Except, isn’t that what we’ve been for a while now? I’ve just been protecting my heart by not admitting it.
“Do you remember,” Icarus murmurs, “when we were in high school, and you sat down next to me, some poor kid in a ratty hoodie, and bought me lunch when I had no money for it?”
“I’d noticed for a week that you’d been surviving on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. You were too pale.”
“I’m always pale. You know how I burn in the sun.”
“So do I.”
“You get adorable freckles. Or more precisely,moreadorable freckles. I noticed you on the first day of school. You were standing with the other elites, a billionaire Frost. Also, the most beautiful Omega who I had ever seen. I expected you to only hang around with the other wealthy packs, but you sat with me like it was nothing. You shared your school equipment with me, when my family sold what little I had to try and stop us being thrown out of our motel, to save me from getting in trouble with our teachers. I would never have believed that anyone would want me as their best friend. For the hours that I was at school, however, which was the only time I felt safe, you made me forget everything that was wrong in my life. Being friends with you was easy, fun, and the brightest spark in my dark world. And I have been terrified of losing that by admitting I have been falling in love with you, Grace, from the first day that I met you.”
My heart breaks. “Icarus…”
“You don’t need to say it back. I’m happy that I have our friendship and our quite frankly outstandingbenefits. I just can’t hide either how hard this stupid one-sided love of mine has been. I was the one who had to arrange the matching ball for your twenty-first, before being forced to watch as you were claimed by that pack of…” He bites his lip, glancing down at Zoe. “…naughtyelites. The type of Alpha, an educated surgeon from the best family, who I can never be or else I could have bonded with you. I hoped that at least the Alcotts could offer you the life that I couldn’t. But then, they abandoned you and you returnedto the hotel, pregnant. I swore that I would look after your baby and you. I wouldn’t make any demands. Friends with benefits, right? In my heart from that moment, however, I was your Alpha. And…”
I am startled, when his eyes gleam with tears. Instinctively, I soothe him with my pheromones.
Icarus rubs his cheek against the top of Zoe’s head. “And your baby would be mine, whether you chose me to be your Alpha or even noticed my love. I would protect and do anything for you both.I would love you.”
What do I say?
My mind is spinning at the power of his confession. Yet how little he expects from me in return. How he can’t see how much he’s loved by those around him.
Or perhaps, it only matters to him thatIhave been blind to how deeply he’s felt for me all these years.
Slowly, I reach up to cup Icarus’ cheek.
I’m shaking.
All of a sudden, the office door bangs open.
In shock, I jump backward from Icarus.
Shit, that was too close.
I accidentally sweep my arm through Icarus’ piles of papers, knocking them off the desk.
Both Icarus and I wince.
I drop to my knees, hurriedly collecting up the papers.
Icarus turns around to the door, his eyes flashing. “Have you ever heard of knocking?”
“I don’t knock in my own hotel,” Maya’s cold voice replies.
The repressed anger of her burned tea scent makes me gag. Zoe starts to cry.
I hurriedly stand, holding out my arms. When Icarus passes Zoe to me, Zoe nuzzles against my scent gland for comfort.
I back away as far as I can to the far side of the room.
Maya is dressed in a glamorous winter woolen dress and high heels in fuchsia. A warm shawl is wrapped around her narrow shoulders. Her fiery hair flows around her pointy face.
Icarus walks forward, however, and I know that he is deliberately placing himself between Maya and me.
His expression blanks to a polite mask. “I apologize Mrs. Frost for not immediately recognizing that it was you. I must keep the staff under control. I don’t allow people to enter my rooms without knocking. It’s against the rules.”
“Ellington is right that you have a rulebook stuck up your ass. It makes you an excellent manager, but I imagine, a terrible fuck.” Maya pats her long, manicured nailed hand patronizingly on his cheek. She grimaces. “Lucky that I have always admired you like a work of art but have never had a thing for knots.”
