“I’ve got an idea,” I said, bursting with manic inspiration. I scrambled out of bed and over to where Jack had stopped near one of the windows. It was still dark outside, but morning had to be coming soon.
Jack turned to me with an endearing, questioning look. “An idea?”
“Yeah,” I said, more excited by the second. I shifted around to sit on the windowsill in front of him. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Let’s…what?”
I couldn’t stop the smile that took over my face. “Let’s get out of here,” I said, tugging at his robe.
“And go where?” Jack asked.
I shrugged. “Anywhere. Everywhere. Let’s run away and get into trouble.”
“I’m not really the sort who gets into trouble,” Jack said.
“That’s why we should go,” I insisted, pushing away from the wall and grabbing him to bring him with me to the bathroom. “Let’s break free of this, of your dad, of everything. We can drive until we run out of gas, get some more, and keep driving.”
“Keep driving?”
I could tell from the way Jack looked happy for maybe the first time since he’d picked me up from Hamish at the front of the auction dais that he was considering the idea.
“We’ll just run away,” I said, pulling him into the bathroom so we could clean up before leaving. “No one will know where we are. There won’t be any expectations on either of us. We can go where we want, do what we want. We can be free.”
And maybe, if I ran hard enough, if I had Jack with me as I ran, I could finally get away from the damage inside me.
“Free,” Jack repeated the word like it was a prayer. “We could be free.”
“Totally free,” I said, turning to face him again. “Just you and me.”
Jack’s gaze was unfocused for a moment as he considered it. Then he zeroed in on me with a smile. “Let’s do it.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Jack
Free. Free from my dad, free from the expectations my parents had for me, and free from the world that I’d been born into and was stuck in. I’d never thought it would be possible, but with me and Quincy racing around our hotel suite, showering quickly, then packing up my things and his, which had been brought to the room earlier, I felt like freedom was a very real possibility.
For the first time in my entire life.
“This is going to be awesome,” Quincy giggled as he shoved a few of the restraints, silken cords, and toys that had been sitting out on the bureau into my overnight bag. “No one will be able to find us.”
“They’ll be able to trace your license plate number,” I said as I hoisted the bag over my shoulder.
Quincy gave me the most devilish look imaginable. “Who says I’m not driving around with a stolen license plate to begin with?”
That gave me pause. I looked at him funnily. I didn’t know enough about the dazzling omega standing in front of me, looking almost wrong with clothes on, to know whether he was teasing me or if that’s just the sort of guy he was. I couldn’t get a full read on what Quincy was like, which was as exciting as it was disconcerting.
All I knew was that, for no good reason whatsoever, I trusted this wild omega with my life.
“Come on,” Quincy said, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the door.
I felt something from that simple contact. It wasn’t the cliché electric spark of the two of us connecting when our hands met, skin to skin. It was more like a charged wobble, a dizzying, warped sensation, like a note played out of tune. I liked it, though. It was interesting and different.
Quincy poked his head out into the hall to see if the coast was clear. I couldn’t imagine who would be up and about at three in the morning during an omega auction event. Maybe he had the right idea, though. If my dad was between waves with his omega playmate, then other people might be restless and wandering, too.
Ugh. I didn’t want to think about my dad. I was still so embarrassed by his interruption and the way he thought he had to check in on me. I wasn’t a child, although I supposed in his eyes I always would be.
“The hall is empty,” Quincy whispered to me, then tugged me after him, into the dimly lit corridor.
