“But not tonight.” I turned to see Max staring at me. “Tonight’s for us.” He moved in, brushing the sweetest of kisses across my lips. “Tell Tobias that tonight’s for us.” Another kiss, deeper and more exploratory. “Tell him that you want all of us, in your bed, in you. Tell him you’re ready for that.”
Tobias wasn’t happy with the way Max was teasing the response from me, but I couldn’t help but throw my arms around Max—no, my mate’s shoulders. They wanted me and I wanted them, and I couldn’t remember any of the many quibbles I had that had stopped me from throwing myself into bed with the four of them.
“Yes,” I replied, then kissed Max again, my hand sliding under his jacket and across his chest. “Yes, that.”
“You heard our mate,” Beau said. “We’re all in tonight. Now, let’s order some bloody food so no one gets messy, falling down drunk, because that’d be about the only thing that will stop what needs to happen.”
The food was exquisite,as expected. Mike came over to our table at some point in the night and explained the various ingredients he’d included and where they came from, his passion evident, but two persistent hands on my thighs edging upwards made it so I couldn’t do anything other than nod along and pretend I was hanging on the beta’s every word. As the night went on, as people get louder and so did the music, I had to escape the booth and go to the loo.
“I’ll go with you,” Beau offered, but Tobias was out of the booth and taking my hand when I clambered free, tucking me into his side with a grip like iron. I found I liked it. I felt like I was a fish out of water in this place, but he was the bowl, scooping me up and providing me some watery comfort as we stalked through the bar.
“Here,” Tobias said, pulling away in front of the ladies’ room. “I’ll be waiting here.”
“You act like someone’s going to kidnap me,” I said, looking up at him with a smile.
“Because that’s what my wolf feels will happen.” He turned to face me, running his hands through my hair before letting out a little sigh. “He can’t believe we found you, and now we have, he’s sure you’re going to be snatched away. Those bloody alphas at Hyde Park…”
I frowned slightly at that, looking around me with new eyes, but nope, we were still in a swanky place that was highly unlikely to let lads like them in.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said with a rueful grin. “It’s just old baggage, something we’ll need to discuss at some point, but not now. Go. I’ll be waiting.”
Walkinginto the women’s toilets of a bar could always be an experience. Sometimes it was strewn paper towels and scary pools of wet substances on the floor you hoped was water and prayed wasn’t piss. Sometimes it was the daunting line to get in, right when you were bouncing up and down, needing to go. This place had none of those issues. There were a few girls in here, standing by the mirrors and chatting, something that stopped as soon as I entered. OK. People might not want to share private details of their conversations with some random chick who’d strolled into the loos, but their perfectly made-up eyes seemed to follow me as I went over to the cubicle and locked myself in.
You’re imagining shit, I told myself over and over as I sat down to do what I needed to.They barely even noticed you.
That was the stupid thing that came from growing up in a verbally abusive home. The first time my shrink had brought up inverted egotism, I’d blinked so hard, I thought my eyes would roll around on the floor. An egotist might strut around, proclaiming to the world how awesome they were, never hearing criticism, always focussed on themselves first and others a very poor second, if that, but I wasn’t like that. I couldn’t be.
“Except the constant stream of criticism from your mother, it’s made you hyperaware of your perceived flaws, to the point where that’s all you can think about,” she’d told me. “Just like someone who’s over confident, you’re entirely focussed on yourself, if only to further put yourself down, taking over the role of your mother.”
So I was wary of projecting my bullshit onto a situation. I finished what I had to do, then came out, shooting the staring women a polite smile before walking over to the sinks and washing my hands.
“How’d you do it?”
My head jerked up, and I saw the tall blonde had stalked over before her hand slapped down onto the counter next to my sink.
“What?”
Not an especially great comeback, but it was all I had.
“How did someone like you snag the Lockwood pack?” She looked me up and down, while my eyes focussed way too hard on the perfectly blended golden eyeshadow on her eyelids.
“I—”
“Everyone’s saying you’re their mate,” said another woman, emboldened by her friend, before frowning.
“You can’t be,” the last woman said. “Chloe’s been off doing her own thing for a while now, but she’s still their mate.” Her brows drew down and kept on going as her face twisted into an expression of disgust. “You’re some…stand-in.”
“Something to bring Chloe home,” the first woman said with a nod, apparently convinced by this story. “You’re just a ploy.”
“They’re trying to make her jealous,” the second woman said with a chuckle. “Good luck with that. Chloe has been hanging out with some amazing people in New York, Berlin, and London.” She looked me over closely. “Why the hell would someone like you make her jealous?”
Why the hell would they need to?I didn’t ask these women that question, because they were no friends of mine and they weren’t the ones to answer it.
“Everything all—” Tobias started to ask.
“Who the hell is Chloe?” I snapped, knocking his hand away when he reached for me.
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