“Drink your coffee, beta,” he said before doing a magical thing.
A single thumb pressed hard into the arch of my foot drew a god-awful groan from me, only my grip on my mug stopping me from dropping it into the bath.
“That’s the sound I want to hear,” he said. “Drink your coffee, or set it aside. We’ve got a little time before we need to be at the BBQ.” He smiled slowly then. “Time to pamper you.”
“Your jeans are getting wet,” I mumbled, not really caring but feeling like I should say something.
“Well, I’d be happy to take them off, but I assumed you wouldn’t want that.”
I didn’t reply to that. I couldn’t. I settled back in the bath instead, closing my eyes and just surrendering to the feel of his strong hands destroying any tension I had in my foot. Then, when I was putty in his hands, he let it sink back down while he reached into the bath for the other foot.
Hands quested through the water and he found me quickly enough and pulled my foot to his lap, but as I lay there, his fingers grasped my ankle and then slid up. Tracing the line of my calf, caressing my knee, then skimming over the very sensitive skin of my inner— My eyes flicked open to see him grinning then.
“I wanted to see how far you’d let me go.”
“That seems like a common theme with members of your pack,” I said, straightening up in the bath, then hastily arranging the bubbles so I was covered. I pulled my foot back into the bath and then reached for the soap.
“Have your bath,” he said, getting to his feet, but then he surprised me. He lent down and pressed a kiss to me forehead. “Then get dressed in something fun and flirty, if only because it will drive Logan fucking nuts to see you in something cute around other men.”
“So which one are you?” I asked.
“What?”
He paused then, halfway towards the door and with a quizzical look on his face.
“Damon’s the bad boy, Ben is Daddy, Logan is a prick, and I don’t even know what Reed is, but you’re… what? The perfect one?”
His smile returned slowly as he turned back to face me.
“I want to be.” There was a moment of honesty here. “Everyone’s going on about the pack and Ben, but not so much about you.” The smile faded. “About what you’ve had to go through. You thought you were doing this for him, for us, not telling Ben about Evie.” I nodded then, not trusting myself to speak. “Logan’s furious, Ben’s hurt, but what was it like for you, Lily? It must’ve been bloody terrifying. You were just a kid.”
“Eighteen,” I corrected him, hearing my voice crack when I did.
“Oh, well, that makes all the difference.” He snorted and then shook his head slowly. “You didn’t want to get in the way of our future pack, didn’t want our omega having to deal with a child that wasn’t hers. You didn’t want to ruin our future. You looked after us, even when we didn’t realise it. But now it’s our turn to look after you, both of you.”
“You want to meet Evie,” I croaked out.
“Yes.” His face lit up at the prospect.
“You’ll need to go slowly. She knows alphas have multiple fathers, but she’s still adjusting to the fact she has one.”
“I’ll go at whatever pace you decide,” he assured me, then grinned. “With everything.”
“You want to pursue…” My voice trailed away, unable to describe what we both knew to be true.
“I want to pursue you, Lily,” he finished for me, taking a step closer. “You tried to protect us so we could go on and build the perfect pack, but what you didn’t understand is…” He got nearer and nearer, looming over me now in the small bathroom. “You’re everything we’ve ever wanted.”
For a moment I could barely breathe, shifting restlessly in the water as he stared down, before he seemed to master himself.
“Have your bath. I’ll be waiting outside.”
Chapter 34
I got out of the car quickly when we got to Sophie’s, marching around to the passenger side door to grab the wine I’d brought, but Jasper was there when I arrived.
“Let me,” he said in a low voice, taking the bottle from me and then holding my hand in his. So in we walked, like any other couple in Adelaide attending an early BBQ on a weekday.
Except inside was my family and four of his brothers who apparently saw me as theirs.