As he climbs out, opening my door for me and offering his hand, I try not to stew on the thought too much. Someone once said something very similar to me, and I ignored them too. People died that day.
If I can fight, I will. And even when I know I can’t fight, I’ll still try. I’ve proven that much before.
“Dream!” Beau gasps, his front door flying open as we approach. He reaches through the open doorway, grabs my arm, and yanks.
I stumble inside, Thor following close behind me as the Omega in disguise drags me down the hall, around a corner, and into a kitchen. I don’t even have time to look around before I’m being shoved into a dark pantry. Beau quickly pulls the door shut behind himself when he follows me inside. I blink, trying to adjust my eyes to the darkness, but I can’t see anything except a tiny sliver of light under the door.
“She’s okay, Thor. Keep calm. You’re being recorded, so act like you’ve seen them do this before,”Apollo hisses into the earpieces.
“Shhh,” Beau whispers, leaning forward. “I won’t hurt you.” He pulls me against his body, wrapping his arms around my back, and plants his hands on my ass. I feel him dip his head until his lips brush the skin of my neck.
“We’re being recorded?” I ask against his skin, hoping the sound is too muffled to be heard.
“Visual only. No audio,” he explains as I wrap my arms around his neck.
“Got it.”
“So he can’t hear us?” I ask in a quiet whisper, needing to be sure. To anyone else the question might sound like I’m talking about Hawthorne, whose presence is obvious just outside the pantry door. To Beau, he knows I mean his father.
“No one can hear us here as long as we’re very quiet. I would’ve liked to do this differently. Maybe have dinner and get to know you before dragging you into a dark closet. Guess this is one way to get to know you,” he huffs out with a little laugh.
“I’m twenty-three. I love pretty much all animals. My favorite colors are pinks, purples, and blues.” I lift my left knee, hooking my leg on his waist as his hand moves down my thigh, giggling asI throw my head back. “I like to paint, but I suck at it. I’ve never seen the ocean, and I hate the way socks feel on my feet when I’m in bed. Otherwise they’re fine.”
I’ve spent a lot of time at Haze faking for an audience. This is just like that, but with much higher stakes.
“I’m twenty-two,” he murmurs as he presses a trail of kisses along my throat.Oh hell.“I like reading. Someday, I want to spend more time reading than anything else.”
His movements are clumsy. Maybe he’s nervous, or maybe this is new to him. That’s okay, I can guide us. It helps that Beau is so unreasonably attractive. I’ve had attractive clients at Haze before, but none of them compare to Beau.
“Favorite color?” I ask.
“Gray, like the sky before a storm.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Beau.” I chuckle, taking a deep breath of his scent, flinching as it hits. It burns at the back of my throat, yanking me out of the moment. The tiny, tight space only makes it worse.
My rose petal and melted vanilla scent joins the party, trying to coax the real Beau out of hiding, but I don’t think his scent is being altered by simple blockers.
The chemical wrongness of his scent feels deeper, as if it’s in his bloodstream. I hate this for him. Suppression that deep for this long is not good for anyone, but the consequences could be devastating for an Omega’s system.
No heat? No scent? No comfort?
It’s not safe. His first heat could be so bad…
Shit. My scent reacts to my emotions. My need to help the man locked in this room with me is so strong that I smell like a vanilla icing bomb just melted all over me.
“Oh, oh fuckkk…” Beau moans, his body growing heavier against mine as he presses into me, forcing my back up against the pantry shelves. “W-why is your scent so…” Beau shivers, hisentire body trembling as he nuzzles into my throat, breathing me in right from the source, just above the glands.
“You like?” I tease, trying not to spiral into full-blown protective Omega mode. He groans, not answering.
When the feeling of his warm, wet tongue against my skin registers, my brain short-circuits for longer than it should for an Omega with my experience. Now I’m the one letting out a breathy moan.
“Fucking shit,”I hear Apollo grunt, but the knowledge that he’s listening to us barely penetrates my foggy mind. Not that I’ve ever minded an audience. Obviously. However, there’s a history there between them, and I don’t actually belong to Beau.
“We wanted to make sure you were okay. It’s been a while since we heard anything from you. We were worried,” I manage to gasp out in a breathy, way sexier than I planned for, voice.
Fuck, why are two minutes alone in this pantry with him doing more to my body than any man ever has?
“Currently un—” he grunts as I roll my hips forward, dropping my lips to his chest, trying to look like I want to take this further. “Unharmed,” he groans as he pushes a fist into my hair and tugs lightly. Sweet hells. Maybe he’s not as inexperienced as I thought. “How did you find me?”
