The both of us go with it, kind of inhaling each other. In terms of the workings of the alpha and omegas, it’s like seeing someone you’re interested in across the dance floor. It’s obvious we’re both hitting on each other. The lack of words is made up for in smell and the looks we share.
Gabe breaks the silence, leaning next to me, daring me to come closer and closer to Ares who keeps watch better than a chaperone from the twenties. “Hello, what is your name again? If that doesn’t sound like trust issues, I don’t know what does.”
“Hmm, good point.” I wink, and Ares clearly gets bored with the both of us circling each other and hops out of the cargo hold to go pee on the nearest tree.
Gabe takes us further away from the others, tugging on the string of my hoodie. “I know I am out of line, but I feel this weird connection to you. I want to stay by your side for a bit until we figure out what it is.”
“Sounds good to me,” I confess, because without a doubt, I understand his comment about this little spark of something. And really, out of the strange night I have had, this is not the weirdest. In truth, the second I heard him something flared. The moment I saw him, I felt the spark; he also admitted to it turning into a flicker.
In the strangest way, I feel okay about what’s going on. I also have this sixth sense that Gabe is not going to freak out when he finds out the missing truths he was teasing me about. Without a doubt, Noah and Lincoln are going to feel played, and that makes me sad, but not sad enough just yet to confess.
“You remember my earlier text.” His lip lifts up on one side as he waits for my answer.
He’s like a magnet drawing me to him and I can’t keep away. I don’t want to either.
Gabe bunches his fist in the front of my hoodie, turning us from everyone, taking me to the opposite side of my Jeep where he pushes me against the car with his presence and body. But there’s no threat in anything he does, and if I was freaking out, he’d be feeling my knee between his legs. His voice isn’t cocky when he speaks, like warm honey, really. “It was all true. Now let’s make a deal, we stick together through thick and thin, even when you think our time is done. You tell me before you disappear.”
Gabe bends down low, his eyes dancing from my lips and my dog. Smart man.
“Let’s seal our deal with a kiss.”
“You move fast.”
I think we’re going in one direction, but Gabe keeps me on my toes when his brown eyes fill with regret.
“Not fast enough, you got hurt and that shouldn’t have happened. None of it should have happened to any of you,” he grits out, his scent getting a little bitter as he gets swamped by anger and guilt.
And I get it. It shouldn’t have happened, not me getting hurt, but he’s not really talking just about earlier today. We all have different experiences in life. It makes us who we are, and Gabe being so pissed isn’t anything new—there are a lot of people in our world who are.
Escaping the BS that was Regalo, I might have been young but it really didn’t take me long to realise that there will always be good and bad people. Weirdly there’s a lot of good memories after Bailey and I escaped, although compared to what we endured that wasn’t too difficult. Life has been a learning curve since, but I emphatically know that there are good people in this world.
“Gabe, you’re not responsible for what happened in the carpark, you know that, right?” I kick his toe with mine, gentle enough not to hurt but hard enough for him not to ignore me. It puts a stop to his sour scent leaking out.
“It’s just not right. Why can’t they leave you alone? Let you live your fucking life without all this.”
“Not sure. But I do know we’re not going to find the answers here. Besides, we have much more important stuff going on.” I flick my eyebrows up at him suggestively. I liked where we were going earlier before we got rudely interrupted by our past.
When his eyes flare and flick back to mine, this time they are filled with a different intensity.
“Hmmm, true,” he says seriously. “It’s not fair though. They’ve all spent loads of time with you. I’m not saying…” He goes off on another tangent. At the same time my dog nips him on the ass, making Gabriel squeal like a little girl, pushing his hips further into me.
You know sometimes you meet people and you feel things, except there’s this little voice in your head questioning if you’re reading things wrong. There’re no voices now, and I am definitely not reading Gabe’s body wrong, his hard dick is a pretty good indicator and so are my damp panties.
“Ares, sit and keep watch,” I snap at my dog, and I watch Gabe’s eyes flare in relief as Ares lets go of the fleshy part of his butt.
“You’ll need to rub that for me later. It’s only fair.”
“Shut up and kiss me, Gabe.”
Honestly, that’s where we were headed as soon as we saw each other. The man might be identical to Val in looks, but he’s completely different. He chuckles as he makes the space between us disappear. Although he does it so slowly that the anticipation nearly kills me.
The first brush of his lips on mine, we both sigh and smile cheesily at each other, like we’ve won the lottery. The second touch and there is no doubt about the level of our attraction. And that little voice suddenly sparks up, telling me not to let Gabe disappear.
Gabriel goes slow as he kisses me. He explores and discovers in each of our small, tentative touches. He watches to see what I like and does lots of experimenting to get an understanding of what it is. His lips are feather light on mine, his tongue too. Using his hands on my hips, he grips me lightly but unmistakably possessively, and shit, it feels like they’ve always been there.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I draw him down and turn our slow kisses into ones that make your toes curl and your pulse race. And as my scent thickens, it’s Ares again who stops us, but he’s been trained to help me when my omega side takes hold like it is now.
Shoving his nose between the two of us, I kiss Gabe quickly for a final time before moving out of his hold.
