“Giving poor Valak fair warning.” He winks, and yeah, I melt into a puddle. “I hope you like chicken. This is one of my favourite things to grill, chicken kebabs with feta and tomato, but if it is too heavy for your taste, I will make you something else. Try that while you attempt to hoodwink Valak into thinking you’re sweet and considerate.”
“Wow, babe, let me kiss that burn,” Gabe says, dropping another beer in front of me and snagging one of the pieces of feta off my plate, getting a whack from his brother in the process.
“Enough, Gabe, I wouldn’t mind learning a little more about Lennon if you don’t mind.”
“Hmm, I prefer the suck and see method,” Gabe grins, dropping his eyes on the hickey on my neck. The damn thing heats as he looks at it too. “But wait until Noah’s back.”
“Noah knows some of it anyway,” I reply before taking a bite of the food. Sweet baby Jesus it is so fresh and tasty, my mouth waters.
“Some of what?” Noah asks as he sits back down.
“What a chameleon this one is,” Lincoln adds as he grabs a piece of his chicken with his teeth and drags it slowly off the stick. Suggestively.
Holy fuck, I am in so much trouble. Everything is over sensualised, probably because I’ve been so cock starved like they said.
“Weweretalking about Bailey.” I turn to Noah, ignoring the other two, making them chuckle filthy dirty like.
“I know she’s a client of A Ra Wn too. I take it you both met because of Regalo. Before, during, or after, can I ask?”
“During and after.”
“I’m sor…”
“Okay, hold up. No more apologies, please. I’m here, more than fine, not too messed up, and I really don’t need the constant reminder of what happened. I suspect you’ll find a lot of the omegas have moved on; you all need to too. And that doesn’t mean stop doing what you’re doing: being vocal for equal rights or looking for a way for omegas to maintain their independence and punishing the perpetrators, but stop with the apologies.”
“Done.” Valak is the one that makes the declaration for everyone.
“Thank you.”
He gives one of his infamous nods of his head and a weird half smile before moving on like I asked.
Noah’s mind is ticking so damn loud that it’s distracting, and I turn to him. “Just ask it.”
“What?” he offers, affronted in a sense, or perhaps surprised I’d hone in on him and the obvious question that is burning through his brain.
“You want to know what side of the lab I was on.”
“It’s that analytical thought process that you said was an endearing quality of mine, but you are right.” His lack of smile would definitely rub some people the wrong way, but not me.
“Tell me what side of the lab you think I was placed in and your reasons.”
“I feel like I should apologise all over again though, Lennon. Because the four of us have already spoken, and we’re all of the same opinion that you are not a result of the experimentation that Regalo did. And I make that assumption because of your stature, temperament, responsiveness, scent… everything is on a different scale compared to what we’ve seen from other Regalo omegas to date.”
“I told you I was special,” I say, because I have said that previously to Noah. In a completely different context but I don’t want this to get too deep or to change the way we are. It will though, without a doubt.
“You don’t deny what Noah said?”
“I’d say he’s still saying things, he’s outlining what you’ve all seen, but hasn’t told me what that means just yet.” I keep watching Noah’s face as I answer Valak’s question.
Noah’s eyes narrow as he tips his head at me cheekily. “You’re even more stubborn than usual.”
“No, I’m keen on hearing the rest of your theory before I confirm or deny anything, is all. Noah’s had it too easy for a long time, if he wants something, he needs to work for it.”
“Including you?” Lincoln asks, his eyebrows raised high as he licks his fingers clean.
“We’re working on the details of our relationship, but I’ll keep you posted.” I wink at him.
“We’re going to need to move to my suite pretty soon. Much bigger bed.”
