She sends an eye-roll emoji back with -
She will murder you one day if you don’t stop.
Can’t stop, won’t stop.I’m off to see if I can sneak into the dressing rooms now. Wish me luck.
With a final text of a kissy face to Simona, I put my phone in my back pocket and weave my way through the crowd.
The lack of security guards waiting near the fighters’ change rooms is a surprise, but I guess it makes sense since they’re all fighters. It’s the press of Alpha aggression that slows my step and brings Big Tom closing in wondering what the go is.
“You good?” he asks.
“Yeah, it’s just a lot you know,” I answer as I start breathing through my mouth.
The scents of so many non-compatible Alphas layering one on top of the other is sending my Omega senses haywire, and not in a good way. I want to turn around and leave and I nearly do until a door opens and Maverick pokes his head out, making me stop dead in my tracks. I’m drawn out of my worries by his appearance. To others I am sure he looks like an athlete who’s just competed and won—both exhausted and elated—but I read the look in his eyes differently: as relief.
“Get in here,” he all but purrs. A slight smirk transforms his entire face.
“How did you know I was here? In the corridor I mean,” I ask, still frozen on the spot.
Big Tom is the one that answers. Kind of, his sigh reads as ‘honestly, Tristan, surely you know Alphas by now’.
Maverick holds his hand out, and I stare at it until Big Tom reads the situation and takes a few steps away, giving Maverick and me some privacy. Well, as much as you can have in the corridor on a fight night.
“Tristan, I am sorry. It gutted me that I missed our breakfast. If I could have called you to cancel, I would have.”
I search his face, finding truth but also still a little reluctance. “Were you with someone else?”
“No,” he replies in an instant, but I see his eyes flare after he says it, like it’s not quite one hundred percent right. He keeps going though. “I was in a situation I couldn’t get out of.”
“More club drama?”
“Yeah. And I’m sorry, Tristan, but I will stand you up a thousand times if I think there’s any chance of me bringing trouble to your door.”
It sounds eerily similar to King’s reticence. But at the same time, I have had a lot of opportunities to finish things off with King because of who he is associated with, and I haven’t. I take a step closer to Maverick. Immediately his blackberry scent seems to soothe the sharpness of my anxiety. I take another inhale and his yummy scent becomes more pronounced. Stirring through his unique perfume are hints of his happiness along with a shot of lust.
“To clarify,” I start but he interrupts me.
“You get at least a hundred apologies, in all different shapes and sizes because I stood you up at breakfast. Trust me, I wanted to be there… I want to be anywhere with you, and I felt fucking awful knowing I upset you.” He doesn’t look away as he stares at me intently, honestly. “It might happen again because like I said, I will not risk you getting hurt or in trouble because of beingassociated with me. Now please get inside before I have to start fighting all the fucking Alphas getting ready to fight in the cage.”
I giggle at his abrupt change in our conversation, “Why?”
“Why what, Tristan?” he asks, clearly not understanding my question.
“You would fight them? Over me?”
He leans towards me, glaring at me. Though there’s a big cheeky twinkle in his eye too. “Are you purposely riling me up?”
“Am I riling you up?” I smirk, because of course I am. But sometimes a woman has to know exactly what her lying scent-matched Alpha would do in a situation involving other Alphas… And fighting for her? That is right up there.
Flicking my sunnies up so he can get a better read, I walk past his outstretched hand and into his room. The door shuts behind me with a resounding click, but it’s intentionally quiet instead of the slam I expected. I guess he’s riling me up too.
“I don’t fuck on first dates,” I say, spinning around to face him but he’s so close my lips graze his.
Almost as soon as he leans in, they connect and accidentally or not, his touch sends a buzz to my lips.
He pulls back, his eyebrows drawing together in irritation. “I should think not, Tristan. But I definitely think we need to explore how good that kiss was.”
“Hmmm,” I murmur against them. Again, I experience a tingling from the smallest brush of our lips.
