“It’s just for fun. You don’t have to be good at it.”
Her big blue eyes were all hopeful, and I refused to snuff that out. I would just have to take extra rut suppressants before the event to keep her safe from me. Even now, my alpha was pushing me to grab her.
Pull her onto my lap.
Scent-mark her.
Knot her.
I had no idea how to handle this. Being away from Lucy felt like slowly dying, but being close to her felt like courting disaster.
Maybe you’d become desensitized to her if you spent more time around her.
Fuck. I was weak.
“I’ll be there.”
I was playing with fire, but I couldn’t regret my words because the smile on Lucy’s face would stick in my mind for the rest of my life.
29
King
I was having a midlifecrisis. Or some sort of break from reality. That was the only explanation for why I was walking into a flower shop to buy a gift for the omega I wasnotstarting a relationship with.
I’d been in yet another meeting with Blackthorne Ventures—hopefully one of our last before we finalized the sales contract—and their office flower arrangements had taunted me the entire time. Apparently my alpha was so desperate and starved for Lucy’s scent that a sad approximation of it was enough to give me a hard-on.
So instead of driving back to my empty rental, I’d turned onto Main Street with no concrete plan or strategy. All I knew was that I needed to see Lucy again, and for once in my life, I was following my instincts.
An explosion of colorful flowers greeted me inside, carefully organized into buckets lining the shelves and the floor by the checkout desk. Their scent hung heavily in the air, but it was mixed with something else…something warm and spicy.
A man came through the door behind the counter. “Hey! Sorry, have you been waiting long? I was dealing with a delivery out back.”
My heart skipped a beat. It was the beta I’d seen in the coffee shop—the tall, muscular beta with golden brown skin, curly black hair, and dark eyes that made me lose my train of thought.
“I’m Leo.” He held out his hand.
“King.” I took his hand and a surge of the floral, spicy scent washed over me, making my mouth water.
Leo’s eyes flicked down my body, sending sparks through my stomach. Was he as affected by me as I was by him?
I released his hand and he cleared his throat, running his hand through his curls. “How can I help you?”
“I need flowers.”
Leo chuckled when I didn’t elaborate. “You’re in the right place. Any particular type of flower or arrangement style?”
“Uhh.” I looked around, eyes wide, until he took mercy on me.
“I’ve got premade arrangements, which are good if you’re wanting to leave with something today.”
I followed him to a large table filled with vases. I stared at them, feeling like I was being forced to do a calculus problem. Except I was good at calculus.
“So…you make all of these?”
Leo covered his chuckle with a cough. “I make the arrangements, yeah. Some of these are flowers I’ve grown in my family’s greenhouse, some are supplied by local farms, and I partner with two ceramic artists who make the vases.” His fingertips trailed gently over the flowers, and I imagined what his touch would feel like on my skin.
“Sounds like you found your calling.”
