And she did the magic calming shit that Omegas excel at, puddling my brains in the process. Distracting and blinding me by her scent and presence to a degree that I couldn’t think enough to put two and two together.
Humiliation and a mix of embarrassment chases the immediate sweetness of our meeting, especially when I realise I’ve made a complete cock of myself. I twist out of her touch in my escape of the situation and in the process get a breath of fresher air. Part of me hates the loss of connection but I need to find some sort of way to level out my emotions and behaviour because she is nothing but class and I’m gonna need my A-game to impress her.
One steady inhale and exhale of fresh air is all it takes to pull my head out of my ass. In the next breath my clarity returns, but so does proof that my craziness impacted her.
“Hey”—I nab her hand to stop her pulling away—“sorry.”
I can see the sting in her eyes as she blinks at me, and I can’t ignore knowing I added the downward twist to her plush, pink lips. The Alpha from before takes a step towards us and I show some teeth quickly, warning him to wait a fucking second so I can answer her. “I’m Maverick, my friends call me Mav. We’re working together today, I’m one of the other models.”
She looks at me for a second and this time while I get lost in her ocean blue eyes, I somehow maintain control of my composure. She watches me while I do it too and I want to say she likes what she sees because I get swamped by a puff andsteadily rising plume of her sweetness again. Instead of coming closer though, she shrugs and spins away.
“You gonna be like that, huh?” I call after her chuckling, ignoring the whole fucking world again in the process.
She laughs, and it’s as loud and as infectious as it was when she was in the car.
“Hurry up, Maverick, we’ve got a long day ahead of us.”
Chapter
Twelve
TRISTAN
King told me he wouldn’t be able to get away even before we talked in the car again, but it didn’t mean I didn’t stop hoping for a miracle to see my Alpha. Somewhere along the way my loosely phrased prayer got skewed sideways.
I never expected to meet another Alpha capable of igniting the same spark of interest like I felt when meeting King. But here I am, distracted by an Alpha who scents like juicy, sun-ripened blackberries.
Between our first meeting outside and now, his whole demeanour has changed. Before he reminded me of a yo-yo—his mood and emotion going up and down so fast, my security and I were wondering how he was going to react. Since he planted his butt in the seat though, he’s metamorphosed in front of my eyes. And not just in terms of looks.
As a man, Maverick is beautiful there’s no doubt about that. He has a strong masculinity to his pretty features which should not work but it does. Even in the reflection of the mirror it’s plain to see but it’s his eyes and mouth that keep stealing my focus. God, if ever a man had lips for kissing it would be his. And his hazel green eyes are captivating. Somehow, they containall the colours of an autumn forest at sunset made even more intense with flecks of warm molten gold making them shimmer.
As an Alpha, being in the same room as him, I literally feel his presence pushing against my skin like soft silk while his blackberry scent wraps around me effortlessly, like a cuddle I never knew I needed.
He’s got it all. Even the personality and charisma by the looks. He talks with his hands flying everywhere and he’s got Big Tom listening in which is a feat in itself. I could deal with those two bonding but not the rest of the models or the makeup team clamouring for his attention. I swear to God, none of them have stopped giggling or making those stupid flirty noises since Maverick sat his butt in the seat.
It takes a whole lot of self-control not to leap out of my chair and start hissing and scratching the lot of them before climbing into his lap and begging him to talk to me like that.
“Keep your eyes shut, Tris. Just so you know, you’re totally glaring, and you’ve smudged the crap out of the liquid eyeliner,” Lou, my favourite make-up artist says. And then she drops down in whispers in my ear. “The quicker you let me do this, the sooner you can be outside with the hot Alpha you keep creeping on. I heard it’s just you and him sitting on a bike so nice and close that everyone else is a prop.”
I shut my eyes at her request, trying to relax into the seat but it’s hard. “I’m being that obvious?”
“And you’re being a bit of a bitch,” she says against my ear again and before I can ask if he’s watching, she’s back doing her work. Lou swipes a cool wet pad over my eyes and she restarts with the eyeliner.
Ignoring me, she explains to her assistant what she’s doing, and I try to act normal. Maverick’s got me all freaked out for a million reasons, some about me, a lot about King. It’s exhausting trying to keep up with the direction of some of my thoughts.Seriously I really wonder if I’m normal sometimes or does everyone think so chaotically.
“Right, you can go over to see wardrobe now.” Lou interrupts my moment of inner reflection.
Climbing out of her chair, there’s a wall of assistants and models getting dressed separating me from seeing Maverick. I’m not sure if it’s intentional but it’s a good way of keeping me focused.
Starting in the fashion industry you are not afforded the luxury of privacy. You get stripped bare, and people view your body or face as nothing but a billboard, a place to endorse their product. You get used to being mostly naked around each other.
As you build more of a name for yourself you get perks and privileges, like curtained off dress rooms. When you make it big time you get a whole half a trailer, which is where I am hiding now. The only people in here are the two dressers who do exactly what their title implies: dress me.
Both Ben and Harry are absolute darlings. As soon as we met, we clicked. They’re good at what they do, and they don’t say a mean word about anyone. Although that doesn’t mean we don’t gossip—today we barely get a word out before we’re getting knocks on the door from the director to hurry us along.
“Turn around,” Harry says quietly once Ben has tightened the belt around my waist.
I comply, twisting around to see what the issue is. The both of them are staring distastefully at the jeans. I mean, I’ve done this long enough to know it’s not me they’re questioning.
