This was not modest.
The bust was so low cut my tits were almost spilling out, the fluffy sleeves barely holding it all together. Beneath the laces of the corset back was nothing but skin. And the skirts were somehow translucent from mid thigh down, exposing the curves of my legs despite the many layers of cloth. My knife hid in the holster around my waist, invisible to prying eyes.
“I want to dive under your skirt,” Dash said in wonder, stepping back to peer at his handiwork.
My hair was up in a simple updo that he’d done—claiming he’d once watched ten hours worth of wedding hair tutorials as a procrastination tactic.
“You’re going to dive right back into researching my mother’s shady business practices,” Leighton said.
She rolled her eyes but had a new appreciation for the extravagant alpha. We almost hadn’t been able to detach him from the computer in her office, but the words ‘undressing’ and ‘Kiara’ in the same sentence had done the trick.
“I’ve got to see you ladies out the door, first,” he said. “It’s the gentlemanly thing to do.”
His grin didn’t quite reach his eyes, and occasionally his hand would brush against where I’d marked him. I felt his anxiety through our newly formed and weak bond, but I didn’t know how to help. I’d been the one to create the emotion by bonding him unexpectedly. I figured it was best to let him work through it without interference from me.
“You’re going to see us out to our date with another pack?” I asked.
When I crossed my arms over my chest his gaze dropped to my cleavage with obvious appreciation.
“I have to make sure they’re aware you’ll never be theirs.”
My heart fluttered in time with my pussy. The arousal swamping me was frequent and intense enough that I worried about an upcoming heat. The signs were compounding—even the alphas had noticed them—and I was about due, but this really wasn’t the time. Not while I was at risk of ending up in the beds and lives of this Ashby pack that I’d never met.
Dash stepped over to me and held out an arm. I glanced over at Leighton, seeking permission before I linked mine with his.
She nodded, hunger in her expression as she focused on the point of contact between Dash and I. Leighton was dressed down, more appropriate for the high-class club.
While my dress fell in layers of baby pink to cover the white sneakers on my feet, hers was skintight. The white fabric went up to her neck but was sleeveless. It was floor-length, but had a slit running high enough to expose most of her left thigh.
Her nipples would have been exposed if the dress had been even the tiniest bit thinner. Even now, if I stared intently enough, I thought I could see the dusky pink outlines.
And Iwasstaring.
My gaze lifted to meet hers, a smirk waiting on her lips.
“Are you ready to go, dove?” she murmured. “Or did you need someone to go under that dress after all?”
I flushed with embarrassment, shaking my head and clutching Dash. “No. We’ll be late.”
That was the only reason I didn’t beg someone to do it. I would prefer to have one alpha’s tongue on my sex while another stopped me from falling over, but we didn’t have time.
Dash’s lips brushed against the dark bond Leighton had left on my neck. The motion made me gasp—it was brazen, to touch another alpha’s bond, whether I’d claimed him or not. He smirked, his confidence flitting in and out of existence now that I’d made him vulnerable.
“Hurry back, little omega,” he murmured. “I’d like you to suffocate me with this tulle when you get home.”
Leighton cuffed him on the back of the head and pulled him away from her bond mark before I had a chance to process that. “You know better than to touch her there, Dash,” Leighton said.
Her fingers trailed over one of my marks on Dash’s neck and he stiffened and groaned. I didn’t feel possessive over the claiming bond, oddly enough. I wanted Leighton to sink her teeth into him too, to make a matching set.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered, flinching away from the touch. “You’re going to kill me.”
“Then walk us out. We really shouldn’t be late.”
Her casual air cracked for a second, and I saw her worry. If this didn’t go well, it wouldn’t be us that suffered. Not right away, anyway. It would be Leighton’s brother. The scent match mate Dash never got to have. As much as a little animalistic part of me insisted he deserved what was coming, most of me was sympathetic.
My mates all cared about him.
Yes, that annoyed the fuck out of me.
