“I fucking liked it, baby girl. Now, be a good girl for Daddy and tell me what you want from room service.”
“No amount of jointcompound will hide that shitty drywall work. Whoever hung it must have been on their first day on the job. Or a kindergartener.”
I snorted at King’s track of scathing commentary. Who knew that the trick to getting the grumpy alpha talking was to put on a home improvement show?
“I thought your company did investment…things. Do you build the homes, too?”
“I should have you write our website copy.” He chuckled. “We occasionally do some real estate investment, but it’s mostly other investmentthings. I spent three summers framing new homes when I was younger, though.”
I traced my fingers down his bare, muscular chest. He’d put his boxers on to get the room service, but he couldn’t get more dressed than that when all he had with him was his tux. Which suited me just fine. Getting to take in his body with my greedy eyes made it easy to imagine him on a construction site, droplets of sweat dripping off his skin.
My mind flashed to another hard-working, muscular alpha, and I swallowed hard. I’d done my best to push Wilder from my mind. I hadn’t heard anything from him after I dropped off the cookies. It was fine. Totally fine. He’d already given me so much, it wasn’t like he owed me any sort of thank-you or acknowledgment.
I just wished I could make my chest stop aching every time I thought of him.
“When was that?” I leaned over King and stole a fry from his almost-empty plate. He’d ordered way too much food, including my own side of fries, but food always tasted better when it was stolen off someone else’s plate.
“That was after college.”
“You didn’t start working at your parents’ company right away?” I’d asked him about his childhood and family during our drive down here, but he’d clearly been reticent to answer so I’d backed off. I wanted to know more about this alpha, to make sense of him.
He twirled a strand of my hair around his finger and tugged, sending a slight spark of pain through me.
“After college, I got a job advocating for ocean conservation. The pay was shit, so I took on part-time work with a building crew to keep myself afloat. I’d never done anything like that before, but they hired me on the spot since I’m an alpha. I spent that first year just carrying heavy boards for the guys until I proved myself and they taught me how to frame out a house.”
“You did ocean conversation? That’s so cool. I went through a marine biologist phase as a girl.”
“I can see it now, sweet little omega standing on a boat as she charms all the animals in the entire fucking ocean.”
I shook my head. “Not sure about that. That’s more my friend Olive. She’s the lighthouse keeper, and she grew up lobster fishing with her parents.”
Shoot. Thinking of Olive reminded me that I should probably send my friends a sign of life, but I had no idea where my phone wasand was way too comfortable to get up and find it. So I just cuddled into King, enjoying the weight of his arm around me as he complained about substandard tiling jobs.
“Do you miss ocean conservation?” I asked at the commercial break.
A little crease appeared between his eyebrows. “I’m not sure anyone’s ever asked me that.”
It was my turn to frown. “Why not?”
He shrugged. “I guess everyone assumed that I would work at the family company. The part they didn’t understand was why I wasted my time doing nonprofit work instead of starting at the company right away.”
“Doing what you’re passionate about isn’t a waste.”
He kissed the top of my head.
“What made you leave your conservation job?”
Even though we barely knew each other, I caught the subtle tick in his jaw and tense set of his shoulders.
“My parents—mom and two dads, all alphas—started having health issues and couldn’t run the company anymore.” I hated the lost, far-off look in his eyes. “My brother was supposed to take over for them.”
I wrapped my arms around his torso, my face pressed in the crook of his neck. “I didn’t know you had a brother.”
“I don’t.”
My throat tightened.
“He died on his tenth birthday. He spent most of my life in the hospital for cancer treatments while I was left at home with nannies.”
