And what kind of person doesn’t fall for that? Smooth asshole.
His brand of silly sexiness helps so much when everything else feels jumbled and sore.
“What’s your plan now then?” he asks. He strokes his thumb over my upper arm as his lavender flows over me.
“Well, first of all, I’ve got a shitty alpha to ream out.”
“I thought we already went over this?” he said, rubbing his stomach like he didn’t have abs so hard I could crack my teeth on them. Or his teeth.
I press my lips together and give him a look, but he just grins straight back. I can add ‘Kane’s chiseled smirk’ to my extensive list of turn-ons.
“I need to go home and shower—alone,” I say as he opens his mouth, definitely planning to ask if he can join. “Then I have to talk to Luke about selling our apartment.”
I already know he’s going to ask me to live with him again, so that’s probably why he doesn’t. Could this be the new age of Kane, where he doesn’t coerce his mates into doing what he wants?
“I need to look for jobs. I already talked to Marilyn about ‘Ollie’s’ accident, so it won’t be super suspicious that I’m suddenly leaving. And if she follows it up, Luke has a wig and dress ready.”
“Of course he does,” Kane says dryly, and I chuckle.
“I think it’s either going to be a boring office job, or I’ll find some shady guy who pays a curious amount for delivering parcels. If you know what I mean?” My dealer owes me one after everything I’ve been through thanks to him.
I smirk up at him, but his serious expression is back.
Sighing, I dip my chin. It would be easier if we could both pretend it was going to be okay.
“Maybe we’ll consider your offer in the future, if things get really desperate. But, Luke and I will see what else we can do for now.”
“Then why don’t you talk to Timber?”
“It’s up to him if he wants to talk to me. I wouldn’t want to have anything to do with the other person if I found out they had been lying to me the whole time. I’m just collecting my stuff and then leaving it at that.”
“Can’t you at least try reaching out?”
“I had so many chances to tell him the truth, and I kept hiding from it. I don’t deserve another chance with him.”
“What about Timber deserving a chance with you?”
I pause, my brow furrowing. I’ve always been the one lying to Timber, so it’s never a question of his having to prove anything to me. I knew it was going to end up like this one way or another, so what did it matter if Timber wasn’t good enough for me?
It wasn’t as if I had high standards, or any standards. After everything our grandparents put us through, I wasn’t exactly going out of my way to find an alpha. Two just happened to drop onto my lap at the same time.
“Come on,” Kane hums as he keeps scent marking me. “We should team up and be annoyed at Timber together instead of him being pissed off at us all the time.”
“You’re the one who always makes him angry.” I glance at him again. “This is my first real argument with him.”
“You’re saying ‘first’ like you plan to have more arguments in the future!” he says, as if he’s caught me out.
I peek up at him as he happily takes another sip of his hot chocolate. Steam floats from his mouth in the bitter winter air. Everyone around us feels the cold more harshly, with people hunched over, decked out in hats and scarves, muttering against the chilly wind. And Kane and I snuggle closer to each other like dumbass mates who can’t get enough of it. He can go on all he wants about protecting me from the crowd, but I’m just using him as a radiator that comes with a cock.
I sigh again, wondering if it would be better to have no Timber and no arguments, or Timber and lots of arguments. I’m making life easy for myself by cutting and running while the wounds are still fresh.
“Why are you annoyed with him anyway?” I ask.
“Because you look like that,” he says, pointing straight at me.
I give him a questioning look, and he sparkles in that way of his.
“You look like you’re in permanent shock, sweetness. It’s written all over your face. Luke says you’ve been growing paler since you moved in with him, but I’m angry that Timber let it go this far.”
