What would she do if Timber and I made a move?
She said her heat is coming soon. How will both of them react if I casually leak that to Timber?
My bad habits start to emerge as I wonder how much I can push it until I take it too far.
“You should come to my house,” Timber blurts out, and Ollie jerks, rattling her seat. “I mean, come and visit your brother. I mean, come and see where I live. You know, come for drinks or something, and then we can—”
“What about me?” I purr, nudging Timber with my shoulder. He’s floundering too hard. It’s so fun to watch him struggle, but we can’t screw this up. “Can’t I come around as well? Since Ollie ismyomega and everything.”
His scrambling panic morphs into a scowl. “Why the hell do you think I would invite you over to my house? I don’t want you anywhere near me. Even this is too close.”
The way his cheeks flush the same as Ollie’s tells me the truth. He’s been more responsive to me since the lunchbox incident. And I’ll bet anything that Ollie thinks it’s cute as well.
His gaze jumps back to Ollie, who’s losing her composure. She had that same look in the heat room after we’d made love and she was getting ready to bolt.
“I need to go to the restroom,” she says, shooting up from the table.
We both watch her go, and I can almost feel Timber vibrating. Since the restaurant is quiet, we could both run after her and do something fun like fall into a stall and have our wicked way with each other. With his buzz to my calm scent, we could send Ollie into a pool of pleasure as we wind her up and bring her down over and over again.
But he’s going at her too aggressively, and I don’t want her to feel any more pressured.
“You’re seriously messing this up,” I murmur.
“How the fuck am I messing this up? You’re the one who brought her here and interrupted my date. It was going fine until you showed up.”
I shrug. “That’s none of my business. What I care about is what you think of her.”
He goes quiet again, hurriedly gulping his red wine.
“Timber,” I press, putting my hand on his forearm as I lean in, my voice dipping. “I mean it. What do you think of her?”
He looks at the empty space where she’d sat, with a thousand thoughts running through his head, and I doubt he’ll share any of them with me.
“What’s her scent?” he asks quietly.
“Does it matter? You were pretty certain that you’re never going to scent anyone again.”
His lips thin, and his look makes me want to drag him to mine and taste him. I want to know more than ever if he can taste me like he did years ago.
“I still want to know. You keep harping on about her being your match, so what kind of scent goes with lavender?”
I pretend to sigh, like his eager stare has defeated me.
“Maple syrup,” I say with forced resignation, and his face falls.
He slams his glass on the tabletop, sloshing red wine and staining the white cloth and spilling onto the empty bread plate.
He’s gone before I can ask him why he looks like the world has dropped from under his feet.
From his reaction, he already knows. Even if he hasn’t connected the dots, I’m praying it’s because he’s either scented or tasted her already, which sends my alpha heart fluttering with hope.
I laugh to myself as he disappears around the corner after her, and I signal a waiter. I don’t know what’s about to happen, but I suspect we’ll need more wine.
Ollie
Istare in the mirror, trying to sort myself out. I don’t know if I can be around Timber again without bursting out about how good he smells.
There’s a party going on in my pants, and only two alphas are invited.
