“Alright everyone let’s turn our charm on and schmooze with the masses. Leon, you grab Eloise and dance with her so that the rest of us can get a turn.”
I opened my mouth to argue but my 2nd cut me off with a stern look.
“No arguing. You are the head of Pack Russo, we can unpack how hierarchical our society is about head alphas and blah blah blah later but for tonight you need to dance with her first so that I can get my hands on her. Got it?”
I sighed and held my hand out to Eloise who looked about as thrilled to be dancing with me as I was with her and led her onto the dance floor.
I wanted to be anywhere but dancing with this grumpy alpha in front of about two hundred people, but alas we can’t always get what we want.
I have no idea what I said or did to make Cecelia decide to continue business with Pack Russo. In fact I was pretty sure that she wasn’t happy about the situation I had found myself in. So why did she change her mind?
“You are thinking too hard.” Leon rumbled as we spun through the crowd. Grumpy alphahole or not I had to admit he was a very good dancer. The skirt of my dress flipped out as he led me through an elegant spin out and back into his chest. I was a bit breathless with it all to be honest. It was hard to find a man who could dance easily let alone lead with an intensity that warmed my belly. We moved easily around the other dancers who were pausing to look at us as we danced by.
“How do you know that I’m thinking too hard, Mr. Russo?” I challenged, looking up at him and my steps stuttered slightly at the strange expression on his face. He’d spent the past week walking around with a veritable thundercloud of emotions over the past week. Every time I ran into him in the hallways at the house he’d duck his head and hurry past me. But now he seemed to be searching my face for something.
He seemed to realize that he hadn’t answered my question and cleared his throat and it sounded suspiciously like a growl. Well color me twitchy. Goosebumps broke out across my skin at the sound and I nearly tilted my chin up to present my neck to him. It was only because the song came to an end that I didn’t make a complete idiot out of myself.
“To answer your question, you get a little line between your eyebrows when you think too hard.” He said as stepped away from me, “It looks as if Ric would like to dance next. By the way you can call me Leon—it’s only fair since I call you Eloise now.”
Then he was gone and Ric was spinning me into his arms. While the dance with Leon had been a bit awkward, dancing with Ric was easy even if he stepped on my toes a few times throughout the song.
“I’d steal another dance but it’s Dom’s turn next.” Then I was off in Dominic’s arms.
I still couldn’t figure Dominic Dubois out. He was handsome and he smelled divine, but he always seemed to be off in another world when I was around him. Our conversations were always light and easy but I didn’t know anymore about him than when we’d met. In fact I knew more about grumpy Leon than I did Dominic. The alpha was a complete unknown to me and I didn’t like unknowns.
The dance was over quickly and I turned to look for Gage, hoping to snag a dance from him despite the fact that he was very clearly in ‘security’ mode. Instead I turned and Owen was standing in front of me.
“You look like you could use a break.” He held out a glass of water out to me and I gratefully accepted it. “Wanna head into the garden?”
I nodded and we headed out of a pair of french doors and into the most beautiful garden I’d ever been in.
A large fountain was situated just below the balcony coming from the ballroom and a set of light gray stone stairs led to it. Fairy lights were strung around the banisters and wove throughout the shrubs surrounding the brightly lit fountain. It was simply magical. We sat on a stone bench that faced the fountain and I let the crisp bay area air cool me off. Laughter came from the top of the balcony as a group of gala attendees chatted but other than that Owen and I were completely alone.
“Eloise, I have to confess, galas really aren’t my thing.” Owen lifted a hand to run it through his hair but stopped, remembering that it was styled for the night rather than his normally unruly curls, and put his hand back in his lap. He looked handsome—very Clark Kent gone superman. He’d foregone his glasses in favor of contact lenses and was wearing a dark green suit and paisley white and gray dress shirt. The boyish look that he usually went for was gone and replaced with a suave man who seemed confident in his own skin.
“Owen, I also have something to confess: galas aren’t my thing either.” We shared a commiserating laugh and I found myself leaning into him. Touch had been something I’d grown increasingly comfortable with over the past few weeks. In fact I sought it out when Owen or Ric were close by. I even wished that Gage would reach out and touch me sometimes—but I had very quickly realized that the gentle giant wasn’t just quiet but also very shy.
Stop getting so close to them. The voice in my head scolded me and I did my best to ignore it. Green eyes flashed in my mind and I pushed them away.Be flexible. Cecelia’s words chased away all of the nasty thoughts and I looked at Owen for the first time in, well, a different light. Literally, the fountain just changed colors.
Owen was handsome and friendly, he let me babble about my classes and I’d let him talk about the app he was creating in his free time. I never got bored of him, in fact I sought him out in the house when I was on my own. It was easier to separate what I felt about Owen from my designation as an omega. With the alphas in the house my attraction was instinctual. All I needed was a whiff of Ric and my inner-omega was revving to go.
But with Owen it was different, calmer almost. It reminded me a bit of the way the memories of Link made me feel. He also smelled faintly of vanilla and coffee beans furthering the warm fuzzy feelings I had for him.
“Um, Owen?” I began tentatively, chanting ‘be flexible’ in my head. “Can I try something?”
Owen nodded and I girded my lady-loins for what I was about to do. This could be the biggest mistake I could ever make—what if I ruined everything and ended up all alone? I shook off those thoughts firmly. I may be a coward but I was a coward who had just freshly adopted a ‘do now, think later’ attitude.
So I didn’t think about what I was about to do. I just simply did. I leaned in towards Owen and pressed my lips to his and watched his heavy brown lashes flutter shut. For a moment I sat frozen with my lips pressed to his, afraid I’d screwed this all up for nothing, when Owen gave a little groan and grabbed my face with both of his hands and deepened the kiss.
I’d only been kissed once: when I was eleven years old and covered in dust. This was nothing like that.
Owen’s teeth grazed my lower lip as he drew me nearly into his lap and I pressed my body to his. I felt like a toddler who’d gone from riding a bike with training wheels to driving a motorcycle with a suped up engine. Tingling feelings zipped through my body, similar to when I was in my heat but much more muted.
Kissing seemed to be all about trial and error—I snaked my tongue into his mouth and he gave another groan which in turn made the tingling heighten as his hands moved from my face and down my bare spine. His hands were hot and they heated my night-cooled skin as he deepened the kiss. I wanted to sit here all night necking like a teenager, but unfortunately this was where my luck for the evening ran out.
“Well, well, well. If it isn't Eloise Taylor.” A familiar voice broke Owen and I apart and I blinked a few times, trying to get my bearings and to place a name to that voice. I looked up at the figure that was standing in front of us. All of the tingly happy feelings that I’d been experiencing washed out of my body. It was like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over my head.
“Andrew.” My voice wobbled and I wanted to kick myself for sounding so weak in front of this alpha.
