with a weak wave as he turned to go, leaving just the two of us in the kitchen.
Ben waited until he heard the front door shut and then he advanced on me, all six feet five of him. I shrank back, grabbing a plastic spatula when my back hit the kitchen bench.
“Ben…”
“What did my brother do?” he asked in a low rumble. “You reek of him. His scent is all over you and…” He sucked in a breath, then let out a groan. They moved so damn fast, these alphas, his hands slapping down on the benches either side of me, his body leaning into mine. “You smell well used.”
The phrasing of what Damon and I had done had me bristling, but his tone? It didn’t sound jealous or offended or even grossed out. My eyes flicked upwards to meet his, and as he peered down at me, he smiled.
“What did he do to you, little beta?” he asked in a growl I could almost feel. “Because it sure as hell wasn’t taking you on a coffee date.”
I shoved him backwards, the advantage of surprise the only thing getting that big body away from me. As he stumbled away, I went to the kettle, filling it up and putting it on to boil.
“He took me skydiving,” I replied. My hands set cups, coffee, sugar and milk out on automatic, while everywhere I moved in the kitchen, he followed.
“And?”
I paused in the midst of spooning of grounds into my cup, then turned and looked over my shoulder at him before spinning around properly.
“And then he told me to pretend like I was young, unfettered and not someone’s mother and, for a short time, I was. He drove me to a bit of bushland near the airfield. He peeled off my jeans and then…”
Ben hung on my every word with eyes of silver now, waiting, waiting for me to say it.
“You know what he did,” I replied quickly, hearing Evie’s muffled voice coming down the hall. “If you can smell him, then you know what he did.”