He does the same exact thing with the other foot, and good god, I don’t think I’m equipped to handle this. How could I be?
I’m flushed and shaking with need as he sets my other foot down, then smooths out my skirts, making sure it’s not wrinkled. “This is a gorgeous dress, Florence,” he murmurs, sliding his hands onto my hips, thumbs brushing over a seam there, like I don’t already have slick sliding down my thighs.
“Deep breaths, killer,” Thayer reminds me, amusement thick in his tone.
Well, I’m glad someone seems to be enjoying this.
You’re enjoying it too, Ren. Don’t lie to yourself.
“I am breathing,” I mutter back to him, and they all chuckle. Forsythe leans forward and presses a delicate kiss to my stomach that makes my toes curl before uncoiling to his feet, towering over me.
I don’t want them to have this kind of power over me. To reduce me to utter goo, by the simple act of helping me put on my shoes, but the problem is that it’s reminiscent of him kneeling for an entirely different reason.
Still they obviously have something planned for tonight, and I don’t want to completely fall apart before we even leave the apartment. So I suck in a deep breath in an attempt to try to get myself under control, only to have all of their scents flood my senses.
Goddammit.
Focus on something else, Ren!
“Is there a reason we’re all dressed up?” I ask, nerves fluttering in my stomach like a ballerina’s skirt. “Did the-” My mouth goes dry. “Are we going to the palace? To see the queen?” Now is definitely the time to tell them about the queen’s visit if that is our destination.
“No,” Forsythe reassures me. “Nothing like that. We’re simply going out.”
I blink up at him as he tucks my arm through his and leads me out the door. “Out?”
The smile he gives me is soft but determined. “Yes.Out.You’ve been tucked up in this flat for ages,cor mea.I want you to see what our country has to offer. This is what you requested, is it not?”
“And we want to show you off,” Court adds happily, practically skipping along next to us.
My own feet have stalled, drawing me to a stop midway down the hallway. The pack crowds round me.
“What do you mean, ‘show me off’? You don’t mean… We aren’t actually goingout.In public?”
Thayer’s hand at the base of my spine urges me forward until we’re at the elevator. Grieves hits the button.
“Of course, we’re going to show you off. You’re our fated mate,” Forsythe says almost gently, like I’m not aware of that fact and he doesn’t want to scare me away with it.
“But you- Isadora is your chosen mate.”
Thayer snorts. “She’s not our chosen anything.”
The elevator dings and I’m ushered in and surrounded by five large male bodies. All of them looking down at me, expectantly. “But the show-” I protest. “You… Everyone expects you to marry her.Everyone.”
I don’t say anything about how everyone also expects them to bond with her, because the words would be too bitter on my tongue.
“Indeed,” Thayer says, pinching a blond curl between his fingers, stretching it out and then releasing it. “We did leave them with that impression. However things have changed. We didn’t have all of the necessary information when we made the decision to send you home, killer.”
“But we have it all now,” Grieves growls, sliding one of those big hands of his onto my hip and pulling me closer to him. “And there isn’t a chance in hell of us letting you go.”
I frown, even as my body begs me to lean into him, to just let go. “So, is this your way of announcing to the world that you’re going to have two omegas? That I’m going to be your mistress, or something? Because I didn’t agree to that. I-I don’t want that.” I stumble over the words because a part of me does want that. The last few weeks of being with them like this, of having their whole undivided attention on me, it’s been nice.
So nice that I might have started to think I could live with them being with both me and Isadora.
“God no!” Court exclaims. “No one else, just you. Tell her, Sythe. Reassure our omega in the way that only a prime can.”
The prince smiles at me, moving in just a touch closer, brushing a knuckle down my cheek. “There’s no one else for us, omega. Just you. Always only you.”
I want to believe him, and part of me does, but it wasn’t all that long ago that I asked to be able to leave the apartment for a simple outing and he’d denied me, convinced me it wasn’t safe enough.
