Even though I don’t want to, I sit a little straighter on the bed as I send him a frown. “I said go away, in case you didn’t hear me.” I’m pretty damn sure my tone is acidic, but you’d never know it by looking at Rourke’s face.
“I figured that’s what you said.” He shrugs as he walks around the room, studying it. “A heat room. Nice. This’ll help, definitely.” He makes it all the way to the attached bathroom, which he then pokes his head in. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tub that big before. Wonder how long it takes to fill up?”
I sit cross-legged and wait for him to stop messing around and get to the point.
After a few moments, he does just that. He abandons his examination of the room and the adjoining bathroom and walks toward me, though he does not dare touch the bed I currently sit on.
His blue gaze is warm yet serious when he turns that scrutiny to me. “Look, I know what I said at dinner might’ve been—”
“I’m going to stop you right there. I don’t care about an apology or whatever it is you feel like you have to tell me. I didn’t come here to make nice with you—in fact, I thought I’d never see you again, and I was totally fine with that.”
“Were you?” Rourke folds his arms over his chest, and even though the sleeves of his outfit are pulled down to his wrists, the fabric becomes so tight over those biceps I can’t help but notice the bulging.
I chuckle at the audacity of this jerk, but the sound doesn’t quite land, because in reality, he’s not a jerk, and I feel odd sitting on a bed while beneath his sapphire stare. “Does that surprise you? Are you sad I wasn’t pining over you?”
“I don’t think you’re someone who pines” is his reply. “But I’d be lying if I told you I wouldn’t like it.” Before I can say anything else, he goes on, “Just listen to what I have to say, and then I’ll leave you alone, I promise.”
“Fine,” I mutter. “You have the floor.”
“Regardless of what may or may not be between us, your safety is my number one priority. I told this to Asher after his brother stormed off, but I want to say it to you, too, so we’re all on the same page. If one of them should prove they can’t handle being around you when the time comes, I’ll do whatever I have to in order to make sure you’re safe and they’re not a threat to you.”
His curt way of putting it makes my stomach twist in a weird way. “I don’t think they’d be a threat—”
“Maybe not physically. Maybe even, at the time, you’d want whatever they could give you. Maybe you’d be begging for it. When the time comes, you won’t be in your right mind. You know this. It might just hurt enough, drive you crazy enough, you’ll throw away your goal of financial stability to get some relief.”
My cheeks threaten to flush, and I hope I’m not obvious about it. “I don’t think that would happen. Not that you need toknow, but I brought everything a girl could need for her heat. An omega doesn’t need a real knot.”
Ooh, boy. That’s not something I’ve ever said out loud before. Here comes the heat on my face.
He smirks, and I hate how that smirk is strong enough to send me tumbling off a cliff. Let’s just say it’s a darn good thing I’m already sitting on the bed, otherwise my knees would definitely be too weak to support me.
“I can imagine you thought of it all,” he says, still giving me that blasted smirk. If he’s not careful, that stupid smirk might just set my panties ablaze, and by ablaze, I mean…
You know what I mean.
“Still,” Rourke goes on, “if the worse comes to worst, I’ll have no choice but to take you out of here.”
“That won’t happen. It won’t be necessary. I trust them.” The words are out of me before I can stop them.I trust them.Do I? Asher hurt me all those years ago, and I don’t really know Mason all too well. How can I say I trust them?
But I do. Somehow, someway, I do trust them. I’m not lying. It’s a strange, murky thing, crazy for me to admit, but I trust them, just like I trust Rourke.
What’s wrong with me?
Finally, that smirk falls off his face, and the expression he gives me is one of pure seriousness. I hate how he’s just as nice to look at when he’s in full serious mode. “They seem like decent enough people. I just…” His deep voice drops an octave or two when he finishes, “I’m worried about you.”
My breath catches in the back of my throat, like my lungs suddenly don’t work. I’m sitting there, staring up at Rourke, my thoughts racing a thousand miles a minute. I can barely think. Heck, I can barely sit there and act like everything is fine.
“Why?” The word nearly gets caught in my throat, just like my breath. Why is he worried about me? The way he said it, itdoesn’t make me think he’s simply worried about me because I’m his current job. No, there was an additional weight to that statement, something that makes me feel so… so…
So confused.
So happy.
So content.
An almost pained look crosses his handsome face, but it’s gone by the time I blink, replaced by a calmness that must mask what he’s really feeling. “Maybe you don’t think a lot of the alphas at the Omega Garden, but I promise, we’re not all bad. I worry about you, just like I’d worry about any other omega in a situation that might turn sticky at any moment.”
Though that’s what he says, though he wears a quiet countenance as he says it, I don’t quite believe him. I don’t think that’s why he’s worried about me, why he cares so much about what happens to me.
