AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The desire to protect the little girl in front of me filled my chest, and I reached out to pull her into a hug which she gleefully returned. Cherry, like most omegas, craved physical touch, and definitely lacked it in this place. Her fresh lemon scent wrapped around me, and I took a deep inhale of it, feeling cleansed from all of the stress of the past couple of hours.
“Look, I’m going to be at the academy a bunch from now on, so why don’t I come find you whenever I have a meeting with the Chairwoman? I can’t stay for long, but...”
Cherry cut me off. “Really? You’d do that?” Excitement filled her blue eyes. At that moment, I promised myself that I would make sure to seek her out whenever I was at the academy. I knew exactly what it was like to be a lonely little girl, and I wanted to alleviate those feelings for Cherry.
“Yes, of course. I’ll be back in a few days to bring more outfits for the Chairwoman, I’ll see you then, okay?”
Cherry squeezed me in one more tight hug, the kind of hug only a small child could give—done with all of her strength, and all of the fervor that she could muster—before she stepped back. “You’re the best Madeline. I have to go to class now...see you later!” Before I could respond she was scurrying towards the elevator, nearly tripping over the bottom of her jeans which had come unrolled as she ran.
I watched her go with an easy smile on my face, and made a mental note to see if I could throw together some clothes for her on my sewing machine this week. She was always dressed in clothing that was several sizes too big for her, probably due to the academy refusing to order clothing that would fit the tiny nine-year-old. I was almost certain that they figured that she would eventually grow into them, but I had a feeling that Cherry would always be small for her age.
With my head full of potential outfits, I sketched them out on my tablet as Tobey drove us back to the office.
“You know,” there waslaughter in Rio’s voice. “I just joked with Adair last week that I’d be completely fine with a date where I could just stare at you, but I didn’t think that would actually happen.”
It was an unusually sunny November afternoon in San Francisco, and Rio and I were sitting in the rhododendron pavilion in the San Francisco botanical gardens. While none of the rhododendron bushes around us were blooming, it was still one of my favorite places to go to think and relax when things got too stressful. The botanical gardens were blissfully empty, and we’d been able to spread out a thick blanket and picnic lunch on the stone floor of the pavilion.
I had asked Rio if he minded such a low-key date because the rest of the week after my first style meeting with Chairwoman Bells had been absolutely packed full. Between my regular clients, two more meetings with the Chairwoman, getting to rent the industrial sewing machines at the office, and putting together some adorable ass outfits for Cherry...I was completely burnt out. But I also didn’t want to miss a date with Rio. I had been looking forward to it all week. Thankfully, he’d been all too willing to go along with a more relaxed date.
Rio had brought a book with him, and was leaning against one of the stone benches with it open in one hand. I had seen the way that the sunlight had hit his black hair and warm brown skin, and I couldn’t help but pull out my tablet and start to sketch him. I infinitely preferred sketching clothing to people, but something about drawing Rio Malik was just so enticing.
I wonder if I could get him to pose in the nude.The intrusive thought flitted through my mind, immediately followed by a blush. Over the past week, while I’d been incredibly busy with work, I’d also been accosted by constant dirty thoughts about the alpha in front of me. We hadn’t done more than kiss, but that didn’t stop my brain from conjuring up every dirty image that it could.
“I think I’m staring at you more than you are staring at me.” I pointed out as I shaded the portion of his neck where his Adam's apple was.
“I bet that isn’t true.” Rio’s dark eyes were off of his book and on me now. “I have reread this page about a hundred times over the last thirty minutes, and I still couldn’t tell you what it says.”
Abandoning my sketch, I put my tablet down and crawled across the blanket to sit next to him. He held an arm up, and I scooted in close to his warmth like I’d been doing it my whole life rather than just for a couple of weeks.
Snagging his book from his hands, I read aloud from the page that he was stuck on. “The Coffee Industry is one that is constantly innovating new ways to revolutionize a drink that has been around since the 1600’s...yikes, no wonder you are having trouble focusing. This is incredibly boring.” I teased, handing the book back to him.
“I like coffee.” Rio defended himself with mock-offense. “It’s literally my job.”
“Yes, but you should separate your work-life and your home-life.” I knew it was like the pot calling the kettle black to tell him this. I’d been up late last night finalizing the last few outfits for events that Chairwoman Bells continued to reject. Rio, who had been texting me for most of the night, crooked a dark eyebrow, his look immediately calling me on my bullshit.
“You should read some of my romance novels.” I said, changing the subject from my hypocrisy to something that Ilovedtalking about. Tibby, Eloise, and I were constantly sending different smutty book recommendations back and forth between the three of us, and now it was time to inflict my book taste on the unsuspecting Rio.
“Oh yeah?” Rio was clearly amused by the idea. “Wanna do a sexy book club?”
My smile was a little bit evil. “Yeah, let me see your phone?”
Once I got it, I downloaded the e-reader app, and downloaded my favorite Orc romance. It was one that even Tibby had called absolutely filthy. Rio wasn’t even aware of the journey that I was about to send him on, and it filled me with a special kind of glee.
“Why do I get the feeling that I’m about to be absolutely shocked by your reading taste?” Rio’s dark eyes danced and, instead of answering him, I just tilted my face up to kiss him, effectively ending our conversation.
We stayed there for a long time, kissing amongst the bloomless rhododendrons while something else bloomed between us that was strong, healthy, and beautiful.
