“I saw these bathing suits on social media.” All the confidence bled out of Fabian’s voice. Instead, he became self-effacing with a slightly mocking edge. “They were doing that ‘oh my god, this makes me look like I’ve lost ten pounds’ thing and I… I bought one to get a look at it and see how it was constructed. It wasn’t especially well done. The Lycra was pulled tighter through a series of loops which would stretch out the fabric within a few wears—”
“But not this.” A finger slid down the fastenings at my back. “You have hidden them well. The fabric pulls together, making it almost invisible, but for these ties.”
“That’s my next problem to solve. Right now, I’m just making it part of the adornment, but I’d like to find a way to hide it altogether.”
“Richard.” Henri summoned one of the men forward, and he ambled over, containing all of the hidden power of an alpha, something that made Beau bristle. My alpha moved so as to partially obscure the other man’s sight of me, staring him down the entire time.
“Richard Saville,” the strange alpha said in smooth tones before holding his hand out to Beau.
“Beau Lockwood, and this is my mate, Sage.”
Richard didn’t really respond to that. Well, not to me anyway. His eyes went to Fabian, not his work.
“So, this is one of the key pieces of your collection?”
His voice was like roughened silk, and damn, his brown eyes stared into Fabian’s, as if he could see right down into his soul.
“Hopefully it was money well spent?”
Fabian’s voice sounded a little reedy in that moment, forcing me to turn around and look at him. He shot me a slightly freaked out look, then turned back to Richard when he spoke.
“Worth every penny. You’ve worked exceptionally hard. We like to sponsor a final year student each year at St Martin’s, but this…?” Richard stepped back, easing off on the alpha aura, his hand going to a perfectly formed chin as he looked me over. Beau let out a little growl, but my hand shot out to grab his. I wasn’t the object of Richard’s interest, I could just tell, because both he and his brothers were focussed on Fabian.
“One of the previous students we supported ended up pissing the whole grant up against the wall, then thanked us for ‘supporting his lifestyle.’ He’d shown a lot of promise too.”
“This is exquisite.” This brother was tall and elegant, with an exceptionally well-fitted double-breasted suit, which made me think he looked like royalty or something. “Introduce us to your friends,” he told Fabian. “Then talk us through your thought processes, and we can talk prices.”
“This dress is sold,” Beau told him, crossing his arms, then looking back at Fabian. “Whatever you want for it, I’ll pay it.”
“Already made your last sale.” The last brother sniffed at that, then smiled slowly. “Well done.” Then his eyes slid to Beau. “But it is a condition of the grant that the Saville family gets first dibs on the sponsored student’s collection.” He looked me up and down. “The fit is very well done. No use of shapewear?”
I bristled at that, feeling like a lump of clay right now, not a model, and Beau seemed to anticipate that.
“Sage is my omega, and you are not asking her questions like that.”
“If the girl wants to model—” the man started to say.
“She doesn’t. She’s doing Fabian a favour, and you are gonna back right—”
“Eric.” Henri’s voice broke through the chatter, his eyes narrowing as he fixed the alpha in his sights. “This line of questioning does not become you. Sage and Beau are clients of mine. These rude fellows are the Saville pack. Usually, they are much better at dealing with the public… This is Gareth.” He pointed to the elegant alpha. “And this is Andrew. The dress must go to Sage, without question.”
Beau smiled at that.
“But the pattern and the construction? Fabian could sell these elements to you, for a price.”
“Are you OK?”
The lot of them devolved into rapidly spoken French. There was a lot of hand waving and gesticulating, a lot of it from Fabian. He seemed to now be in his element, standing firm against the pushy alphas in a way I understood all too well.
“I’m fine,” I said as my lips began to twist, because all of the drama was away from me now, and when I looked up, it was just me and my silver-eyed alpha.
“Really?”
“Really, Beau. I’m glad you brought me here. If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have seen this.” I fluffed the skirt of the dress somewhat self-consciously, terrified of dislodging something important, but also kinda wanting to gather my skirts and run down the steps of a grand manor. What else did one do with a ballgown but that? “I wouldn’t have felt…”
“Felt what, omega?” His voice was pitched perfectly for just my ears and no one else’s. “What does this absolute confection of a dress make you feel?” He shifted the folds of it with his foot, forcing the flaring skirt to part to admit him. “If it’s half of what I get when I look at you in it, then you must feel beautiful indeed.”
I nodded first, trying to get my throat working, and then the words came out.