Walking past him and into the room, I sat on an armchair Kiara had yet to touch.
The other alpha was still staring with an unreadable expression on his face. He had never been especially expressive. Heavy scarring on his left side inhibited his facial muscles significantly, so I got all my clues about his emotions from his eyes and lips.
Ambrose had dark brown eyes that looked soulless at first glance but became warm and soulful the longer you looked into them. Genuine smiles rarely turned his lips, only little smirks when I did something that pleased him. He was handsome in a rugged way that I’d admired for far longer than we’d been sleeping together.
“Nice to meet you, Kiara,” he said after a pause. “What is going on, Leighton?”
“She wants me to dark bond her.”
That had his lips turning down into a fierce scowl. With his hands in fists, he moved to a chair and sat down in it. The leather creaked under his form. He was big, even for an alpha. “Why is she still here, then?”
“As it turns out, I have to keep her.”
“And what do you need me to do?”
We were talking about Kiara like she didn’t exist, and she fought not to react but failed epically. Her hands clenched into fists against her thighs, and she tried to ignore us in turn. The gaze she turned to the TV screen was blank, though. She wasn’t watching.
“Can we sleep in shifts?” I asked.
“What are you expecting me to do?” Kiara burst out, shooting me a pouty glare and giving up on the movie.
I shrugged. “Don’t know.”
I didn’t want to find out, though.
“It’s not like I’m going to attack you in your sleep.”
“Why should I trust that you won’t?” I asked.
“You could kill me if I did that,” she said.
“Probably, but you’re a little desperate. Desperation makes you dangerous.”
Ambrose watched her keenly, his foot tapping against the floor. He’d barged in without bothering to take off his shoes. Liberty was going to have a stellar time scrubbing dirt out of my rug when she came back. If she came back. I got the sense she was uncomfortable being in the same space as Kiara.
Ambrose didn’t appear to have that same immediate discomfort. Maybe Libby’s reaction had been overblown?
“You’ll sleep. I’ll stay awake,” Ambrose said, responding to my question after Kiara’s outburst.
“No, you need—”
“I never sleep. Don’t worry.”
He said that like it was normal, but I wouldn’t question him. We kept our distance for a reason. I didn’t ask about him, and he didn’t ask about me. Although, he knew things he shouldn’t and gave me gifts that crossed the line when he thought he could get away with it.
“OK. I appreciate you coming over.”
Abruptly, he stood. “We need to talk privately.”
I lifted an eyebrow at him, glancing to Kiara. She was back to angrilynotwatching the movie. It felt rude to eliminate her from a conversation that was very clearly going to be about her.
Then again, it had been rude of her to come in here and demand I dark bond her.
She had to know it would make me a social pariah. No one would want to employ me anymore, no matter how good I was at my job. Dark bonding a gold pack omega was bad enough—it was legal. But to dark bond a normal omega? Even though aura-seeing seers could tell she’d given permission for that type of bond, everyone would assume I’d somehow tricked the system and coerced her into it.
Standing, I nodded toward my master suite. “Help yourself to any food in the fridge,” I said to Kiara.
She held a pillow to her chest and nodded stiffly, not having any more complaints as we left the room.
