By the time I’m back inside, I’m already too wound up to sit still, and notice that North’s truck keys are on the hook, meaning they’re back.
So I head down the hall, press the concealed panel hidden behind the framed print, and the section of wall swings open to reveal the stairs below.
Then I pull it shut behind me.
The lower level runs the full width of the house, and it’s probably not what anyone would expect when they hear that three men say they surf for a living. One wall is nothing butscreens showing live feeds from every camera on the property—the street outside the gate, both angles of the driveway, the perimeter around the shack. There are no cameras inside there. Along the far wall sits the round bar, bottles lined up with the kind of precision that says this room has seen many nights worth drinking after.
Ace is at the monitors.
North is pouring whiskey.
“Smooth tour,” Ace says without looking around. “You nearly moved her into my office.”
I drop onto the couch, and North hands me a glass. “I showed her the house. That’s called hospitality.”
Ace finally spins the chair around to face us. There’s a restless edge to him now, the kind he gets when something’s been chewing at him too long. “Good to know.”
For a second, nobody says much. Then I set my glass down and look between them. “I think she’s our match.”
Their expressions don’t change much, but North’s eyes sharpen over the rim of his whiskey.
I lean back into the couch. “I’m serious. At the van, I caught her scent properly for the first time. On the bike, it got worse. We’ve been back in the house for twenty minutes, and it’s still in my head.”
Ace grins, leaning forward. “Fuck yeah, that’s how I’ve been since I caught the plane with her. I thought I was losing my damn mind. I’ve never reacted to an Omega like that before. Not like this.”
North lowers his glass. “You think it’s scent-match level?”
“I know what attraction feels like,” Ace states, voice rougher now. “This isn’t that. It’s so much fucking more.”
North studies both of us for a beat, calm as ever, but I know him well enough to catch the weight settling into him. “What are you getting from it?”
I scrub a hand over my jaw. “Chocolate. Something cool under it. Flowers, maybe. Doesn’t matter. It’s not the details. It’s the way it sticks. Like it gets into your bloodstream and refuses to leave.”
Ace points at me once. “That.”
I nod. “Exactly that.”
North leans back, thoughtful now instead of skeptical. “Interesting.”
I look at him. “That all you’ve got?”
His mouth curves slightly. “I’m choosing restraint until I get a chance to spend more time with her, be closer to her.”
Ace just shakes his head. “Jesus.”
“Yeah,” I say. “That’s where I ended up too.”
North’s gaze moves briefly toward the bank of screens, toward the feed showing the outside of the guest place. “You think she knows?”
Ace answers before I can. “She’s got to. She’s too smart not to.”
“And I may have just mentioned it to her,” I admit, grinning, remembering the shocked look on her face when I confronted her with it.
North finishes his drink, sets the glass down, and then looks up at the ceiling for a second. “She’s fucking gorgeous,” he murmurs. “And that ass.” He shakes his head.
“You’re in,” Ace says.
“I didn’t say that.”
