“Yeah, but your drama is full of four smoking hot alpha billionaires, so fuck, girl, spill!” She leaned into the screen with a salacious eye. “The only shit happening around here is me letting off a silent but deadly fart and blaming it on the dog.”
“We don’t have a dog!” came Brian’s muffled retort. “And that fart almost peeled the paint off the walls. No more fucking dried apricots for you.”
She just grinned slyly as a crackling sound alerted me to what she was holding, then a packet of dried apricots appeared before her hand delved in, grabbing a handful.
So I spilled, less on the details and more on the broad strokes, but she was only really interested in one.
“So you’ve decided to let the superhot alphas pamper you?” I nodded shyly, feeling somehow like I was the recipient for an award I’d never put my name forward for. “Thank fuck! So it’s gonna be on like Donkey Kong, Sage taking it in every hole, getting splattered with alpha spunk like the world’s most libidinous cream pie competition?”
“Describing our plans for tonight?” Brian asked.
“You first, baby,” she shot back. “I’ve still got that strap-on you made me buy that drunken New Year’s, just sitting in its box, waiting.” When her husband was conspicuously silent, she just grinned and focussed back on me. “So what’s the current emergency? Trying to work out which one to fuck first? Start with the smallest dick, then work your way up to the monster cock—that’s the smart way to do it.”
“None of them have small dicks,” I said.
“No?” Her face fell, then her eyes narrowed and she pegged an apricot at the screen, which proceeded to bounce off and hit her between the eyes. “Fuck, not the kind of shit I want hitting me in the face. So, you’ve obviously moved things right along, if you have that kind of information. Let’s try the story again, with a little more detail.”
I would only give away so much information. Brian was well aware of the kinds of conversations I had with his wife, but even I blanched at fessing up to crawling across the floor to blow Beau while he was on a call.
“So you’ve got a night at a swanky restaurant opening.” She looked away as she grabbed her iPad, swiping furiously until she found what she was looking for. “I’m betting it’s Pigface down at Barangaroo. The owner, Michael Ferguson, is definitely a friend of your Beau’s.”
“Pigface?” I wrinkled my nose at the title.
“It’s ‘a native bushfood fusion restaurant, which combines the best of world cuisines with ingredients that are native to Australia.’” She looked up at me. “Pigface is that succulent with the pink flowers that grows on the sand dunes on all of the beaches. Apparently, it’s edible.”
“You know what else is edible?” Brian said. “Steak and chips. Let’s have that for dinner.”
“Or you could run over to that cute little Indian joint down the road. You loved that place,” she replied.
“They do do a good curry…”
“Great. Garlic naan, basmati, and chicken korma for me, thanks, love,” she said, waiting for Brian to leave before turning back to me. “So you know what this is, right? There’s gonna be PR and paparazzi with some of the celebs turning up, and not just dickheads who made it ontoI’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here.” It felt like her eyes cut through the distance between us, slicing straight into me. “He’s making a fuss, a big fuss, as he introduces you to the world.”
The anxiety that had been spiking in me had faded a little, Nik and Brian’s antics kind of settling me again, reminding me of my old life, but it roared back to the fore when she mentioned that.
I knew.
I knew that this was a big deal and probably our first real official notice to the world that I was in a relationship with this pack, and I didn’t want to fuck it up. I told Nikki that.
“Look, I know I had you trussing yourself up in shapewear and whatever, but that’s because fuck boys have to be lured in close by killer curves to get them interested. You don’t need to do that now,” Nikki said. “Really, what’s sexy is confidence. That’s what you need to wear—something that makes you feel comfortable, ready to take on the glitterati and claim your position there.”
I blinked, her words opening possibilities in my mind.
“But not fucking skinny jeans and band T-shirts.”
Dammit.
They wereall waiting downstairs looking so fucking gorgeous, I wanted to scurry right back up those stairs, but I repeated Nikki’s mantra over and over in my head with each step down.Own your shit, own your shit, fucking own it.
“Well, look at you.”
Beau said the words, but they all did, seeming to rake their eyes across the dress, taking in every inch.
“We’re not doing this,” Lucien rumbled. “We can’t let her go outside like that.”
“Sage will be safe with us,” Tobias said. “Plus, we’ll have the security team on alert.”
“That won’t save her from me, though, will it?” Lucien crossed the floor in a few impatient steps, stopping just short of touching me before he gave into that urge. “You’re beautiful, Sage.” He ran his fingers down the slightly flared sleeves of the dress, then followed the deep V of the fitted bodice. “Too much of that beauty is on display for a night out.”