Quincy turned his phone back to himself, tapped to read the full message, then frowned. “It’s nothing,” he said. “It’s my papa. He’s a worrier.”
I pressed my lips together and gripped the edge of the table like I was trying to hold onto this magical, wild adventure we were on. “My dad and mom have texted and tried to call me, too. They want me to go back.”
Quincy looked stricken. “Do you want to go back?” he asked, voice shaking.
“God, no!” I said, stretching my hand across the table so I could take his. “I want to be here with you. I’ve never done anything like this before, and I love it.”
I stopped just short of saying “I love you.” How could I love an omega I hadn’t known for a full twenty-four hours yet?
But I could love him. I knew I could. In fact, I was a little surprised that I hadn’t up and bonded with Quincy already, even though instant bonds and fated mates were little more than a fairy tale.
I wanted to, though. I wanted Quincy in my life forever.
“Good,” Quincy said, his impish smile returning. “So it’s decided. We’ll drive to the Norwalk Family Theater and you’ll audition for all the leads in their shows.”
I laughed and shrugged. “Okay.”
I couldn’t believe I was going to do this.
“Let’s go!” Quincy said, then stood. He wobbled as soon as he was on his feet, and his face flushed. With a laugh, he said, “Let’s go as soon as we deal with this heat wave.”
I grinned and stood, picking up our shopping with one hand and reaching for Quincy’s hand with the other. “I’m more than ready for this,” I said, tugging him away from the table and on to where we could find some privacy in the RV.
I was ready for whatever my wild, brilliant omega wanted from me.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Quincy
Watching Jack sing up on the stage at the surprisingly large theater in Norwalk was an amazing experience. He truly had the most beautiful, baritone singing voice. Since the theater company was auditioning for their entire season and he didn’t have to sing a specific song, he picked the song fromLes Mis. And he was stunning.
“Thank you, Mr. Battenburg,” the woman leading the auditions called up to him once he was finished with the monolog that he somehow had memorized without having to study it. “We’ll be giving you a call.”
I snorted at the fake name Jack had given them, but apparently, his family was famous and he didn’t want to say who he really was. I had recognized his dad’s face, but couldn’t place it, and since I still didn’t know Jack’s actual surname, I wasn’t putting the pieces together.
I wasn’t even trying to put the pieces together. I was still in heat, and it was all I could do to sit at the back of the theater,knees drawn up and feet on the chair, hugging myself tightly to keep the beautiful and monstrous feelings from getting the best of me.
I had no idea how I was keeping my shit together, to be honest. My insides were a mess. I had the delicious, sore feeling that always came with marathon heat sex, but the rest of the pain I was experiencing, the pain of wanting something desperately and being cut off from it, had me barely able to catch my breath or hold a thought in my head.
“How was I?” Jack asked when he joined me at the back of the theater.
“Sensational,” I said, leaping up out of my seat, and nearly falling flat on my face, since my arms and legs didn’t seem to want to coordinate themselves. “You’re going to get all the leads in everything they’ve got planned.”
Jack laughed and rubbed the back of his neck with a self-effacing look. “I’m really out of practice. I flubbed the lines in that monologue a few times.”
“No, it was great!” I said, throwing my arms around him and clinging to him, mostly because I wanted to suck in deep lungfuls of his oceany scent. “I didn’t even notice that you did anything wrong.”
I wouldn’t have noticed if he’d stood on one foot, shouting gibberish naked.
Strike that. I definitely would have noticed that he was naked.
Jack closed his arms around me and breathed in my scent the way I’d sucked in his. “Your next wave is starting,” he said in a low, suggestive voice.
It wasn’t a question or his way of being polite and deferential with me, like he’d been the night before. In less than twenty-four hours, Jack had not only gotten to know my biology, he’d grown in confidence by leaps and bounds.
“Yeah,” I said heavily. “It’s been driving me out of my mind for the last fifteen minutes at least.”
“Why didn’t you say something?” Jack whispered, sweeping me toward the door, then out through the lobby and into the parking lot, where the RV waited in a lovely, sunny corner. “I didn’t have to get up there and do all that. Not while you needed me.”
