My stomach tightens. I feel sick.
I lean my forearms on the icy wrought iron railing.
The balcony is as elegant and decorative as the rest of the hotel.
I stare out at Haven, which looks chocolate box pretty under the powdery snow and gray clouds.
Main Street has been decorated with warm twinkling lights, and the rooftops and trees have been dusted with snow like icing.
The small town has never looked so beautiful to me.
So close but yet so far away.
I swallow the lump in my throat.
I am over aware of Icarus standing at my shoulder. The tension between us is hazy in the air like our misted breaths.
I can’t have that.
I’ve always been good at breaking tension.
“Why do you have a baby changing bag slung over your shoulder?” I ask, still not looking around. “Did you change Zoe earlier and decide that it went with your suit? Suave.”
Finally, Icarus relaxes, slinging the neon green dinosaur bag between us.
He rests his arms next to mine. “Indeed, I’ve long been jealous of Zoe’s crib too. Wait, I didn’t?—”
I laugh, turning to my Alpha too fast and stumbling into him.
He steadies me, gripping me by the elbows.
Our lips meet.
Icarus gentles the kiss, dragging me closer.
I sigh, allowing myself to have this sweet moment in the cold beauty overlooking a town, from which Icarus and I have long been barred.
Yet we’re fighting to change that.
Nobody is going to keep us trapped in this hotel after tomorrow, right?
Icarus pulls back far enough just to whisper against my lips, “You’d make the best first Omega spy. Kissing is a good cover.”
I wrinkle my brow. “Right, that is exactly why I kissed you.”
It isn’t.
He kisses me again, before he whispers, low and urgent, “The heist is on.”
I tense with excited anticipation.
“Details.” I kiss down my Alpha’s jaw, looping my arms around him as we lean against the balcony. Feather light snow drifts down around us, as if it’s helping to hide our secrets as well. “When? Where? How?”
“I saw Hatton. You know, your brother has impressed me. He’s as much a schemer as you are.” Icarus casts me an impressed look, while I pretend — while thrilling with the act as well — to nuzzle him merely because we’re having a romantic moment. I work my hand toward the hard cock tenting his pants. Even if the rest of the pack were to see us through the glass doors, they wouldn’t know that we were plotting. “But I also spoke to the staff in the basement garage.”
I break off licking up Icarus’ neck in shock. “All of them? But haven’t you just put everybody at risk?”
He clenches his jaw. “I’ve given them the first true choice that they’ve had in years. If we want to truly let the Omegas, as well as the Betas, have better conditions and a say in the running of the hotel chain, then they need to feel an investment in it from the very beginning. I didn’t tell them the details, of course, or about anyone’s involvement but my own. Do you want to know how many offered to help?”
