We were dating. Which was something that I never thought I’d be able to say. I’d resigned myself to a life without her and I was still trying to adjust to being a part of her life again.
Fifteen minutes later I pulled up to the gate outside of the pack’s Sausalito home and put in the pin I had been given by Ric. The sun had set long ago and the house was lit up, telling me that people were home. I parked in one of the spots on the gravel driveway and got out of my car, pulling my duffel bag from the back seat and heading for the front door which opened as I came up the steps.
“Lincoln Sawyer, our fearless lawyer.” Ric greeted me with a grin. He’d taken to calling me that over the past few days—at first no doubt to irritate me—but now he said it affectionately enough that I didn’t mind it too much.
“Ric the dick.” I responded with equal affection and was pleased when he cackled and moved out of the way so that I could come inside.
Ric grabbed my duffel and put it next to the door before gesturing me to follow him through the dining room and into the kitchen, “We were just about to order some food so let me just say that you have impeccable timing.”
Dominic and Gage were standing around the island with a tablet in front of them as they debated on what food to order.
“My vote is for vietnamese.” I said, accepting the cold Coors banquet beer that Ric pulled out of the massive refrigerator, “Where’s Ellie?” I asked, looking around, expecting her to pop out of one of the hallways or come down the stairs.
“She’s out with Leon and Owen tonight. We’ve been monopolizing her time so it was their turn.” Ric shared a private smirk with Gage.
I must have made some kind of a sad face because Ric rolled his eyes and snatched the tablet off of the counter, and away from Dominic and Gage’s grabbing hands, “It’s Link’s first guy's night so my vote is for vietnamese food too.”
“... fine but you better order an obscene amount of dumplings.” Dominic finally gave up on snatching the tablet back from Ric and headed to the fridge grab a beer for himself.
Ric scoffed, “Who do you take me for? Of course I’m ordering a hundred of them.” He began to put items into the order cart with an abandon that only the wealthy could have.
I was sad that I wasn’t going to get to see Eloise tonight, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t think I’d ever been at a guys' night that didn’t involve Matteo and Theo who were like older brothers to me.
It was… well… It was really nice.
If I had this to look forward to maybe being a part of Pack Russo wouldn’t be so bad after all.
38
Owen and Eloise’s drunk laughter filled the empty halls of our San Francisco house as they stumbled arm and arm together inside. I followed them, dropping my keys onto the long table in the hallway coming from the garage, “Don’t pull each other down.” I called, a bit exasperated at their snorts of laughter that followed my words.
“It’s fiiine.” Eloise tugged Owen into the doorway leading to the living room where they collapsed onto the couch in a heap. I rolled my eyes and headed into the kitchen to grab water for them. We’d gone to Owen’s favorite hibachi place in the city for dinner and I’d enjoyed watching the two of them gape at the man who was flipping his knives and spatula for our entertainment. In fact I’d spent more time watching them than the actual hibachi man. I’d also watched as they drank far too many cups of sake and had become a giggling mess at the restaurant—it was a joy for me to watch them let loose and have fun. Well, it had been fun, until I was corralling two very loud drunk people up four flights of parking garage stairs because the elevator had somehow broken in the two hours that we were inside of the restaurant. That had been less fun.
I’d also found that Eloise and Owen were very similar drunk people in that they were very touchy feely with each other and with me—which would have been fun had I not been trying to navigate a car through the busy San Francisco streets.
“Leeeeon!” Owen called from the living room and I quickly grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge and shared a look with Lucifer who was perched on the counter. I felt bad that he’d been by himself for most of the week but I also had several texts from the housekeeper that detailed how he’d been torturing her all week. Either way I gave the cat some scratches under the chin and returned to the living room to my beta and our omega making out on the couch.
Owen broke away from Eloise’s seeking lips at the sound of my footsteps, “Leon you’re back. You were gone for soooo long. Come join us on the couch.” He patted the small space in between the two of them and I wanted nothing more but to join them but one look at both of their flushed faces told me that they needed water and sleep—not sex.
“I will,” I promised with a lie, “But only if you both drink this water and calm down.”
They reached out their hands making a grabby motion with their fingers and I handed them each their own water bottle. They twisted the caps off and promptly began to chug the water as quickly as they could.
I grabbed the ends of both and tilted them until they slowed their drinking, “Slowly or you will throw up.” I chastised and the two listened, slowing their drinking to small sips.
After a few minutes of quiet, the two finished their waters with a crinkle of the plastic.
“Done!” Eloise declared with a proud grin as she capped the empty bottle and put it on the coffee table, “I wanna go to my nest.” She whined and held her hands out to me.
I wasn’t sure what she was asking for until Owen poked me in the stomach, “The hands out like that means ‘carry me’!” He got up on wobbling legs and hurried at a pace that was way too fast for my liking and began to climb up the steps like a dog, using his hands on each stair to steady himself.
With a shake of my head at the beta’s antics I turned back to the omega who was still holding her hands out to me. I swept my arm behind her knees and picked her up easily and she snuggled close, putting her cold nose against my neck where I knew my scent was the strongest.
“Enjoying yourself?” I asked as we climbed the steps and made our way down the hallway, the door to the nest was already open and Owen’s face was visible in the opening.
“Mmm,” Eloise replied, suddenly looking incredibly sleepy, “Smells good. Wanna lick you up and down.”
Well damn. I willed my quickly hardening erection to calm down, mentally telling it that we, under no conditions, were going to be getting lucky tonight so it might as well knock it off.
