Page 79 of Curvy Dirty Omega

I eyed him as I reached for my water, wondering why he still seemed so on edge. “Honestly, I want to be mad you surprised me with an outing I didn’t agree to, but you did so well with your choice that I can’t really commit to hating this.”

Liam flashed me a smile, but it disappeared so quickly I paused mid-sip, wondering if I’d imagined it. “I think that’s the first time you’ve complimented me, Lucy, and I have to admit, it’s making me feel a bit reckless.”

There was something wrong with this man.

The second I opened my mouth, I knew I’d regret asking him this question, but there were only so many questions I could keep to myself before one eventually popped out. Unfortunately, I didn’t always get to pick which question I would blurt out.

“Why does that make you feel reckless?”

“I just do.” Liam smiled slightly, but that dangerous glint in his eyes was still there and with the dim lighting, the garnet color looked just as luminescent as Cassius’s gemlike blue.

Liam had always been difficult to look away from, but when he was on edge like this, I just couldn’t stop staring and I had no idea why. Was it the air of barely restrained violence, or was it how different he looked like this? Like he’d taken off a mask and finally shown me just how sharp all his teeth were.

I froze when he reached out and traced the edge of the black bow in my hair, that slight, secretive smile of his widening ever so slightly. “You look adorable in this,” he admitted. “But you’re impossible to read, and I’m not quite sure how to deal with that. It’s almost like you exist just to test me.”

Those words felt like a lie when everything he did made me wonder how the fuck he could know me so well when we’d spent so little time together.

This legacy alpha was dangerous, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to care when he looked at me like this…

Like I was the only person in the world.

I was a fucking idiot to think I could ever resist this kind of devotion, even if it was just pretend.

CHAPTER 27

Lucy

Things between Liam and I were super weird, and I couldn’t keep ignoring it. That I’d done so for this long was already out of character for me, and if I kept pretending…

“Can I ask you something?”

He nodded and for a second I thought he was going to brush his thumb over my cheek, but he reached for his water glass instead and I hated how disappointed I felt even if I was also relieved.

I was so tired of feeling conflicted. It was fucking exhausting.

“Is it a legacy alpha thing to pick up on an omega’s preferences and needs without directly asking about them?”

Liam’s slight smile disappeared and his gaze shifted to the lights of the city instead of me for the first time since we’d gotten here.

There was definitely something bothering him, and it wasn’t the death of his brother. That was a different emotion, but maybe this weird rage that was just under the surface of his skin was somehow related.

“To some degree,” Liam finally admitted, setting his glass down. His gaze dropped to study the water in the glass and I wondered if I’d accidentally pushed him over the edge with my stupid mouth. “All alphas are sensitive to the needs of an omega, even ones we aren’t bonded to, but legacy alphas are even more sensitive.”

It was strange. Liam was giving off the same air that Frankie did sometimes, as though he needed to take care of me to settle some of his rage. I would never pretend to understand why alphas got like this, but doing things for me had always helped calm Frankie down.

Maybe that’s why he’d arranged this dinner without asking me.

Alphas could get even more violent if someone other than an omega was around them when they got all weird. That he hadn’t snapped at any of the servers or the hostess was already an impressive display of restraint, and it explained why he kept ignoring them.

But I had no idea why I was the one who could settle someone as powerful and intense as Liam Valor.

I sipped at my water and considered what I knew about him?—

“Everything about you is a mystery,” Liam murmured, interrupting my thoughts. I flicked my gaze back to him when my heart rate picked up for some unknown reason. “You make your external preferences pretty obvious. It’s not difficult to pick up on, and your scent is faint but I can still get a hint of your emotions even with those scent damn blockers on. I just can’t stop wondering why you wear them like that.”

His glowing red eyes met mine and it shocked me enough I reached up to touch my scent blockers to make sure they were still there, as if they’d magically disappeared since the last time I’d checked.

It was an anxious tic, but it settled me every time so I hadn’t ever tried to keep myself from doing it. At least not until those dangerous red eyes dropped to watch my hand mess with them.

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