Her cheeks are flushed such a pretty pink, and her eyes are glassy with lust, but at the wordwork, they start to clear. She shakes her head—adorable—then peels herself off of me. “Right. Work. Yeah. Can’t show up late when I’m still new at this lab.”
“Why don’t we plan on doing this again in a few days? Do you want to come over here again? I’ll pick you up.” I stand when she does and pull her into a tight hug so she doesn’t feel like I’m rejecting her again.
“I can drive, or Nigel can bring me,” she murmurs, snuggling into my chest.
“All right. Let’s get you home. I’ll drive.”
“I can call Nigel to pick me up.”
“Nigel may be an old man, but right now, I’m a little jealous you’d rather have him take you home.”
“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.”
Pulling back, I gaze down at her. “I’m an alpha. That means I’m selfish. Jealous when it doesn’tmake sense.” I lean down and kiss her, pulling away before I’m really ready, but I’m still trying to move slow. I rest my forehead against hers. “Liv. I’m going to want as much time with you as I can get. Any alpha courting you would feel the same,” I add quickly, hoping she hasn’t caught on to my very much forgetting the fake dating plot.
“Oh,” she murmurs, chewing on her bottom lip and averting her gaze.
God, that pink in her cheeks has my mind wandering to images of her on the bed, flushed with desire. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so beautiful. If she meets my pack and they like her? Fuck fake dating. I might want to court this pretty omega for real.
Chapter Seven
OLIVIA
Scent control has been such a longstanding part of my morning routine that I have to audibly tell myselfnowhen I reach for the little orange bottle of pills. My gaze strays to the heat control. I take both prescriptions every morning. Sawyer didn’t ask me to stop taking the heat suppressant, but maybe I should. If I’m going to learn, I may as well learn everything. Otherwise, it’s a wasted opportunity.
Skipping the medicine is hard the first couple of days, but it’s gotten easier to bypass those pill bottles. So far, no one at the lab seems to have noticed any change. The first day, I didn’t observe any, either. The drugs will stay in my system, weakening exponentially as each day passes, until they’re fully out of my system. Which should happen around the one-week mark.
But today, on day three, I’m starting to smell things. It’s all muted. The slightly burned scent of black coffee in the office pot, the faint stinging scent of bleach clinging to the work surfaces in the lab, and even the lightest hints of my coworkers’scents. Autumn leaves, sage, the smoky scent of a candle wick that’s been recently snuffed out. And then there’s my own scent. The subtle notes of vanilla and honey that permeate the air around me with a sweetness my coworkers are only beginning to notice, if the curious second glances they give me when they walk by are anything to go on.
None of this should make me feel insecure. Scents are a normal, accepted part of life. I’m not the only omega working at McKinley Laboratories, but the others don’t take scent control. At least, not that I’m aware of. They’re respected members of the team. They don’t seem overwhelmed by the scents of the alphas and betas working around us. Nor do they seem overly affected by the cacophony of smells battering me from all sides the way I am.
Perhaps it’s simply due to the fact that I’ve been on the medicine for so long. I’ve only forgotten how distracting all of this could be.
“Olivia, good morning.” Vicki, the lead biologist, knocks on the open door of my closet-sized office as she pokes her head inside. “We’ve run into some issues with the calculations the Madrid office sent over, and I was hoping you could take a look. We can’t advance to preclinical trials until we’ve ensured the formulation is perfect. The cursory look I had this morning has me concerned about a potential adverse chemical reaction.”
“Of course.”
She smiles at me, but it’s a tense, tenuous thing. We’ve all put so much work into this research, and while this is headquarters, developing the medicine has been a global effort. The last thing we want is a setback. There is too much at stake. “I sent you the file, let me know what you think.”
She cocks her head to the side, studying me. Her nostrils flare slightly, and I shift in my seat, feelingself-conscious. Is she going to say something about my scent? I try to covertly sniff myself. Do I smell bad? I like the scent of vanilla and honey, but maybe she doesn’t?
But Vicki doesn’t say anything. She simply smiles, the expression more genuine this time, and taps the doorframe. “Thanks, Olivia. If you need a second opinion, Gus is also doing an assessment of the calculations.”
I return her smile, relieved that she doesn’t seem bothered by my slowly blossoming scent, and get to work. Once I’m alone and able to throw myself into my work, all my worries and the distractions fade away.
This is what I was made to do. I take comfort in that knowledge and let it support me throughout the rest of the day.
My newly reinforced self-confidence lasts all of five steps into the house. Mother is waiting, greeting me with a frown and a critical sweep of her eyes that makes me feel as tall as a sugar ant.
Once again, she’s found me lacking in some fundamental way.
“Olivia, there you are. I’ve been waiting to speak to you for days.” She rests one manicured hand on a designer-clad hip and pauses for dramatic effect. Before I left for London, this kind of interaction would have had me going out of my way to immediately placate her, but now, I wait her out.
Sighing deeply, my mother rolls her eyes. “You don’t haveanythingto say?”
“I’m not entirely sure what we’re talking about, so no.” I brush past her and head into the kitchen. A glass of wine sounds nice after a long day of calculations and intenseresearch. It will also have the additional benefit of blunting anything hurtful my mother may say.
“My god. I swear, you are purposefully obtuse,” she says, following me.
