Page 167 of Knot So Social

“Lead on, Princess,” I purr, rising to my feet. “How do we start?”

She purses her lips. “You don’t have to run your business?”

I close the gap between us and tug her into my hip. “They’ve run themselves just fine the past two weeks. A couple more days won’t make any difference.”

She beams up at me, which feels like its own reward. “Okay. Jeremy, Alessandro?”

“I’m on medical leave for two weeks,” my brother volunteers. “All yours, Ms Teacher.”

Alessandro smiles, but it feels a bit thin. “I have no work today. But tomorrow, I must go.”

Willow reaches out a hand to him, pain flickering in her eyes. “There’s no rush. The program is designed to learn at your own pace.”

Something must be going on with him, and I’d like to know what it is. Later.

I bump her hip lightly. “How about you? We’re not disturbing your work schedule?”

She chuckles. “Well, this is about to become my new work schedule.”

I like that. Sounds as if the three of us feature in her vision of the future.

Within ten minutes, we’re all set up on the kitchen table. Willow’s gaze slides across the surface where we got intimately acquainted last night and her cheeks tint a gorgeous pink. She studiously drags her attention back to her laptop.

Pride blooms in my chest. In time, I want every room and piece of furniture in this house to carry spectacular memories of us.

Good thing there’s a lot of rooms.

I dust off my work laptop, and Willow finds one of her older model laptops and a tablet for the other two guys to use. We get our log-ins emailed to us, her assistant working at impressive speed.

The site we log into is called Boss College. A thin red strip at the top warns us it’s a beta testing site, but everything else from the colors to the wording screams omegas. When I mention it, Willow says that’s exactly the feedback she wants.

She turns her laptop around to demonstrate. “Okay. So Boss School is set up in modules that unlock as you pass each one so that none of the content gets too overwhelming. What happens is, you start here at the onboarding,” she taps the clear button at the top, “Where you complete your profile and answer a bunch of questions that helps the system decide what training to offer you first. Which areas you want to work on.”

Her eyes sparkle.

I wasn’t the best at school, switching over in my final year for a trades fast track in order to ditch the essays and analytical exams. But watching Willow makes an old longing spawn in my heart. It’s like stripping back the past ten years of failed relationships, draining day after day grind of learning a trade, and the endless upsets of starting my own business. Back to when my whole life was still ahead of me and anything seemed possible.

“Are you spinning out, bro?” Jeremy asks. He turns to Willow, flashing his shit-eating grin. “He never was much interested in school.”

“I’m looking forward to it, actually,” I say, just to shut him up. Funny how our banter hits differently now we’re privy to each other’s emotions. I didn’t mean to bite him, but it’s kinda cool that we’ve formed a proper bond.

I drag my attention back to Willow. “But since we’re testing out her new idea, I am wondering how our omega will reward us, say for each module passed?” I lightly trail my fingers along her arm. “Bribery makes for very good students, if you didn’t know?”

Jeremy whistles and claps.

“I like the way he thinks,” Alesandro says, eyes lighting up.

Willow swats at my fingers, which is a very cute auto reaction of hers whenever she’s flustered. The three of us turn eager eyes her way, waiting for an answer.

“Isn’t learning its own reward?”

“Hmm, is it?” I purr, holding her gaze. “I’m not so sure.”

“Please?” Alessandro whines. For an alpha, he has a near shameless ability to beg like a helpless man, and it seems our omega’s quite vulnerable to his charm.

“Well . . . what would make a good reward?” she asks.

Hook, line, and sinker.