Page 28 of Finding the Forward: Part One
“Bad blockers.” Her shoulders slumped.
“Astroke.Are you okay?” I asked. Blockers. She took alpha-blockers. That was why I didn’t smell that she was an alpha on the plane. It wasn’t very common. She probably had lots of omega siblings and did it out of courtesy, like my alpha brother who had an omega twin.
“I will be. Of course, instead of the parents being worried, I got lectures about how it was my fault for taking them. You know what I realized? I’ll never be enough for them. I’ll never be a good alpha because to them I was never good enough to be an alpha.” The corners of her mouth turned down in a frown.
Oh, Kitten.My heart went out to her.
“I’m happy you had that realization. You got away from them, didn’t you? That’s why you’re here in New York?” I drank my coffee, trying to put everything together.
“I never went back. When I crawled out the window to catch my plane, I didn’t think that I’d never return.” Her look went pensive.
I fisted my free hand to keep from cupping her face with it and wiping away that look with my lips.
“Mercy went pro, and you came with her?” I’m sure that didn’t go well with the parents.
“Yes. It turned out that my professor that was leaving Briar was coming here. Hereallyencouraged me to join him. I wasn’t sure I’d be ready because of the stroke. Then the skate smashdraft happened. We weren’t expecting to hear Mercy’s name. It waschaosand the parents were livid.” She took a sip of her drink.
Yeah, I could see that.
“I’m happy that you’re both here,” I told her.And safe.
“I don’t mind taking care of her; I just didn’t want to drop out of my PhD program. So, I accepted the offer and we told the parents to fuck off. The judge sided with Mercy when she got emancipated. One of my brothers rebelled and is openly studying music, even though the parents forbade him. It’s anarchy now among us kids now that they dissolved the pack.” She gave a derisive chuckle.
“Oh no, not music.” I laughed. I’d studied music at BosTec.
She laughed, eyes glimmering. “I know. I’m a bad influence. And here we are. Single and free to mingle.”
Yes, please.I wanted all her bad influences to mingle with me.
“I’m glad she has a sister like you. You like it here?” I ate my cake pop in one bite, the chocolate exploding over my tongue. I had a major sweet tooth.
She took another sip and nodded. “I’ve always liked it here. The Maimers have made us feel at home. NYIT was generous. We’re okay. While my siblings made a lot of this happen, I want to do as much myself as I can.”
Noted. She seemed like the sort of person who was proud and self-sufficient to a fault.
“Question: If the parents are strict and didn’t let you have much freedom, how did you convince them to let you model bikinis?” I asked, a smile on my lips.
“You saw that. While I’ve always had a lot of responsibilities, the parents weren’t always insufferable. Basically, I like cute things and started out doing local stuff for free clothes. I loved it. Fútbol got expensive in high school. My cousin in France got mea couple of modeling jobs so I could help pay for things. It went from there.” Verity ate another bite of cake.
“Personally, I like the one of you in the red bikini under the waterfall.” The one of her on a runway in an evening gown was my second favorite.
“A favor to my cousin. Anyhow, when I started my PhD, I got too busy to do more than the occasional job. Now that I’m here in New York, I hope to do more, though I’m still pretty busy. The parents have opinions. They always do. Even when I’m not speaking to them.” She gave a look of defeat.
“Fuck them.” I hated that they didn’t see in decades what I saw in moments.
Her look went coy. “I’d rather fuck you.”
“I’d like that.” Oh, the fun we could have.
“What Mercy said, about tying you up and spanking you, I... I’ll try if that’s what you like, but I’m not really that kind of alpha. I’m sorry.” She got busy with her cake slice.
“That’s perfect, Kitten. While I’ll absolutely let you do that to me, I’d be more than happy to do that to you. You want to be taken care of in the bedroom?” I met her gaze as I turned on the smolder. “I can take care of you so well. Make you come so hard like I did on the plane.”
Her eyes closed, and her scent flared with want as she finished her cake, hopefully imagining whatever she wanted me to do to her.
Dean and I had discussed it. As long as she knew about him, and I’d kiss and tell, he was fine with me exploring whatever this was between us.
I’d brought it up with AJ, who’d just saidwhateverand stalked off.But he had a lot going on at work and worried about me seeing a stranger, which I understood.
