Except I found her website the other day with a picture of her and her brother, and I saw the connection. Timber is talking about omegas lying and manipulating people, and I suspect I have an answer to my question of how the three are connected.
“I went wild as soon as I scent matched with my ex,” Timber says hoarsely. “I met her once, and I was absolutely sure there was no one else in my life, on this whole fucking earth that I would love as much as her. I fell for her instantly. I wanted to bite her the moment I met her, and I was ready to give her anything she wanted so she’d be my omega.”
That’s exactly how I feel about Ollie, but there’s a big ‘but’ coming, and I can’t spoil it. So I keep my mouth clamped shut.
“But omegas can use their scents to manipulate us. It’s treated like a game where they use it to make alphas crazy, but my ex took it so much further than that. After a year, I didn’t realize how much she’d messed me up. She’d trained me like a dog.” He lets out a heavy breath as he knocks his head back again. I’m moving on from mounting him and kissing him until he can’t breathe, to wrapping my arms around him to be his place to lean on. To do for him what I want Ollie to do for me when I wake up from my nightmares.
“I didn’t really work out how my ex-wife did it until after you broke my nose. Before that game with you, I let her be my manager and organize my finances, social media, public appearances, and that kind of stuff. She wrote out my contracts and dealt with the business side of things because all I wanted to do was play hockey. I thought it was weird how I kept turning up in magazines and news stories, and how she kept dragging me out to public places to have sex. We’d go on a date, ride the Ferris wheel, and she’d perfume, screw with my head, and make me so horny I’d do whatever she wanted. The next day, our pictures would end up in a tabloid, and I could never figure out how they got them. They weren’t grainy photos either; people had us in the clear open. And when I asked her about it, she would perfume again, and I’d stop caring.” His hand snaked out to rest on top of his thigh, still holding his lunchbox in place with his other.
I don’t know if it was an invitation to comfort him. If I thread my fingers through his, will he pull away and stop telling me his story?
The sausage roll has completely crumbled in my hand, and there’s no way I’m going to stroke him with my buttery, meaty fingers. But I want to touch him in some way.
I shuffle closer to rest my thigh by his, my heart trembling in my throat, because this feels like something real.
He doesn’t move away from me, and his tight shoulders soften.
“When I was in the hospital, she didn’t know I’d lost my sense of smell. I didn’t tell her at first. I asked her how the tabloids got shots of me in the ambulance and before surgery, and why she was appearing on all these TV shows to discuss the accident and my health. When I tried to talk to her about it directly, she would hit on me and try to fuck me to make me shut up, even when I told her my face was too broken for anything.” He lets out a rough chuckle. “It was only when the doctors pointed out how the room was drenched with perfume that I finally got it.”
He dips his head forward, his shoulders heaving before swinging to look at me directly. “I thought I’d wait until I was healed and see how she acted, just to find out if it was a fluke. But the more I looked into it, the more ugly the truth became. And that’s why…” Timber blows out a slow breath. “I just… I just can’t trust another omega, Kane. Even if you’re crazy about yours and you think you’re destined for each other, there’s always something else… You never know how people really are. You might annoy the fuck out of me, but at least you’re straightforward about what you want, even if I tell you no.”
I can't stop myself from answering straight away. “That was one omega, Timber. It’s just that one person.” Could I really defend her when I think I know what I know?
Timber shakes his head. “I’ll do what Marilyn asks, I’ll go on this date. But there’s no way I’m ever mating with another omega again, not after all that.”
I open my mouth to argue more, but he cuts me off.
“Marilyn was there when it happened as well as Levon, Ares, and Carys when she was a kid. Marilyn was brutal. I’d never seen her act like that before, but as soon as they found out what happened, they kicked into action, and my ex-wife vanished from my life. So, Marilyn should know what it means for me to go on a date like this.”
The air is too heavy around us, and the part of me that’s shouting at me to not screw this up is getting quieter.
“Do you understand what I’m trying to say, Kane? I want to make it clear to you that you didn’t fuck everything up for me. I don’t want to be anywhere near you when you act like an asshole, but it’s not because you made a bad shot and nearly killed me.” He stares at me directly, and a half smile cocks his lips. “It’s because you’re an annoying piece of shit.”
I don’t want to be stuck in a place where I’m hovering quietly with Timber in a silence that feels too good to be true. His words are striking me so deeply that I can’t handle it, even though I’m the one who started the conversation. It’s like something has unlocked inside me, and I love how good it feels to finally understand what he’s been saying this whole time.
The relief that he doesn’t really hate me is pounding through me, and I’m not mature enough to respond like a fucking reasonable person. If I tell him how I feel about him now, I’m sure I’ll fumble it, and he might never open up to me again. So, if he wants me to be annoying, I can do that for him.
“Why don’t you have some fun with it?” I ask him, crashing through our peaceful understanding.
“What?” he growls, turning to me as I lift the remaining sausage.
“Instead of taking everything so seriously, why don’t you drop your expectations and try to have a good time on this date?”
I fly it through the air with engine noises, a grin on my face as I sweep it by his mouth like an airplane. “Instead of turning it into this big, dramatic thing, take a chance. Go on a date with an omega Marilyn chooses, or meet my omega. Either way, stop looking at it like your world is going to end. Try not to be a baby for once and let go.”
I shake the sausage in front of his lips, hoping he will open up so I can stroke his mouth and get his coffee taste on me again.
Timber suddenly twists, and the bench creaks under his weight.
His mouth widens, and he jolts forward, sinking onto my fingers.
His teeth scrape over my knuckle as if he’ll bite me any second, and my heart explodes as he sucks on my fingers like he's trying to swallow them.
I gasp as his hand slides over my thigh, and the second his fingers brush my cock, a shudder goes through me, and I cry out.
“Timber,” I groan, too overwhelmed by him. I’m always on the attack, and I can’t deal as the tip of one finger strokes from base-to-head through my pants.
“Timber,” I groan as he pulls his mouth from my fingers with a pop, and glares at me.
