“You all right?” Marcus asks, noticing them immediately.
Cole flushes, and his scent pulses out from him.
“I’m great,” he murmurs.
I reach out to him, and he closes the distance, wrapping an arm around my waist.
“Good morning,” I whisper, kissing his cheek.
He laughs and then grabs Marcus’s hand, running his lips over the knuckles. Nutmeg joins our scent cocoon. His voice is warm and happy when he says, “Good morning.”
Thirty-Two
MARCUS
“You going to tell me how we’re on a yacht now?” Cole asks where he sits between my legs on the large outdoor sectional on the top deck of said yacht. His back is plastered to my chest, and I have an arm around his waist, keeping him from getting even an inch of distance between us. Just the thought has a growl rumbling through my chest.
We’re hours into the cruise, New York entirely gone on the distant horizon. We’ve had a light lunch and seen a pod of whales, much to Charlotte’s delight. Now, we’re lounging on the back deck in companionable silence. The ocean breeze catches strands of his hair and tickles the back of my neck. It twists our mingling scents together, too. Charlotte and Megan sit on either side of me, both constantly touching him just like I am. None of us can get our hands off of him. If we’re not careful, we won’t remember to have him sign the paperwork. And Megan might actually see me naked despite her efforts over the last year to keep that boundary.
I kiss behind his ear. “Your dad offered to help us set this up.”
He pulls away from me, twisting until he can see me. A grimace flashes across his face, but it’s gone before I can comment on it. Then, his eyes narrow.
“My… dad?”
When I nod, he frowns. Confusion bleeds across the bond. I palm the nape of his neck and kiss him, needing to alleviate all of his discomfort. His response is quick but short-lived. He pulls away after only a minute.
“Why did my dad decide we needed to go whale watching?” There’s humor in his voice now, and my own nerves settle a bit.
It’s Charlotte who laughs and spills the beans in the next breath.
“Yeah, they wanted to help set up everything so we could surprise you with the paperwork.”
Cole’s breath catches, and his shock is like frozen water under my sternum. For a heartbeat, I worry that Megan was right, that we should have talked it over with him first to make sure he was on board with doing this only halfway through the given thirty day trial period. But then it dissolves into wonder, and I can breathe again.
“Really?” he asks quietly, like he’s terrified this is all a dream.
Megan grabs his hand again and laces their fingers together. “If you’re ready, we are, too.”
When he nods once, I ease to my feet, kissing his temple.
“Be right back,” I murmur into his ear, relishing the goosebumps that race down his throat. A flash of desire lights up the bond, and my knees nearly buckle. That feltreallysimilar to how the waves of his heat have felt over the years. Shit, is his heat getting close? It’s not something we’ve discussed yet. Two weeks isn’t really all that much time, especially when half of it was spent coordinating his move.
I shake away the thoughts and cross the deck of the boat quickly, grabbing the small folder we’d had the crew stash just inside the door to the indoor lounge space up here. Next to it, they’ve laid out the ring box I’d given them as well as a pan. I shove both into my pocket and then head back out to Cole.
Charlotte and Megan both hold his hands, smiles on their faces, as they watch me approach, letting me lead this just like everything else when it’s come to Cole and being with him again. I take in the way they look together, how seamlessly they’ve blended over the last week of living together, and my heart swells. I settle onto the low-lying table just in front of them, my elbows on my knees, letting the folder dangle from my hand. There’s anticipatory silence for a moment, the girls letting me decide where I want to start with our speeches.
I’d practiced something, of course, just like I know they have for the last two days. But all of it goes out the window when I lock eyes with Cole, the hazel practically glowing in the warm, midday sun. The words that fall out are raw and real, and I know he can feel them in his chest from our bond.
“When we decided to file as a pack, it was bittersweet,” I started. “Megan was interested in seeing about finding an Omega, but didn’t want to try and find another group that she felt she matched well with. Charlotte didn’t really mind either way. I… I was the one who hesitated. It took me nearly six months before I was willing to start the process.”
I swallow the lump in my throat at remembering the defeat I’d felt when I’d finally agreed to file together, to let them see if we could find an Omega that liked Megan and blended well enough with me.
“All the while, I kept hoping I’d run into you. Maybe you would be at one of the galas, too, and I wouldn’t have to live without you anymore. I knew it was naive and that I was way too old to be indulging, but it made it… bearable. And then, when Isaw you there, realized you hadn’t matched, that you were at the same gala as me and we could be together? Everything that had felt slightly off in my life clicked into place. I love Charlotte more than I can breathe, and Megan is the best friend anyone could ever ask for. But you? You’re the piece I’ve been missing.”
Cole nods, but I keep going.
“Missing for more than just the three years we were apart.”
