Page 154 of Lyric & the Heartbeats

She just knew if she was the kind of omega to have an alpha counterpart—or two, three, maybe even five?—they weren’t located in those binders.

“I’m glad she found her pack and that she’s happy.”

“Me too,” he said, passing her a napkin wrapped delight.

Lyric grinned and their fingers brushed as she accepted her homemade lunch. “Do you make the bread too?” she inquired, inspecting the perfect, evenly sliced bread.

“Sometimes. This batch I did, but this is the last of it.”

Lyric grinned as she bit into the sandwich under Javi’s watchful gaze.

And only once she’d swallowed and offered a compliment did Javier bite into his own sandwich.

“My sister used to come hang out on the truck with me if she was feeling cooped up. Some of her favorite magazines are over in the corner there if you want to browse them.”

“Really? Okay.” She hummed distractedly and turned her back.

Picking out a magazine was mostly a front, because Lyric’s full attention was being held by the alpha mumbling to himself in Spanish.

Lyric blindly selected a bent magazine from the rack and hoisted herself up in one of the stools at the opposite end of the counter. She laid the magazine down on the few spare inches of space left and flipped the pages, barely absorbing the colorful images or blur of words as Javier danced around the kitchen to a well practiced beat that only he could hear.

Lyric, at first, only glanced down at the pages of the magazine to disguise her infatuation with watching Javier work in the kitchen. It was clear he belonged there. He glided around the compact space effortlessly, as if he had it memorized by heart. He didn’t even look in the drawers he pulled out, his hands wrapping around the proper utensils and pulling them out with ease.

Wisps of his dark hair escaped the bun he’d thrown it in, and she wanted to wrap the short curls around her finger. Concentration and joy were drawn into the lines of his face as if carefully placed by an artist.

She wanted to run her fingers through his hair. Pull his head down to hers and—

His gaze darted over to her, and she glanced down at the magazine to hide her fascination.

A shimmer of color caught her eye, and she studied the pages more carefully.

A beautiful redhead was on the page of the magazine, along with other unique models. The one thing they all had in common?

Bond marks.

Lyric studied the shimmer of color that highlighted the bite marks on the different omegas. The article itself was about makeup, but the words kind of blurred together after a while, so she went back to studying the images.

She had a tattoo. Would a bond mark be that much different?

“Ah, yes. This was one of my sister’s favorites editions. I remember looking at this spread with her,” Javier said far too close to her shoulder.

She tilted her head back to look up at him, but his gaze was locked on the magazine.

He seemed oblivious to the way her breath caught at his proximity.

“It’s really… unique. To highlight bond marks that way,” she murmured and turned her attention back to the pages.

“Mm-hmm, that’s what Emma said too. She wanted to buy the makeup just so her guys could put it on her.” He chuckled. “What made you stop on that page?”

Lyric didn’t really want to admit that she just happened to glance down to avoid his gaze, so she shrugged. “Bond marks are something I’ve never thought about. Not seriously.”

But…

If she were to stay with her band after tour… wouldn’t that eventually come up?

She swallowed. Once upon a time, just the thought of a bond mark would have terrified her. And a smidge of that fear still remained. But glancing down at the magazine, seeing the models happy and gorgeous and proud to show off their marks?

Lyric wondered if she would get to feel proud one day too.