Page 136 of Ashley & the A-Listers

“If we were making up for lost time, we would’ve stayed locked up in your room for about a week,” she muttered.

Dylan snorted. “Maybe we’ll have our chance. Cam’s gonna be plenty distracted soon.”

“Why? Where will you be?”

“I guess I didn’t realize how fast time was flying by,” Dylan said, pulling out his phone to check his calendar. “Cam’s heat will be coming up, and then it’s pretty much straight filming until?—“

“Cam’s heat?” Ashley questioned slowly, as if trying out the words.

Dylan was absently scrolling his calendar, until he felt the electricity of her interest. He glanced up. “Yeah, he’s on suppressants, but it’ll fuck him up if he goes six whole months without a heat, so he’s planned it for after training and before filming.”

“That’s a thing? You can just… plan it?” she asked.

Dylan nodded. “I know, right? Weird concept. He can just stop taking his suppressants and as long as all his, uh, omega needs are satisfied, it should kick in. I think. I don’t really know how it all works.”

“And where will you be during his heat?” she probed.

Dylan narrowed his eyes at the odd tone in her voice, and tried to read her through their bond.Where do you want me to be?He stopped himself from asking, visions already filling his head.

“Do you help during the heats?” she pressed.

“Uh… no. That wasn’t in the job description,” Dylan answered, swallowing. “I’m the bodyguard, so I’ll be guarding the front door while the two of them are going through it,” he said, and waved a hand behind his head to encompass River and Cam.

“But River’s a beta,” Ashley pointed out. “Omegas want alphas during heats, don’t they?”

Suddenly, it all came together.

Omegasdidwant alphas during their heats. And he had a perfect candidate right in front of him.

Dylan shrugged, playing it casual. “I figure they have their ways around it. I mean, they’ve been seeing each other for years, no matter if ithasbeen under the radar, so they’ve been getting around it one way or another.”

“Right,” Ashley said, low and slow, and then sinking into the cushions once more beside him.

Dylan lifted an arm and she curled into his side.

“You interested?” he asked, finally placing that little hitch in the bond between them.

“No, no, nothing like that,” she said, far too quickly. A lie. “I’ve always heard omegas practicallyneedan alpha during a heat, so my mind immediately went there when you said you’d behere. During it.”

He tightened his arm around her, squeezing her close. “I’m not interested in Cam like that. Also, I’d never agree to something like that without consulting you. We’re bonded, remember?” he teased, turning his gaze to the cotton candy sky.

Ashley hummed. “Yeah, right.”

Dylan sensed there was something she wasn’t saying. Did she want to see Cameron through the heat? It… didn’t bother Dylan like he once thought it might have. Instead, the idea of her alphaing Cam through a heat made him a little hot under the collar. The way Cam would beg for her lock…

Okay, calm down.

He might not have realized it when he was first getting to know Ashley again, but Ashley was agoodalpha. She deserved an omega to take care of, to spoil. Dylan could still spoil her, too, of course, but he had the idea she’d find more fulfillment doing the spoiling.

Before he could dive in and ask, a knock on the glass door to the balcony sounded, and they both turned to find River sheepishly opening the door.

“Sorry to interrupt, but dinner’s here.”

“Nothing to be sorry about,” Dylan said, and helped Ashley to her feet even though she needed no help at all.

“You two just looked so cozy out there,” he said.

“Sunset was pretty, company was prettier,” Dylan said, and watched Ashley’s cheeks go as pink as the clouds.

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