Page 46 of Brandy Snap: Part One

My thoughts went back to all the strange things Caspian said between kisses and thrusts. When I was fighting him, before he rubbed his cock on me and my world exploded. They kept saying I’d gone there deliberately, that I’d targeted them, that I’d planned it all…

And it had made absolutely zero sense. Until now.

“Lucielle, do you think someone paid to send me there? A guest or someone outside of the Spa?”

“No.” I could even hear her shaking her head. “Absolutely not. Why would someone do that? The Spa—hell, the Knottinghill Group prides itself on its integrity. Everyone who works for us is treated with the utmost respect.”

“You sound like one of those training videos,” I chuckled.

“Well, I did star in them!”

Her laugh was the briefest relief from the weight settling between us. Her voice died away and we descended into another heavy silence.

“Mel…” Lucielle said quietly. “You know what this means, right? Work-wise?”

My breath caught in the back of my throat and my eyes closed as I guessed what was coming. In the space between leaving the heat suite and reaching my bed, my mind had been spinning like crazy, and rattling around in there was: how was I going to keep my job? Whether it was sleeping with guests or being an omega, both were good causes for firing me, and even suing me for a breach of contract.

“I can get scent blockers, heat blockers,” I said, the pitch of my voice rising with each word until the panic set in. “I can use all those sprays and gels and whatever else to hide it. I just need your help to do it.”

“Mel, I can’t—”

“Lucielle,please. I’m asking you as a friend. Ineedthis job.” But it sounded like they already knew what I'd done and they were going to fire me anyway.

“I know,” she whispered. “Come on, I know how much you need it. But I can’t let you put yourself in danger.”

“I’ll be okay! You can put me down in the laundry rooms or I can work out on the edge of the estate. Or put me in an office somewhere filing papers. Just, anything. Lucielle, please, just anything.”

A tear slipped free as I bent forward, pressing my hand flat against the mattress to control the ache in my core.

“Mel…”

I was trembling, even more tears spilling over. Was I ever going to stop crying? I’d read that heats made omegas more emotional, but I didn’t think it would be this bad.

“Babe, what if you get cornered by an alpha and there’s no one to protect you? Or if you accidentally perfume in front of the senior managers and they have you arrested? There’s nothing I can do. I’m not just talking as your manager, I’m saying this as your friend. There’s a rule about omegas working as staff for a reason.”

I shouldn’t have told her. I should have just kept quiet, even though I was so desperate to find someone to connect to.

“Can you give me another week?” I croaked, embarrassing myself as I faked a cough. “I’ve got my sick leave and my paid holiday. Just put me down for those until I can figure out what I’m going to do.”

“Yeah, I can do that. That’s fine. But I’m not going to lie to you. I can maybe see if I can make you redundant, get you some kind of payout so you can keep going for a bit so you can look after your mum and not hate me for the rest of your life.”

I knew she was just making a joke, but there wasn’t a chance of it landing.

“I’m technically still ill,” I said hurriedly, as another wave of heat wracked my body. “My heat isn’t over yet. That counts as sick leave.”

“I said yes, Mel. Please, don’t push me.”

There was another heavy sigh at the end of the line. Lucielle was one of the people in my life I shared everything with. We knew so much—too much—about each other, yet the way I’d left Sin and Kai hurt even more than my best friend telling me she was firing me because of something I couldn’t control.

“I think it's best that you just stay away. If you've really presented, then I don't know what they might do to you.”

My sadness welled up in a ball at the back of my throat. I'd worked there for so long, did whatever I could to make sure I was a good and reliable employee, and something like this had ruined everything.

“I need to go,” I said softly. More pain spiralled through me, growing fiercer by the minute, and I needed to at least do something to help myself. And I didn’t want this conversation to become any more awkward.

“Sure. But I’m here, Mel. You know that, right? Just let me know if you need anything. Food, clothes, whatever. Nothing’s off limits. Just call me again, okay?”

“I will. I promise,” I said. Which was a total lie.

---