“W-well,” Emily stuttered, clasping her hands in her lap, “I suppose?—”
“We’re down for being swept,” Theo said, lacing his fingers with Emily’s. “If a couple of gentlemen were to come along and…you know.” His eyes dragged over Johnny, and it was so fucking obvious it made Taylor’s skin prickle. Omegas had their own tricks, after all.
Theo giggled and Taylor tipped his head towards Johnny, knocking their shoulders together. “It’s been ages,” he whispered.
Johnny took a breath, inspected his nails again and said, “Sure, but how about another drink first.”
Another drink turned into three, and before long Maman appeared from the back room and started shouting some rapid-fire French at Johnny and Papa. Although Taylor had picked up a basic level of French since living with the pack, sometimes Maman spoke so fast he couldn’t understand at all.
Sometimes it felt like she was doing it on purpose, but he didn’t like to think about that.
Johnny ushered everyone out like the place was on fire, which made Maman even more furious. Taylor tried to grab his arm, but before he knew it they were stumbling into another bar a bit further up the road. High Enfield was pretty great for cheap watering holes, and it was—as far as Taylor could tell—one of the only benefits of being a university town.
“Umm, the pink one,” Taylor said, cheeks warm as he pointed at a bottle of something that looked more like a potion than a drink. He’d decided to make it his mission to have drunk sex that night, and it seemed as though Emily was on board with the idea.
“Me too,” she giggled, pressing her body against Taylor’s side. She’d loosened up a bit now the lights were lower and the drinks were flowing, and pretty soon her jacket came off and she had Taylor’s arm between her boobs.
She was warm and smelled really,reallygood, and honestly, what more could Taylor ask for? Someone other than Emily, apparently, because despite his best efforts he wasn’t even half-hard. Scratch that, he should have been stiffer than the fake marble statues they’d passed on the way in, but for some reason his dick was taking its sweet time to warm up.
Theo had dragged Johnny into a VIP booth a few minutes before, so all that was left was for Taylor to turn up the charm and keep Emily on board.
“You know, you’re really nice,” she shouted over the music, just as it was just starting to reach club-level volumes.
Nice.Nice?He’d never been calledniceby a potential date before. Hot, yes. Sexy,definitely. Whyaren’tyouansweringmymessagesbastard, more than once. He’d been called Oh God, and Oh Jesus, quite a few times too, but never justnice.
“Er, thanks,” he said, giving her a thumbs up. “You too.”
She smiled and pushed a hand through her hair, revealing a smooth neck and cute little ears. She had a fine-line tattoo snaking along the underside of her arm, ending next to her armpit. Some kind of writing.
Emily let out a nervous chuckle when she saw him looking. “Oh no, you’re about to find out I’m a massive nerd.”
Taylor cocked his head. “Is that Elvish?”
Emily’s eyes lit up. “Yes!” she said, bouncing on the spot. “Ancient Elvish! You like Tolkien’s work?”
Taylor rubbed the back of his neck. He’d never read the books, he just liked that scene where the blond elf fired three arrows into the troll’s skull at point-blank range. Nowtherewas an omega he’d throw over his shoulder and take to bed, no problem.
Instead of admitting that, he pulled out his phone and showed her a photograph of his orc army on the kitchen table.
Emily’s lower jaw practically detached itself. “That is so fucking cool,” she said, nodding enthusiastically.
Taylor grinned. “Right? Thank you. Nice to meet someone that appreciates it.”
“That’s gotta be… what? Two hundred? Two fifty pieces?”
“Two hundred and sixty-eight.”
“Woah. That must have taken you ages.”
Taylor was about to say that, yes,yesit had taken hours of hard work, because trying to explain to anyone who wasn’t Johnny that it had actually been the result of stress-induced hyperfocus would probably get him nothing but a cold bed and a raging hangover.
“Um, yeah. Weeks,” he said, slipping his phone back into his pocket. “Actually, months.” Glancing at his feet, he grimaced at how his shoes were beginning to stick to the black and white tiles.
Just then, Theo and Johnny stumbled out of the VIP suite with a pair of burly looking door staff hot on their heels. “Whoops! Our mistake!” Theo called, pulling at Johnny’s shirt and planting a kiss square on his lips.
Taylor’s belly swooped like he’d just plummeted from a bridge on a bungee jump, and his hand flew up to grip the edge of the bar. Well then, it seemed like things had progressed rather rapidly between Theo and Johnny, because the kiss went on, and on, andon, and Johnny’s mouth was open and there was definitely tongue, and why were Taylor’s teeth grinding together?
“Hey,” Emily said, linking her arm with his. She pressed up onto her tiptoes and brushed her lips against Taylor’s ear. “I think that’s our cue to leave.”
