Ellie comes sit on my other side as Alyssa smugly continues to decorate the tree for us. “Holy shit. Just out of the blue?”
“Basically, yeah. And I freaked out. I ran all the way back to my cottage and… and that was it for us. He was taken in by the police the very next day.”
“But he had nothing to do with the Grace thing, right?” Bitsy asks.
“Not a thing. He just saw her at Quill & Clover. I don’t know who took Grace, but I think Rad set Luca up to take the fall—to get to me.”
“Fuck that guy,” Bitsy mutters.
“For real,” Ellie agrees. “Bits, if I weren’t so freaking scared of him, I’d have you hex his dick smaller.”
“Even I’m not that crazy.”
“Okay, but how did you find out he was spying?”
“Cassian made me hear him out.”
“Your asshole ex? What’s that about?”
I shake my head. “I have no idea. But he knew and told Luca not to tell me in case I was just going to get kicked out of Fairhaven after midterms anyway.”
“Permission to dick shrink?”
“Granted,” Ellie and I say at the same time.
I shrug my shoulders and chew my lower lip. “I don’t get Cassian. He dumped me and now he’s doing all this shit behind my back. He said I’m his ‘business’—whatever that means.”
“Yeah, Cassian of the soon-to-be tiny dick still carries a torch for you. And for seven to ten business days, it’s going to be averylittle torch. What kind of underhanded bullshit is that? He’s not your alpha!”
“That’s what I told him.”
“Okay, so... Fuck Cassian, not in the fun way, and fuck Luca, yes in the fun way?”
I laugh. “Basically? I broke down and called him after some family bullshit. Then I had a really shitty New Year’s Eve starring one Andrew Radcliffe at our gala—” Alyssa snorts at the word ‘gala’ “—and suddenly… he was there. In Greenwich, ready to take me ice skating and stargazing.”
“Ice gremlins,” Alyssa mutters. “By the way, aside from two dozen of my best brownies, those skates are your Yule present.”
“That’s really romantic, actually,” Ellie sighs. “Not the ice gremlins part. But ice-skating and stargazing? Damn. He has way more game than I thought he did.”
“He hassomuch game,” I groan. “He brought me my favorite nesting blanket, Alyssa’s cocoa, and had this all planned out. I don’t even know how to keep up, honestly.”
“Well, you’ve got that pretty little lace corset and I’m sure you’ve got some tiny undies… use your imagination.”
I roll my eyes. “Anyway, that’s all, I guess. Oh. Um, he purred for me. A lot.”
“Gah! That’s the most romantic part,” Ellie swoons. “You know that means you’re meant to be, right?”
I can’t help my small smile. “I know. I’m a very lucky omega.”
Bitsy claps her hands to get our attention. “And due to get lucky in about an hour, so let’s do Yule presents because Luca gets off soon and then theybothget off. A lot. Damn, I bet his dick game is insane, too.”
I glare at Bitsy, a flare of possession darkening my features and sharpening my sweet scent.
Bitsy just laughs. “Down, girl. I’m not touching your alpha. Okay, don’t scowl at me, but for Yule, I wrote you a song, and it’s called ‘Foreplay for Nerds.’ You can guess who I wrote it about…”
Ellie drags out her guitar with a guilty smirk. “You really do have the most interesting love life of any of us, even if it does involve my brother, which yay, but also ew, and this song is definitely about Mr. White Chocolate Mocha, not Simon. Anyway! And a one, a two…”
By the time they’re finished, I’m rolling with laughter while blushing redder than I’ve ever blushed before—and it’s the best Yule I’ve ever had.
