Page 52 of The Mating Game
12
Hunter
The problem withcalling myself Tess’sfriendis that I don’t think thatfriendsthink of each other the way I’ve been thinking of her for the last week. We’ve been perfectlyfriendlywhen she comes to me with questions or asks for my help in making decisions regarding her current project; her brothers have also been a tad friendlier when interacting with me. Even if one of them keeps asking me if I have fangs.
I have to assume that’s a shifter question.
The problem, I think, is that after that day in the snow…I can’t stop looking at her. My eyes gravitate toward her whenever she’s in the same room; they search for her when she isn’t. And even if it’s biology, if it’s just instinct, it feels impossible to stop. I’m doing it right now—watching her chatter into the camera that her brother Kyle holds as she gushes over the original wood floors she’s unearthed by ripping up the seventies-style carpet that was covering it. She’s so much more animated in front of the camera, so light and not nearly as serious as she normally seems, and I…like this side of her. It makes me want to get to knowthatside of Tess.
“If you keep staring at that girl, you’re going to burn a hole in the side of her head.”
I jolt in my seat at the front desk, whipping my eyes away from the opening to the great room, where Tess is working, to find Jeannie looking down at me with an amused expression.
I feel my cheeks heat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Her lips purse; she’s holding Reginald in her arms, the massive fur ball giving me a look much like his mother’s that screams,Bullshit.
“You wanna tell me why I can smell you on her?”
I tense. I’ve been so concerned with making sure Tess’s brothers didn’t suspect anything that I didn’t give any thought to my very muchshifteraunt, whose sense of smell would no doubt be the biggest threat to our little secret. I try to make myself look busy by typing something nonsensical on the ancient Gateway computer—I’m not even sure how it still works—and shrug.
“Maybe we bumped into each other.”
“ ‘Bumped into each other,’ ” she echoes blandly.
I shrug again. “Maybe.”
“One hell of a bump,” Jeannie chuckles.
I glare up at her from my seat. “Say what you want to say.”
“I’m not saying anything,” she urges. “Just worry about you is all.”
“Well, I’m fine.”
“I just remember how you were after Chloe—”
“It’s not like that,” I cut her off forcefully. “She’s…going through some things.”
Jeannie cocks her head. “What sorts of things?”
I glance back at Tess, who is still recording. It’s not really my place to spread her business, but then again, I know that Jeanniewon’t say anything, and honestly, I could use advice from someone whoisn’tmy android cousin.
“She didn’t know she was an omega until two weeks ago.”
Jeannie rears back. “What? How is that possible?”
“We talked about it.”After I talked her through an orgasm.“Apparently, it’s called ‘late presentation.’ Her entire life, she thought she was a beta. Then the day she shows up in Colorado, she finds out that she’sactuallyan omega.”
“Wow.” Jeannie glances in the other room, scratching Reginald’s head idly. “Poor girl.” Her eyes widen suddenly. “Wait, does that mean she’s never shifted before?”
“She hadn’t,” I tell her. “Not until a week ago. I…taught her how. I’ve gone out with her a couple evenings this week to help her practice.”
Unfortunately, with no more happy endings.
Wait. Unfortunately? That’s not right. It’s agoodthing she hasn’t shown any more symptoms.
“That must have been terrifying,” Jeannie notes.
