Dash’s eyes were glazed and he kept licking his lips, even after I’d gotten up and wandered over to the small sink and vanity mirror in the corner to tidy up.
I did the best I could to clean myself and hide the evidence of her pleasure—though there was nothing that could hide her scent. Nor did I want to cover that up.
Dash had to help my omega up and she leaned on me when I came to take over. I helped slide her panties back up her legs. Then we left Dash by himself in the room. He was staring at the puddle of slick she’d left behind on the lounge like he wanted to lick it up.
It was a more successful tease than I could have imagined.
THIRTY-EIGHT
KIARA
It was a miracle I could walk.
My legs were so shaky Dash had to hold me up as Leighton fixed her smeared lipstick and wiped away the evidence of my slick. When he’d let go, it had only been because my alpha came to take over the job. I leaned on her as we walked back out to the main lounge.
“I’m going to get you some water and a snack,” Leighton said, depositing me on the bench seat we’d left behind.
I glanced at the Ashby pack, but she didn’t. She placed a kiss on my mussed hair and left me to make small talk on my own.
Maybe I would get lucky and they wouldn’t say a word.
Cordian cleared his throat. With our scents layered onto each other, the alpha would have to be stupid to not realize what we’d been doing. I’d gotten the impression he wasn’t stupid.
“I’m curious,” he said. “Why do you want to enter into this arrangement? No offense intended, but the two of you don’t seem… keen on adding members to your pack.”
His gaze flicked to Mercury. Dash had yet to emerge from the private room. With the state Leighton had left him in, I imagined I knew why he was taking his time coming out.
“I don’t.”
With my brain hazy with pre-heat hormones and the aftershocks of coming four times in twenty minutes, I didn’t have the capacity to lie.
Cordian faced me head on again, his eyes widened for one infinitely short second. All his efforts to conceal his surprise were wasted. His packmates gave it all away. The irritation I’d been feeling from Hideki and Noel the whole night faded away into mild confusion.
“You don’t?”
“This arrangement is the last thing I want to do,” I said.
“And yet, circumstances necessitated it,” Leighton said, appearing with water and a small plate of salad and chicken. I hadn’t seen anyone else in the club with food, but she’d somehow managed to get some for me. “We have no plans to deny you,” she continued.
I slid over to give her room on the bench seat, watching the Ashby pack’s expressions fall.
They wanted this as little as we did.
How odd. What was the purpose of conning both of us into doing this? I’d assumed I would be given to a pack who wanted me. There was some kind of exchange going on beneath the surface, but I wasn’t sure what it entailed.
“Of course. Our bonding is important,” Cordian said smoothly.
Too smoothly.
He was too perfect—he had to be hiding something.
“And why do you want to enter into the arrangement?” I asked, throwing his own question back at him.
His teeth clenched for a single second. Then his shoulder shrugged, too small of a movement to be intentional. It might be his tell—like Leighton’s tell was the way she clacked her nails when she lied. His tell was that twitch of his shoulder.
“We’ve always wanted an omega, but the scent matching services didn’t find a match for us. Instead of waiting longer, we decided an arrangement was the best option.”
Cordian twitched again at the second part. Maybe he wasn’t lying about the matching services. I knew about those, vaguely. They gave you a bunch of scents to test out in an attempt to find a scent match. Only rich people could use them, both increasing the chance of finding a scent match and increasing the likelihood of that match being… desirable.
