Page 6 of The Faceless Omega

“Are you single?”

He was kind of proud of her for slamming the brakes as soon as she’d thought past her own immediate circumstance. The question was valid and smart. “Yes.” His lips kicked up before he could stop them. “Unless you’re offering?”

Her silver-painted nostrils flared and he was almost positive her cheeks were flushed under her dual-layered disguise. Fuck, but he wanted to see that.

She ducked her gaze. “Shouldn’t you be asking me now?”

Lennox gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “You don’t strike me as the straying type,” he said honestly. “You would have ditched me some time ago.” Her reservations about dancing with strangers, her instincts on which men to actively avoid, and her hesitation on accepting his own offer were all proof enough that this wasn’t the kind of woman who slept around. Or maybe he was lying to himself.

She looked up at him again. “I can’t decide if you’re really good at reading people, or if you have some kind of gambling problem.” Her lips were lifted this time in a faintly teasing manner and he could tell she’d relaxed again.

He matched her expression. “That’s not the sort of thing you can learn about a person in a single evening,” he replied. He released her hand in order to properly offer her his arm, a move which adjusted his body to face the direction of the exit by necessity. “Shall we?”

Her shoulders rose with one more quiet breath, as if she were steadying herself, and she looped her arm through his. “Okay. One dance.”

Chapter 3

One Dance, One Night

WhileBrinleywasgawkingat the luxury apartment her mystery alpha described as a hotel suite, the man himself had taken the opportunity to put on some soft, rhythmic music. By the time she turned her gaze away from the multiple rooms with possibly leather furniture and that glimpse of a massive bed she hadn’t meant to see, he was striding toward her again.

Her mouth watered and a fresh pulse of desire washed through her. He’d also shed his suitcoat. The deep green fabric of the button-down he wore was stretched just well enough across his broad torso so as to emphasize his strong physique, but in no way did it appear about to spontaneously pop open. She refused to acknowledge the part of her that felt that was a damn shame.

But that more impulsive, carnal voice was followed by the even less desirable voice of self-doubt. What could a man—an alpha, no less—so clearly well off and so handsome want with a female like her? He didn’t know she was an omega. She was almost positive. So to him, she was just an ordinary human with too much body weight. Yes, it was somewhat proportioned so as to give her a nice hourglass shape, and she knew she had large boobs. But if he wasn’t just looking for a quick and dirty fuck, then what was the point of all this?

His lips dipped into a frown and suddenly he was touching her again, his finger curled under her chin. “Even seeing only half of your face, I can tell something’s upsetting you. What is it?”

Her heart did not flutter at the concern in his words or the careful way he avoided caging her in. Most definitely not at his nearness, and the quickly rising intensity of his natural scent already beginning to surround her.

She hadn’t factored that into her decision. Her thoughts had been too scrambled to consider either of their scents, or the fact that the private rooms most likely did not have the odor diffusors that had aided her down in the ballroom.

Brinley licked her lips and shoved that concern aside for later. She still had the help of her lotion. With her own natural scent so thoroughly muted, he was that much more likely to become convinced of her human blood. Which rounded her back to the confusion and disappointment she hadn’t been prepared to feel.

A whine built up in her throat and she barely caught it in time to bite it back.Do. Not. Whine.That was one tell-tale trait of her nature she’d had to learn to control the hard way, as best she could.

She dug up her voice and said, “Sorry. It was just a moment. I’m okay.”

The part of his expression she could see was visibly unconvinced. “If you’ve changed your mind…”

Brinley pulled his hand from her face and held it between both of hers, her clutch already resting on a small table close to the door. Easy to remember later. “No,” she said. “Honestly? I just can’t fully understand why the man in front of me would be interested in wasting his evening with a woman like me.” It made her a little uncomfortable to speak that insecurity to a stranger, but she felt like she was deceiving him enough as it was.

“A woman like you?” He repeated the words slowly, carefully, before promptly tugging her into his chest and winding his other arm around her back. “What, precisely, do you think is so inadequate about yourself?” He held her tightly to him, moved her hands to his chest, and slipped that hand free to cup her jaw again. With that grip he tipped her head back, catching her surely widened gaze. “It’s true, I don’t know your background. I don’t know your face. But I can see you are beautiful. All evening, I’ve watched you treat strangers with kindness even when they don’t greet you the same. I’ve watched you take care to mind your surroundings, keeping hold of your handbag and your drink, making rational judgments as to which people not to approach at all. Do you think I care that you won your way into tonight’s party?”

His words were gruff, spoken more vehemently than he’d directly addressed her all night. That was probably the only reason she heard them over the heart-pounding recognition of precisely what was pressing into her belly. She wasn’t stupid. She just … she hadn’t expected him to become so bold about it, she supposed.

He stroked his thumb under her chin. “Well?”

Crap.Brinley swallowed and compulsively curled her fingers into his shirt. “Not so much that,” she admitted, too quietly. “I’m … you know.” She dropped her gaze as much as his physical hold allowed. “I’m fat.” And normally she was not one to get in her head about that, but this man was so in shape she couldn’t help but feel self-conscious.

He growled low, released her face entirely in order to loop that arm around her shoulders, and the next thing she knew his mouth was beside her ear. “It’s taking everything in me to be gentleman enough not to tackle you to the goddamn floor and fuck you until the sun comes up. But if you call yourselffatone more time, so help me, that is precisely what I will do.”

The breath stuttered out of her as she attempted to process his declaration.

No man had ever actually spoken to her like that. She’d only ever read that sort of pure alpha male nonsense in books.

His entire chest vibrated with a low, rumbling growl. “Damn, you smell better than I’d hoped,” he said on a groan.

Brinley’s eyes flew wide and panic seized her heart for an instant.No!She’d gotten swept up in the moment! His face was right over her stupid scent glands. After hours in heels and the extra tension of an alpha’s nearness, she’d definitely done enough sweating to threaten the efficacy of her lotion at such minimal distance. All she could think to do was push at his chest and pray he’d ease up.

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