Page 8 of Knot a Thief

“Nothing,” I lie, pushing thoughts of intense eyes and that voice aside. “Just checking my starting locations for tomorrow.”

Tomorrow, the winning driver will take around two hours to start and finish the Grand Prix. And then most of the people watching will move onto the various events, but we haven’t factored that in. Two hours is all we are giving ourselves to get the job done.

Our first target is a Prince, no less, and that should thrill me, but I can’t shake away the feeling that something has shifted. Like the carefully laid plans we’ve been working on for months might be about to unravel in ways I never could have predicted.

I stride forward, a flash of familiar broad shoulders in the crowd catches my eye. The alpha from earlier is across the street, engaged in what looks like an intense conversation with another man—tall, broad shouldered, wide chest—another alpha.

I narrow my eyes as I stare at them as an uneasy feeling settles in my stomach because I’m sure I recognize the other man. There’s something about him that doesn’t fit with the usual crowd here.

He’s too … alert.

Far too aware.

“Ava?” Seb’s voice interrupts my thoughts. “You’ve gone quiet. Are you sure everything’s okay? You're worrying me.”

I shake my head, forcing myself to focus. “Yeah, just … thinking. We might need to adjust our plans a bit. I’ll fill you in later.”

“Okay. Get back to the yacht, and we’ll relax until tomorrow.”

“Roger that.”

Chapter 2

Seb

“Do you need knotting to calm your nerves?” I ask as I push Ava into the master cabin.

It sounds ridiculous. As a thirty-year-old beta, how can I knot Ava, my twenty-two-year-old omega?

Two years ago, I could never imagine having this beautiful omega as mine. But now I do. And I never want to lose her.

And although I love her words of being mine, I can never take away the haunted thoughts I have that one day an alpha will come along and sweep her off her feet.

She denies it. Telling me after being kidnapped by an alpha when she was eighteen years old, and then her stepfather selling her to Garrett Jameson, the billionaire owner of the Jameson Hotel chain not long afterwards, only for Garrett to reject her. That Ava is not getting involved with an alpha ever again.

She’s adamant. Yet, I just can’t see it.

“No. I only need you. I’m only yours.”

I smile. I enjoy using the sex toy on Ava, but I love it more when she wants what I give her.

But I know she’s an omega with needs.

Needs that she uses me for.

Her sexual appetite is higher than mine, and that surprises even me. Since the day we took each other’s virginities, making me who I am, our sex life is out of this world.

I love sex with her, but I hate the insecurity I feel afterward, wondering if I’m enough for her.

One day when I feel brave enough to share her, I’ll make her go through a heat. Not with any random alpha, but in a controlled environment, like a heat hotel.

I just don’t know when that day will be.

I feel a tap on the side of my head and I realize I’m in my maudlin thoughts again.

“What’s going through your head, Mr. Lindon?”

As I snap back to reality, I turn to face Ava, her question lingering in the air. I take a moment to gather my thoughts before responding.

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