I climb out of the pool with too much urgency, my dress clinging, skin prickling from the sudden cool. I don't know what I’m doing. Everything is tangled. Ava. Declan. Lucas. Knox. My own reaction. I need to get my head on straight. We need to talk. I need to think.
“Wait,” Ava calls, right behind me. “What just happened?”
I shiver. We don’t have towels, and the night breeze raises goosebumps on my arms. My soaked dress clings in all the wrong places and the drenched silk snags on my sparkly heels. I feel like a mess.
“Hey,” Ava catches my wrist. “What’s going on?”
I shake her off, gently. “Nothing. I just… We need to…”
Should we go back to the room? Change? Talk? Avoid each other? Talk to Declan? Get those damn suppressants?
My breath starts to hitch before I realize I’m panicking.
Ava kisses me. Quick. Firm. Not asking.
It steals the air from my lungs but somehow resets everything. I gasp when she pulls back.
“There you are,” she whispers, brushing water from my cheek and drawing me in with her soft smile.
There’s something steady in her eyes that helps me breathe again. But then, she steps away, and I don’t know how I feel about that. I feeltoomany things about that.
“I’m sorry,” she says “I shouldn’t have kissed you again.”
The loss of her warmth registers like a cold front. “It’s okay.”
But I don’t know if it is.
35
KNOX
Iknow why Ava ran. Her scent fumigated my thoughts—sharper this time, more intense than it was the other night. Utterly intoxicating. She’s not just my scent match. She’s the answer to a desire I’ve spent years searching for. Something I’ve buried so deep, I barely recognized it until it smacked into my life back in Paris.
Emily.
She was never going to be with me as long as I didn’t have an omega. And there was always the chance that whatever omega I ended up with wouldn’t like Emily, so I’ve kept my distance, like she’s kept hers. She’s too good for me anyway.
But now there’s Ava.
Ava and Emily.
I’ve seen the way the two of them look at each other, and it’s filling my head with all kinds of ideas.
What if we could be a pack? I’m not worthy of them. Not yet. But I could become the man they deserves. With Ly and Ava at my side—maybe Lucas, too—I could do it. Iwoulddo it. I’d do anything.
I don’t know Ava all that well, but from what I’ve seen, I like her. She’s got this sharp, spirited energy that fascinates me. She keeps her walls up, but that’s something I understand. There’s a darkness in her eyes that makes me want to be good for her, and a natural authority in the way she carries herself that draws out something obedient in me. I might be an alpha, but I’ve always taken pleasure in submission—at least with the right person. And Ava? She’s exactly the kind of person I’d kneel for.
I say a silent prayer that I’ll get the chance.
“Where’s Emily and Ava?” Declan asks. He’s down the hall from the elevator, holding two corsages and a boutonnière. Of course there’s no flowers for me. Not that I care. I prefer to be the one giving flowers than getting them. I imagine pinning a boutonnière to Declan’s massive chest, being sure to poke him repeatedly with the pin. Maybe I’ll get him one for Glenn’s daughter’s wedding.
“Ava ran off. Emily went to check on her,” Lucas says before I can answer Declan’s question with a lie. I glare at him.
“Why’d she run off?”
“Upset about something I did.” I cross my arms over my chest. “You know me.” There’s a challenge in the words, but I’d rather him think I was being a jackass and scared her, than suspect what really happened.
Lucas looks at me with confusion like he doesn’t understand why I’m not telling Declan this huge news. It’s not like Ava will be able to hide it long. Even with suppressants, if she perfumes like that again, Declan will know. But it’s not my place to tell him. And I’m sure as hell gonna do everything possible to keep her secret and get her what she needs. Plus, I don’t like the idea of Declan catching a whiff ofmyscent match.
