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I snorted, wiggling out of his hold before my hormones took over and spread a different kind of warmth through me. We didn’t have time for distractions if I was going to change and freshen up before we had to leave.
“They don’t know me,” I called over my shoulder as I headed for his closet. I still needed to find a shirt to go with the skirt I’d brought.
“They know I want you as my mate. What more do they need to know?”
I stumbled at Leo’s casual comment, catching myself on the doorframe as I passed into his bedroom. Swallowing, I forced myself to keep moving instead of freezing in place as my stomach churned again.
I flipped through my section of the closet, shaking my head over the fact I evenhada section of my own here. When I was with Leo it was easy to forget the other complications in my life and pretend we were a normal couple, but I had to remember nothing would ever be normal with Leo. Even excluding my responsibilities and the family he was part of, he wasn’t like other men his age, and I came from a completely different life.
It was still nice to pretend the future he wanted was possible.
A gasp ripped from my throat when I turned to find Leo leaning in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest as he watched me. I hadn’t heard him, and his home was so drenched in his scent I couldn’t rely on smell to tell me when he was near.
“You worry too much, Blossom.”
One brow rose as my hands dropped from where they’d clutched at my chest.
“Oh, really? What makes you think that?”
His lips spread in a slow smile that drenched my panties, but I could still see the seriousness in his eyes. It was a conversation we’d had multiple times, and while I could agree that my anxiety was probably more than usual, even for an omega, there wasn’t a lot I could do about it. I had valid concerns, and no time for therapy.
I went to slip past him, but he caught me around the waist, pulling me flush against his lean body. Those green eyes refused to release me and let me dive back into the what-ifs that plagued me constantly, forcing me to stay present.
“What is it you’re worried about?”
It was an impossible question. Everything was rolled up and tangled in a way that made it hard to articulate, but I knew Leo wasn’t going to let me go until I found a way to express at least a portion of it. He’d hold me here all night if that was what it took.
“That they won’t like me. That they’ll think I’m not good enough for you.”
The second part slipped out without my permission, and my cheeks heated with the shame of voicing it. Leo and his family were worlds above a broke nothing like me. Almost everyone in the city knew who the Galleons were, even if they weren’t aware of the unsavory bits associated with them. Galleon Enterprises was huge.
And even if Leo was being honest about his feelings for me, which I still couldn’t quite understand despite learning to accept it, it didn’t change how this had begun.
I’d sold myself, and he’d paid to take my virginity.
Leo gripped my chin when my eyes closed of their own accord, his thumb brushing across my bottom lip, not allowing me to chew on it.
“Did I ever tell you where my mother is from?”
“Hmm?”
My eyelids fluttered open at the seemingly random question, and I shook my head as much as his hold allowed.
“Everyone pictures Italy as this idyllic place full of vineyards, and old architecture, and happy people waving at their neighbors as their maids pin freshly washed clothes on the line behind their chateau. And thereareplaces like that, in the touristy spots. In the places where there’s plenty of money to go around from the foolish people visiting to escape their normal lives.”
He released my chin, brushing his fingertips along my cheekbone before sinking them into my hair.
“But real life for those not in the nicer places is just as hard and dirty as anywhere else. If you’re from a farm too small to house a retreat, too far from the bustle of tourism, too broke to make ends meet year after year… It’s not a good place to be an omega.”
His fingers rubbed along my scalp and stroked through my hair before returning to my brow to do it again. It felt wonderful, and some of the tension in my muscles eased even as I waited for him to keep going.
“My grandfather was born and raised on his farm, just like his father before him, but a new dam to create a lake closer to one of those tourist spots cut off his water supply. Every year it got harder to make ends meet, and each year there were new people knocking on their door to buy the farm from him, but he was too proud to let it go.”
Leo had me enthralled. Soothed by the play of his fingers through my hair, and captured by the picture he painted in my head. I could imagine an older version of him, standing tall and stubborn against the inevitable.
“Mother hated the farm. She dreamed of living in a city where she didn’t have to ration her water, or tote buckets full of it through a field, ladling it onto plants in hopes that they’d produce enough to keep the family fed. So, when a strapping young alpha came offering to buy the farm, she told him he could buy her instead.”
His lips twisted at my gasp, and he chuckled as he straightened and pulled me out of the closet.
