I chuckle. “I will, Ma.”
I drive back home with Pickle snoring against my thigh, my smile still there…
Five
Esme
I’m in the kids’ wing, on my knees on the carpet, sorting picture books into bins, with my hair coming out of its clip. And I’m happy. So damn happy! That’s the thing I keep telling my friends and family from back home. I’m happy here. With the bright light coming through the big library windows, the fresh air, the quiet pace of this town. Doing what I love, surrounded by books and children… I smile to myself, remembering little Theo showing me his loose tooth earlier after story time.
Then the air changes. I don’t hear him. You never hear this guy, which makes no sense for a male that size. I just feel my body sit up before my brain does, and when I look over my shoulder, he’s there.
Sven’s standing at the end of my aisle, ducked under the low ceiling, taking up the whole damn space, with a stack of books in one hand, looking down at me.
It’s the first time I’ve seen him here since I started. The kids’ wing is at the far corner, on the other end of the building fromhis office.But now he’s standing at the end of my aisle and I’m on my knees in front of him…
“Esme.”
“Hi.” I get up and brush off my knees. “Did you need…”
“You eat lunch yet?”
It’s such a normal question. But it comes out low, rough, and a bit stiff, like hepracticedit. Like a seven-foot tall alpha who runs an entire damn municipal building practiced asking me to lunch. My inner omega freaking melts!
“Not yet,” I reply, unable to stop my huge grin.
“There’s a place two blocks away.” His jaw ticks. “They have great sandwiches. We should go.”
I know this is a big deal. I can feel it. Across the floor, Mikey, a Naga librarian, raises his head at the desk and goes still. Apparently, Sven Greymark does not cross the entire building to ask someone to lunch.
A Lizardman patron looks up at my giant boss, then quickly back down.
And Sven is looking at me like he’s holding his breath. This huge, scary male the whole town steps around is waiting on me to answer, jaw tight, like I could ever say no to him…
“Yeah,” I chirp. “Let me get my coat.”
The corner of his mouth moves by that one degree. Doing the thing I’m starting to think is just mine… My stomach drops straight to the floor, and my hands aren’t very steady when I put on my coat.
Of course, the town does its thing when we go on the walk over to the sandwich place, but I barely notice this time. I’m too busy taking in everything I can about Sven. The heat coming off him. His hand on my back at the crosswalk, gone again by the curb. Too quick, too soon. Although I feel it the whole rest of the way…
The sandwich place is small and quiet. Sven folds into a giant-sized booth, and I sit across from him, trying not to stare at how his hands swallow his huge coffee mug. I love that about Greymark. Every establishment I’ve been into has accommodations for both human and monster sizes.
I look around the small space, trying to distract myself from his size, his scent, and the thing my body does when he’s close. Then Sven asks me about Oakland, the kids’ program I ran there, my plans for the one I’m working on here. And he tells me about how he ended up running a library when his family does, he waves a massive hand, “shipping, loud things…” How he always wanted to work somewhere quiet, with books.
I smile dreamily, loving that he’s opening up to me, and letting his deep rumble wrap around my body, my mind…
“There’s seven of us,” he says with the tiny smile that makes everything inside me melt into a puddle of goo. Heart, pussy…
I laugh. “Seven?!”
He nods, eyes twinkling. “All brothers. I’m the oldest.”
“All?” I wave at the size of him.
He chuckles, nodding again. “All.”
I laugh along, and he watches me do it. Like he likes it. Like he wants more of it.
He’s funny. Nobody told me that. Dry and so deadpan you’ll miss it if you aren’t paying attention, funny.
