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I suddenly understood what he had done with the gifts, the invitation: he’d shown me what it was he wanted. He’d laid it out quite clearly for me: dress, heels, lingerie. Dinner.
All I had to do was choose.
This is purely sexual,he had said that first time, on the phone, and I had saidYes.
Now, he was giving me the option to say yes again. To more.
I held the dress up once again and looked in the mirror. The sheen of the near-black silk made my eyes sparkle in shades of olive and hunter as well.
* * *
I had thought,eating steak with Rian and Lucas and Gray what seemed like a thousand years ago, that I was at a fancy restaurant, but it was nothing compared to this. I was on a date with an alpha, with Gray West. He tossed his keys to the valet and moved his hand smoothly from my hand to my elbow to my lower back. The gentle pressure of it resting there, gently guiding me up the drive, wasn’t enough: I wanted to arch against it, to feel his body against mine as I had in the bedroom here the other day, wanted to hear his voice in my ear once again–
An elegantly dressed man stood at the entrance just to open the door, nodding to us as we stepped inside the dimly-lit restaurant. My eyes adjusted to the low light, taking in white tablecloths, small candles at each table, shining silverware and gleaming crystal glasses. It was only when the host–the maitre d’, I supposed, although I wasn’t a hundred percent on what that meant–led us across the floor that I noticed the ring of small, more private tables set into small alcoves around the perimeter: tables for two in niches with heavy curtains draped over the arched openings.
“This is beautiful,” I said as we were seated, cringing at the platitude. Gray and I had been quiet, tentative around each other, and it was obvious that neither of us knew exactly where we stood. We had gone on exactly zero dates, and yet, he knew my body intimately. The host pulled the curtain half-closed as he slipped away, leaving us together in near-privacy. His scent was stronger now in the enclosure, dark and rich and sweet like coffee. It had been strong in his car, too, coffee and musk mixing with expensive leather upholstery and my own vanilla perfume, embarrassingly strong and dangerously sweet. An involuntary reaction to being close to him. To Gray. I had known we were both remembering what had happened last time. It was impossible not to be reminded of it, even if this time I was past my heat and able to keep a clear head, but neither of us had mentioned it. We’d barely spoken at all.
He also hadn’t mentioned the clothes I was wearing–a dark green dress, black heels, and underneath? Barely anything at all–but knowing what was next to my skin made me want him, want more.
And I knew: I could have what I wanted with him, from him. I could trust him to give me what I needed. After all, I told myself, as a white-jacketed man arrived with a bottle of wine, pouring Gray a small sip that he tasted appreciatively, this was the man I had spent my heat with, and we both knew what that meant: he had taken care of me when I was at my most vulnerable, my most fragile. My worst. The waiter poured two glasses, one for each of us, as Gray ordered both of our meals unhesitatingly, handing over our untouched menus. The waiter backed out of the enclosure, leaving us alone together once again.
He smiled, and took a sip of his wine. “You make the dress look good, Madison.”
I let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding, tension washing away. If I hadn’t suspected the dress, the heels, of being courting gifts already, that response would have clued me in. “If Rian were here, he’d tell me it would look better on the floor.”
I expected him to smile, to laugh with me, maybe.
Instead, he leaned back slightly in his chair, and licked his lips. There was no trace of humor on his razor-sharp face. “Is that what you want me to tell you, baby?” I gulped, and my heartbeat picked up speed. “Or would you rather I tell you I want to fuck you right here in this restaurant, that pretty dress pushed up around your waist as I bend you over the table? We can close the curtains, but you’ll have to be quiet.” He held his wine glass between several long fingers, swirling it carelessly.
Had I been wrong?
“Or… is that not what this is about any longer?” he challenged, pausing to take a sip of his wine. “I know about you and Luc, the other night,” I blushed, and took a sip of my own wine to hide my rising color. It was smooth and smoky with none of the grape juice flavor of the cheap reds I usually bought at the grocery store. I had known that what happened between Luc and me wouldn’t be a secret. It couldn’t be, even if Luc had wanted it to be: he would have smelled and tasted of me, of my perfume, my slick. But still–it was one thing to know it wasn’t a secret, it was another to have Gray hinting at it from across the table, while I was wearing lingerie.Hislingerie. His lingerie,for him. Then again… I was wearing hislingeriefor him. He already knew what I was here for. “Care to tell me what that was about?”
I put my glass back on the table, careful not to get drips on the spotless white tablecloth, and said, “I think you already know.”
The barest hint of a smile made one side of his mouth curve up. “And if Rian..?”
I nodded.
“It’s… unusual, for an omega to be so attracted to a beta,” he said, his eyes making me feel even more naked than I already was in my skimpy silk dress. “But it makes sense, I guess.”
“Because I was a beta, too?” I asked.
He cocked his head to one side. “No, Madison. Because he’s beautiful.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling ashamed. I had assumed he was talking about me, and for a moment, I heard Brent’s voice in my mind, telling me I was bound to be selfish, now that I was an omega. But–no. That wasn’t me. “He is. But that’s not why I’m attracted to him.”
“No?” he asked.
“No. I like Rian because he’s… well,” I paused, wondering what I could say to convince Gray of my interest not only in Rian’s face or his body, but his crooked smile and his soft heart. There was nothing, except… This kind of thing didn’t come naturally to me, but I did it anyway, to the best of my former-beta ability: I met Gray’s eyes, then looked away quickly, down and to the side, deferential. “You know him better than I do.”
He huffed out a laugh. “Cute. Okay, Madison,” he said, and then he was silent for a moment. His face was soft and serious when he spoke again. “I understand.”
After dinner, and wine, and small cups of rich, sweet espresso that tasted so like Gray that I almost couldn’t stand our distance… we stepped onto the sidewalk outside the restaurant,
“There’s one more box for you, if you want it. But you’ll have to back to my place to get it.”
“Hmm,” I said, and stood on tiptoe in my new high heels to kiss him. His arm wrapped around the small of my back and I sighed into his coffee-scented mouth. “Please.”
