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“I’ll go get breakfast,” Felix offered. “There’s a smoothie place in town that can get you over a hangover pretty fast.”
“I’ll come with,” Jordan said quickly, before turning my way. “Are you staying here with her?”
“Yes,” I said. He stood up, stretching out his tired back, before giving me his attention again. I knew what he was going to ask before he even opened his mouth, so I gave him an answer. “Still just as stubborn. I think some things managed to make it through his thick skull but he was still holding tight to our supposed betrayal.”
Tori let out a bitter laugh and shook her head but said nothing. Felix pulled back her blanket to brush a kiss over her lips before tucking her back in.
“Anything I should know before we get you food?” Felix asked.
“I’m not picky,” she promised. “No allergies.”
“We’ll be back,” Jordan said, giving her head a kiss before he led Felix out, his hand resting on the omega’s lower back. Without the complication of business in place, it seemed he was a little more open with his new mate. I wondered if Tori would be jealous about the ease between them.
Or maybe, like me, he came to the conclusion that there was no point in holding back anymore. We all knew what we wanted. We just had to be adult enough to fucking talk about it.
Even without being able to see Tori, I knew her face well enough. I could close my eyes and picture it, so I continued on with my sketch, adding a bit of shading under her eyes and making her lips just a little more plump. The small nuances she had that I hadn’t realized I’d committed to memory so easily over the past few weeks.
I’d fallen into my art trance and didn’t notice her shifting the blanket down and crawling to the end of the couch where I was perched. When her scent filled my nose, I looked over to find her watching the paper, eyes wide with shock. I breathed in her grapefruit and champagne scent as she studied the page, her green eyes wide.
No one had seen this book before, not even my brothers. Yet, I didn’t want to pull it away, I wanted to share this piece of me without questioning it.
“You’re so talented,” she breathed out. “This makes me look so peaceful and beautiful.”
“You say it as if it’s a surprise,” I said, my voice low in the peace of this moment with her.
“I wasn’t sure you thought that way, and honestly, nobody’s ever made me feel that way.”
“That’s a tragedy,” I said with pure conviction in my tone. When she looked up, I put one finger on her chin so she couldn’t look away from me. “Tori, you are the most gorgeous woman that I’ve ever laid eyes on. I’m sorry that I let him come between us, and that won’t happen again. He can dig his own way out, but as for me, I’m going to tell your sister and brother to keep their money. I don’t need to be paid to keep you safe.”
“No, keep the job. It’s only for thirty days,” she argued. “They hired you for a reason, and you’ve done more than enough to earn that.”
“I don’t want anything between us anymore,” I argued. “I want you, Tori, more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my entire life.”
She chewed on her lip but didn’t say anything right away, and I gave her that space to think. When she spoke, she kept her eyes on me. It was hard to focus on her words when I was captivated by this blonde bombshell. She was gorgeous and had so much strength.
“I’m sorry that I dumped all of that on you guys last night. It wasn’t my intention to just give you every bit of my trauma without holding back.”
“I have a feeling you held back plenty of details. Don’t apologize. I have no regrets in knowing more about you, Tori. You broke down the last barriers that business and brotherhood built between us. I’m grateful for that.”
We shared a small smile before she snuggled back into the soft couch. Now that she was watching me, it felt strange to sketch her, so I shifted the page instead, going back to the forest I’ve been working on for days. I’d needed the tranquility.
“Is that a specific place?” she questioned. I don’t even think she realized that her hand was resting on my thigh now. The warmth of the touch burned right through the sweatpants I was wearing and right into my soul. Her touch made me feel grounded in a way I’d never felt before.
“The only reprieve I ever got in childhood was when I’d go visit my grandparents. They didn’t care that I was just a beta, and they were some of my only good memories. They owned property that was lined with woods. This clearing was tucked in the trees, far enough the sound of civilization was lost but closeenough to hear my grandma call for me. It always felt like my secret spot.”
My finger skimmed lightly over the page, and I tapped the center.
“Just beyond this huge, gnarled tree is a bridge and a small creek. It was so quiet there. I’d lose myself in the scent of the forest surrounding me, the soft flow of the water, the warmth of the summer. There, it felt like I was untouchable.”
“I had a place like that,” she admitted. “In my parents’ house, it felt like nothing was ever mine. My father was quick to remind us of our place. He said he gave us everything and he could easily take it away. Everything came with a price, from the food we consumed to the school he paid for and then yanked away.”
“He’s a bastard,” I offered. She let out a soft chuckle but didn’t argue.
“One summer, my dad had taken Micah on a trip to Europe. Ellie, of course, didn’t get to go, but she was always her own person. She would study, determined to get out of there. She was always so smart. Me… I was just jealous and sad. My mom was nowhere to be found, Ellie was always closer to my grandpa. I felt like I had no one.”
“Do they know?”
“My siblings? No. They were there when they could be but they had their own stuff to work through.”
