Page 21 of The Faceless Omega

Lennox tucked the top lid of his food container into the notch that held it shut, then tossed the entire thing into the back to be cleaned out later. “You’re right. It is a lot, but it’s also already done.” He offered her a patient smile. “We might as well get to know each other.”

Brinley studied him for another second before slowly inclining her head. Her expression softened as she opened her mouth to respond, but his phone lit up with an incoming call, catching her attention.

Lennox glanced toward the screen, fully intending to ignore it for the time being, and felt a growl of irritation build in his chest. What had gotten into that woman?

“Isn’t that—”

“My ex-fiancée, yes,” Lennox said tightly, still glaring at Matilda’s name on the screen. Twice in the same week? What deity had he pissed off?

Brinley let out a choked, bitter laugh. “If you want me to agree to an unbreakable mating bond,” she said as she gestured to the phone, “you hadbetterbe willing to answer that call in front of me. On speaker.”

The sudden challenge in her voice, in her eyes, spurred him into motion and Lennox flashed her a smirk as he reached out to catch the call. His thumb swiped across the screen and he tapped the necessary button without bothering to lift the device. “Matilda,” he greeted, keeping his tone cold.

On the other side of the line, his one-time fiancée drew a sharp breath. “Finally. Where have you been? I’ve been to see you three times this weekend and they tell me you’re not even home!”

He found himself arching a brow. “What they should have told you was that you’re unwelcome on my property.”

She huffed. “You changed your codes.”

“I did.”

“How am I supposed to pop in to see you, Len?”

He barely bit back the growl. “If you’ve called to whine over the loss of a privilege you never should have had, I’m hanging up.” And regardless, he was blocking her damn number after this conversation.

“Len, wait,” Matilda said quickly, her voice suddenly warm in some attempt to sound sultry. “I’m sorry I was rude the other day. I’ve been thinking, maybe it’s time we reunited. You know we look good together.”

Brinley looked between him and his mounted phone with dramatically arched brows.

He couldn’t offer her any reassurance. He was too busy trying not to vomit all over himself, or lose himself to the irate outrage her frivolous words triggered. Somehow, he held himself mostly together.Mostly. “The only thing I know is that neither of us was ever interested in marrying the other in the first damn place. I won’t say this again, Matilda. Stay the fuck out of my life, away from my family, and off my goddamn property. Or you’ll be hearing from my lawyers.”

“Len—” His thumb descended on the screen, cutting off the obnoxious voice of perhaps his biggest single regret.

Brinley set her emptied food tray on the dashboard and slumped back into her seat. “So … I can add ‘crazy ex’ to the list of expectations, then.”

Lennox exhaled heavily and reached again for his coffee. “Don’t worry about her. She loses interest more quickly than a toddler.”

Brinley was quiet for several seconds, opting to sip at her own drink and seeming to lose her focus out the window briefly. At length, voice quiet, she finally said, “All right then. I can’t promise how long I’ll be free, seeing as I need to be job hunting, but I can give you today.” Her gaze met his, clear and searching. “What do we do next?”

Chapter 9

Severance & Bonds

Brinleywassuretherewere at least one thousand reasons she should be running at top speed in the opposite direction from Lennox Mitchell. She had worked hard for most of Sunday to keep an objective eye open while they’d just essentially hung out, taking the time to talk about whatever popped into their minds. The only time he truly flexed his wallet was in his insistence on having her apartment cleaned while they were out, including laundry. She’d thought the suggestion was absurd—no matter how much she wasn’t looking forward to the task—but he made the call anyway. And when he took her home that night, after a long and surprisingly comfortable day, her jaw had nearly scraped the floor to see that her apartment was cleaner than she could ever remember it.

She blamed that shock, that bubbling gratitude, and most definitely not any internal desperation to keep him near her, for why she had agreed to accompany him the following day. She had no business being part of this. It really should make everything more awkward.

Yet awkward was not what she felt as she followed Lennox down the familiar little hall that led to the veritable bullpen that was her former place of employment. She felt … strong. Strangely empowered. There was a flicker of apprehension somewhere in her chest, but it didn’t catch. And she suspected all of that was to do with the powerful alpha walking just ahead of her, his broad shoulders nearly touching both sides of the hall before he cleared it. Even in the glare of the fluorescent lighting, Lennox looked every bit the indomitable businessman he was as he strode into the room in a pressed charcoal suit that pulled perfectly against his muscles.

She nearly forgot, just for a moment, about the equally sharp-dressed pair of lawyers following behind her. Lennox’s team, though she’d been so flustered outside she’d already forgotten their names. It was strange how that sensation had vanished the moment Lennox had squeezed her hand and led the way inside.

Brinley forced the reflection from her mind for the time being, her gaze traveling over her former colleagues while she side-stepped closer to Lennox. He’d asked her to stand with him, and if she was being genuine in her pursuit of giving him—them—a chance, she needed to act like she belonged there.

Her colleagues were visibly restless and every pair of eyes swung to Lennox immediately. It didn’t take long for most of them to shift to her, and most of those to show visible surprise or suspicion. Her firing the previous week hadn’t been quiet.

“What the fuck is this?” Jerrod demanded, his tone startlingly aggressive, as he rounded from his cubicle. He gestured between Lennox and Brinley, but of course his glare landed on her. “You werefired, you useless—”

Lennox snapped his fingers, the sound so unexpected in the otherwise silent space that it caught everyone’s attention and even managed to shut Jerrod up.

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