Page 18 of Crushes and Confections

He wrapped his arms around me, turning me so that I wouldn’t have to look at the alphas.

“What did I miss?” Vance asked, sounding so fucking confused.

Well, at least I wasn’t the only one.

“Adrien is a good guy, Ri,” I told him. “No need to go feral beta bestie on him. He actually spent all afternoon helping me catch up with stock and prepping for the auction. Closed down his shop and everything.”

A small gasp left his lips as he pulled back to look at me, his brown eyes roaming over me before his fingers caught a strand of hair and held it out for me to view.

“I see,” he said slowly. “You decided to forgo the emerald wrap dress in lieu of flour. I can’t deny that this is one hell of a look too.”

“Goof,” I said, rolling my eyes and looking pointedly towards Adrien.

Riley didn’t even look contrite as he gave me one last squeeze before moving to place himself firmly in front of Adrien where Vance was waiting at his side.

“So you’re the husband?”

“I am,” Adrien said, his eyes narrowing slightly.

“I have two things to say to you and I need you to listen carefully,” Riley said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“As you wish,” Adrien said with a nod, not backing down.

“Number one,” Riley said. “Don’t you dare make Claire feel like she did something wrong when she clearly didn’t. Just because you probably alpha-ed out at how yummy she smells and how perfect she is, does not mean you get to ignore her and make her think that you didn’t like her. Not only did you hurt her feelings, but you also wasted a bunch of time when we could have already started to get to know one another.”

“Forgive me, that was never my intention,” Adrien said, his emerald eyes meeting mine before sliding back to Riley. “What is number two, mon feu?”

“Number two is that we graciously accept groveling in the form of hugs, copious amounts of sweets, and compliments,” Riley said with a smirk, clearly testing how the alpha was going to respond.

“Is that the reason you’ve never stepped foot into my shop? Out of loyalty?” Adrien questioned with a hum.

“Of course.” It was said with zero remorse or hesitation.

“Then allow me to make amends,” Adrien said with a twitch of his lips. “I can whip up a treat for after dinner should that please you.”

“And?” Riley prompted.

“You’re not going to make this easy are you?” Adrien said, holding his arms out.

They were almost the same height, Adrien only having an inch or so on Riley, but the alpha pulled him in with a fierceness I wasn’t expecting from his lithe frame and placed his lips near his ear, whispering something that had my best friend squirming where he stood.

He turned to me, a faint pink on his cheeks. “Get over here, Claire Bear. You too Vance.”

Knowing exactly what he wanted, I couldn’t deny that it was what I wanted too, and as I joined what ended up being a massive group hug, that was admittedly a tad silly, some of the last residual tension left my body.

Dual purrs sounded around me, the sounds filling me in a way I hadn’t experienced yet.

“Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s see where we are with dinner. It seems someone skipped lunch,” Adrien said, looking at me pointedly before extracting himself from us and moving towards the kitchen.

Riley gave me one last hug, checking in with me with our own means of silent communication, before moving to join Adrien.

“I hope you know just how monumental that was for him,” Vance said, sliding up to me.

I nodded slowly. “I get the impression he doesn’t make friends easily, much less anything else.”

“He’s the best person I know, Claire. I know you have questions and we’ll answer them, but it means a lot that you came tonight. Even if you decide dinner is all you want.”

Before they could all move back to the stove I stopped Adrien with a hand on his arm.

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