He caught my hand, using it to pull me on top of him with a smirk.
“I can’t help it,” he said, wrapping his arms around me. “It was funny. And kind of a lame secret, all things considered.”
“It’s all I have,” I complained. “If I think of a better one, I’ll tell you.”
“Deal.”
“Can I… Say something that’s totally not my business for a second?”
“Shoot,” Joon said, a little distracted as their hands passed down my back to grab my ass.
“I know it bothers you, how, um… distant? You are with the pack.”
“Of course it does, just because I don’t want a bond doesn’t mean I don’t want to be included.”
“I think you need to put in some effort if you want to get to know them,” I said, talking fast as the omega opened his mouth to argue. “You spend a lot of time pushing them away and testing boundaries, maybe spend some time pulling them in instead?”
“Eva…”
“Just try it, okay?” I asked, turning Joon’s secret weapon, the puppy dog pout, against him. “Please?”
“Okay, okay! It’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard…” He caught my chin, pulling me in for a slow kiss. “You’re pretty smart, you know.”
I stole another quick peck against his lips. “I’m not too bad. Just… Baby steps. It doesn’t need to be anything major. A bit of effort and time spent together.”
Joon kissed me again, andagain, his cock hardening under me as lazy touches became more purposeful. “Time and effort…” he murmured, chuckling softly as I pressed hard against him. “I think I have the perfect idea.”
Consideringthat usually the pack’s Monday night movie was little more than a couple bags of popcorn and whatever soda was in the fridge, I was pretty happy with how things were coming together.
Even though Eva wasn't officially a member of the pack—yet—making her feel welcome and comfortable seemed like the right move.
Especially since I wasn’t officially a member of the pack either, and I knew what it felt like when that was pointed out. And because I’d sort of been a dick to her last week.. We’d texted a lot since, but I still felt a little bad about how I reacted after her date with Marcus.
Even though I had my own feelings about this little arrangement of Cameo’s, I still liked Eva. And it was obvious that Indi liked her, too. So… baby or no baby, I wanted this to work. At least between us.
Eva wasourgirl, and even though things had gotten a lot more complicated than just trying to date the same woman as my partner, I wanted to show her that she waswanted.
Even if sometimes my territorial omega hindbrain made me act like a total freak about it.
While Marcus was torturing his staff on their day off about counting to-go boxes and individual peppercorns instead of lording over the kitchen, I’d turned the downstairs into movie heaven. Snacks and candy to everyone's preferences covered the low coffee table. Chewy sour candies for Indi. Crunchy chocolate-dipped biscotti for Cameo from that Italian grocer on the other side of the city. A whole mess of guesses for Eva that’d make a movie theater concession stand jealous—licorice, peanut butter cups, gummy bears, and spicy cinnamon candies, to name a few.
And, the centerpiece. A charcuterie board that I’d carefully arranged with meats and cheeses from the fridge, supplemented by a couple of things that the deli counter guy suggested when I’d gone to pick up Cameo’s cookies. It took a few YouTube tutorials to figure out how to roll salami into a rose, but after forty-five minutes and a whole lot of swearing, I managed. I just hoped that Marcus liked it.
Did I go overboard? Probably, but I was so insistent about getting everyone together that I needed to make sure it was worth it. Besides, with this pack’s mismatched schedules, if we didn’t hang out tonight, we wouldn’t get another opportunity until next Sunday.
A week was already too long between hangouts as it was, and even though Eva was spending most of her time with us here at the house, it was still nice to get time with everyone together… Especially when I was following her advice and trying to show her that I was actually in this.
That I wanted it to work with all of us, not just with me and the pack.
The movie was all set up. I'd found this obscure French horror film from the 1950's that I thought Marcus would like. It’d taken more effort than I'd like to admit to figure out how to download it into a format that was able to be streamed. But after wrestling with it for entirely too long… and asking Indigo for some much needed help… it was finally ready to go on the projector.
All that was left was to wait for the pack.
And the popcorn,duh.
I checked my phone, Cameo would be off any minute, Indigo was upstairs with Eva, the pair dutifully staying out of my way while I worked. And Marcus shouldn’t be too much longer after that, so I was good to go up and make it now.
Sure, I could’ve just gotten some microwave popcorn and tossed it into a bowl—but that didn’t seem very festive. I wanted what was likely to be the first of many group dates with our pack to bespecial—set the bar. With that in mind, I’d ordered a kit online with kernels to pop in a pot and a bunch of different seasonings, so everyone could pick their own flavor.
