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“Princess Ella,” I murmured. “Has a nice ring to it.”Ring.I pulled back. “Do you want to get engaged?”
“What?” Ella asked, her eyes wide. “Wait–is that how you’re asking?”
“No–” I said, as she burst into laughter. “I meant–I just thought ofrings, and wondered–I mean, is it important to you to be… for us to be committed, in that way, before we… I hadn’t thought of it until just now, but I know I–”
“Quiet, Charlie. No.” She wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling my face to hers. “I do want to–to marry you,” she said, and her blush was visible even in the low light of the car. “But this,” my eyes darted to the pink flesh of her skin, the indentations left by my teeth, her fresh mark still healing over, “is enough for now.”
“Let me know,” I said, “if you change your mind.” She’d never need to tell me. I would go to visit the jeweler–with Jack, maybe, he’d probably cream his pants over an invitation. I would do it tomorrow. “I want to marry you, too,” I continued, and her eyes sparkled in the streetlights. “And you should start doing your finger exercises.”
“What?” she asked.
“Remember, Ella,” I said, only half-kidding. “I am therichestPrince.”
“I love you too, Charlie,” I whispered, later that night, after I was sure he was asleep next to me, the moonlight tracing the outline of his smooth forehead, his nose, his pink lips. I could feel the new link between us, restful and placid and deep like a still pool of water.Mine.This man beside me, breathing quietly, wasmine.
He smiled with eyes still closed, turning to me, enveloping me in an embrace. “Now isn’t really the time is it? When I’m asleep?”
“You weren’t asleep,” I giggled, and in response he pushed me onto my back, covering my body with his own, and I spread my legs beneath him.
“I’m notnow,” he said, and I reached down between us to grasp his hardening cock. I tilted my head, exposing the healing bite mark on my neck to him, and felt him twitch in my hand. “Fuck, Ella.” The corner of his lip curled up in a half-smile. “I love you, too. Especially when you do–ah–that.”
“Bite me, Charlie,” I said, my smirk undermined by my voice, sounding breathier than I had intended. He did: teeth gentle over my raw, pink skin, teasing it with delicate nips and soothing lips and darting tongue.
Neither of us slept after that.
* * *
Charlie took me first to my apartment for a change of clothes and a shower, then to work, the next morning. It was strange, being away from him, and stranger still that it felt so obvious. I had been alone for so long. He texted me from my apartment, just a photo of my closet and a bunch of question marks.Grab whatever,I replied.I don’t care.I just needed some spare clothes at the townhouse, it didn’t much matter what: everything was equally boring.
Then, later, a photo of his (much larger) closet, my clothes neatly hung alongside his.Thanks,I said, my heart fluttering at the sight of my green sweater next to his larger shirts, and got a response instantly:No, thank YOU.
A half hour later, a picture of the coffee aisle at the grocery store.Preference?
Blond,I smiled at my phone.Strong. And waiting for me at home.
Ooh baby.
It was hard to focus, but I forced myself to put my phone away between Charlie’s bursts of activity, to check my emails, to make the small changes Editor Stevens had suggested to strengthen my article. I knew that between errands, Charlie was contacting his family and friends, working his magic and filling the advertising pages with glossy, full-page photos of Bangladeshi food and tropical flowers. I knew it because Editor Stevens called me into her office after lunch, her face one of stunned surprise, and told me my story was back on.
“I don’t know what you did, Booker, but… Nice work. I’m proud of you,” she said, looking at her computer screen instead of me.
I couldn’t hide my grin.
And then it was five o’clock, and I slid into the backseat of a sleek black town car, waiting on the curb forme, Ella,and rolled the tinted windows up before I curled into the embrace of my Alpha.
“Strong, blond, andnotwaiting for me at home, then?” I said into his firm chest. He smelled like me, and him, and home, and safe. Family.
“I couldn’t wait. I wanted to see you alone,” he said, his fingers teasing the back hem of my shirt, rubbing over the skin of my lower back. I could feel myself getting warmer, my heartbeat picking up, even at this slight touch. “Before I have to share you with the rest of them.”
I hummed, lifting my face to his, closing my eyes for a kiss. “You talked to them today? You told them?”
He just had time to whisper yes, before his lips met mine, soft and giving. We had spent all night talking–and kissing, and more–and Charlie had told me again and again that he hadn’t known. Had promised, to himself more so than to me, that he would talk with his brothers, not just to tell them what had happened between us, but to clear up whatever misunderstandings had been between them. He would talk to Natalie, too, I knew, but that wasn’t going to be settled in one conversation. That would be a lifetime of work. Ofbeing a good alpha to his omegas, as Charlie had put it.
And now I was being chauffeured home to a second family dinner in as many weeks, only this time–
Iwas family.
* * *
