Page 34 of Craving Their Omega

It feels light and airy, even though the sun is setting. The decor is tasteful and unobtrusive, adding splashes of color here and there. The walls are neutral shades, but there’s art and the furniture is in different jewel tones. It all looks sophisticated and elegant, and it seems the other two Alphas agree as they take it all in.

Penelope hangs back, her eyes still so wide. As the others start to move through the entry way into the living room, she seems rooted to the spot, like she’s afraid to go anywhere or touch anything.

“Hey.” I go over to her and nudge her shoulder with my arm. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she says again, too quickly. I give her a look and she relents a little. “It’s just that I’ve never lived anywhere like this before. I’m not sure what I should… do.” Her nose wrinkles at that, like it’s not what she wanted to say or she’s embarrassed to have said it.

“It’s your home for the next year,” I tell her. “So you can do whatever you want. Decorate your spaces, change out the furniture, go wild. We want you to be happy here.”

She looks at me, and there’s something hesitant yet hopeful in her mismatched eyes. “Really?”

I shrug. “Sure, why not? Listen, shortcake, this is new for all of us, right? We’re all figuring this out together. Maybe we have more experience living in big, fancy houses, but living all together is going to be a completely new experience for us all.”

Dominic nods and even Tristan grunts his agreement.

Penelope bites her lip, looking around at the three of us and then tipping her head back to take in the sky light in the front part of the living room.

“I guess… it’ll be an adventure for the four of us,” she murmurs.

I give her what I hope is a reassuring smile, and I notice that Dominic and Tristan are both watching her with intense eyes. No telling what they’re thinking in this moment, really.

We all stand there, and something that’s not quite tension but not quite comfortable silence grows as the moment stretches on.

Unsurprisingly, it’s Tristan that breaks it, turning to go up the stairs, presumably to find his own room.

Dominic follows, and Penelope gives me a shaky smile before going up behind him.

I stand at the bottom of the stairs for a while longer, looking around and soaking up the lingering traces of Penelope’s scent. Already it’s making the house feel more like a home. When we picked this place out, it smelled sterile, empty, but Penelope’s sweet scent washes away anything impersonal about this place.

I savor it for one more moment and then head up the stairs to my room.

It feels good to strip out of my fancy wedding clothes and take a shower, letting the day wash off me and swirl down the drain. One of the big things for this house was the fact that there are four large bedrooms with their own private baths, so no one has to wait for anyone else to finish bathing or peeing or whatever before they can have their turn.

Growing up with siblings, I know how important that is.

Once I’m clean, I flop onto the bed, letting the quiet wash over me. It’s nice, after a long day of putting on a show, to be able to just relax for a bit.

I lose track of time, and when someone knocks on my door, it startles me out of my thoughts. “Come in,” I call, moving to sit on the edge of the bed.

The door creaks open and Penelope steps in. She’s also showered and changed, and her face is clean and free of her wedding makeup. Her hair is damp, and it falls around her shoulders in a soft curtain. The wedding dress looked amazing on her, but so does the oversized t-shirt and sweatpants she’s in now.

There’s just something about her that’s naturally beautiful. Something that makes it hard to look away.

As she stares at me, I realize I didn’t bother to put a shirt on after I showered, and her eyes flick over my chest and arms before darting up to my face. Something like a blush spreads over her cheeks, and the tension from before is definitely back.

It’s not the same tension, not the loaded semi-awkwardness from downstairs, but there’s a moment where the air seems to grow thick.

My fingers itch with the need to touch her. To sweep her damp hair back out of her face and trace the shell of her ear. To follow it down to the soft column of her neck to the place where one shoulder peeks out of the wide neckline of her shirt.

There’s something almost hungry in her gaze, and it looks good on her.

“If you keep looking at me like that, I might just lose my gentleman card,” I say, teasing her with a grin.

Her cheeks flood with color, and she snaps herself out of it, her tongue darting out to lick her lips. “I’m sorry,” she says quickly. “I didn’t mean—I just wanted to say… um, thank you. For earlier. Today has been a lot, and you keep being there to stop me from freaking out, and I really appreciate it.”

“No problem. Really. I mean, we sort of dragged you into this, right? I know you agreed to it and laid down your own boundaries, but at the end of the day, this is mostly something you’re doing for us. To save our company. So if there’s anything I can do to make this easier on you, I want to do it.”

“So I don’t blow the whole thing?” she asks, her smile tipping into something teasing.

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