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The perfume may have covered my omega scent, but Lorelei obviously recognized my nature. Any omega with an intended mate would be territorial. I wanted to assure her I had no designs on her alpha, that I was probably going to decontaminate my hand the first chance I got.
But then I caught sight of Sylvia slipping out the door and racing back down the stairs. “Uh-oh.” I glanced up at Lorelei. “Should I go after her? Wait… are there more children for me to watch over? A playroom onboard? It wasn’t clear how many I would be taking care of.”
She wasn’t paying any attention to me, though. She’d pulled Alphonse close to whisper into his ear, her face wretched with concern and anger.
“Your only charge is my niece,” Giovanni said, walking past me. “The other children came with their own au pairs and betasitters.”
I was being paid this much to watch one child?
“Get your instructions from Lorelei. I’ll go take care of Sylvia.” He stopped next to me and whispered so quietly that only I could hear, “Flirting with my sister’s fiancé, Sunshine? What would dear Daddy say about that?”
My jaw dropped, but before I could formulate a reply, he was gone. I took a deep breath, drawing the remnants of dark chocolate and espresso into my lungs, then faced the angry omega in the room. “Do you have instructions on Sylvia’s care?”
Oh,didshe. Thirty minutes later, I had an impending migraine, a downloaded document listing what had to be twenty minor medical conditions and food sensitivities, strict parameters for what she was allowed to wear while on board, and the knowledge that no matter how hard I tried, nothing I did this week would pass muster with Lorelei Grantham.
I almost wanted to text Rain to let her know I’d finally met someone who hated me on sight. Well, two someones, if you counted Lorelei’s painfully attractive brother.
“I’m not sure where Giovanni’s PA dug you up, Miss Fairweather, and if we weren’t already three hours out to sea, I would have you disembark and find another betasitter.” Her exquisitely made-up face wasn’t nearly as attractive with that expression.
I smiled wider, hoping she’d take the hint.
She looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had. “My daughter is the most precious thing in the world to me,” she said, enunciating each word. “And she has been through more than any child should. If anything happens to her…” Her voice trailed off, and Alphonse embraced her.
While staring at me.
Her face was buried in his shoulder, but his eyes roamed all over my body in a way that felt like a violation. I practically ran for the door.
I fixed a smile on my face when I passed a couple sunbathing on deck, and waved at two young children playing in a wading pool with a small fountain. Sure enough, even though their respective parents were present, each child had a designated au pair watching from the pool’s edge.
I stopped on my way to my cabin at a bathroom near the pool, and scrubbed at my hands. They still stunk like cabbage even after the first two times, so I used more soap, scrubbing all the way up to my elbows. While I washed, my mind wandered back to Giovanni Grantham.
Why had I felt so attracted to him? After all these years of thinking alphas had some sort of amazing PR team telling everyone they smelled great, when I knew they smelled like moldy towels at best, I’d finally met one who made me want to roll around in his sheets. Made me want to take those sheets, and his shirts, and wrap them around me until I couldn’t smell anything but… “Ohshit,” I whispered, inhaling. My own scent filled the tiny room, and I realized to my complete mortification that my panties were damp.
No, soaked.
I ran to the toilet and used as much toilet paper as I could to wipe the slick away from both the thin silk and myself. It was far more liquid than I usually produced, which had me counting in my head back to my last heat cycle.Hmph.I had plenty of time. Months. It couldn’t be that.
I sighed in relief and went back to work on the panties, but gave up after a minute. They were a dead loss. I threw them in the trash, then washed my hands again. I’d finally managed to get rid of the cabbage smell, but my camouflaging eau de parfum was now also a distant memory.I’d need to go to my room, spray myself down, and put on one of the scent-blocking pantyliners I’d packed. Did I have enough for a whole week on board a yacht with Giovanni Grantham?
Definitely not. I’d need to learn the layout of the boat, and take pains to avoid him. Maybe Sylvia and I could hunker down in her room, or a side galley, and memorize Plath and Poe. “He’s a butthole, Sun,” I whispered to myself as I opened the door. “A rich, rude”—I swallowed, and used one of Rain’s favorite phrases—“fucking alphahole!” I said with a bit more confidence as I stepped back out onto deck.
“Are you cursing, Miss Fairweather?” The alphahole in question was right outside, leaning up against the side of the boat, looking like the next cover ofYacht Guildmagazine.
I put my hands to my cheeks, covering what I knew was a blush. “No,” I told him. “I’m… practicing a line from a play.”My cheeks grew hot, and I knew they were bright red.
“That’s cute,” Giovanni said with a sexy sneer. Ugh. How could a sneer even be sexy? “Do your cheeks go pink every time you tell a lie, little betasitter?”
“No,” I gritted out through clenched teeth, fully aware that my blush was deepening.
“Oh, they do.” He straightened and crossed the deck so that he was right next to me. I backed up against the wall, and he set one hand on the outside of my shoulder, boxing me in. Then he leaned in until his dark hair brushed the side of my face, and sniffed. “Naughty, naughty. You deserve pink cheeks everywhere for telling lies. Need to be punished, don’t you?”
What. The. Hell.
Was Grumpy Grantham checking on my kinks? Because I’d never been spanked in my life, but all of a sudden, it was imperative that I find out what his hand on my ass would feel like. Just for research, of course.
I stifled a whimper, clenching my thighs together, but still felt a tiny trickle of wetness.
“Smell that? Luring me with that scent.” Giovanni leaned closer, grasping my left hand and glaring at it for some reason. “Is that what you like to do? Use that sweet face, that perfume, to get you what you want? Get alphas to fall for you, give you pretty things? Give you what that curvy little body is begging for?” He went still, waiting for something.
