Page 38 of Hired for Research
17. Evelyn
Her head was throbbing, the sting on her cheek a sharp counterpoint to the dull ache. The day had been a disaster since she’d woke up and she wanted nothing more than to go crawl back in bed, but even that had been taken from her by the weather.
Watching the workers that morning had been interesting, but she’d found herself too distracted to pay attention to the way they were interacting to see if there was any kind of dominance or pecking order at play. Jett’s scent would surround her, teasing her senses until the wind brushed it away and replaced it with the smell of the other alphas working close by. It agitated her until she’d raised Jett’s gloves to her face and blocked out their stench.
Then the waiter at the diner irritated her further when he came to their table, eyeing Jett the whole time. She may not have a claim on Jett, but it was still rude for the other omega to eye-fuck the man she was with right in front of her.
Things grew foggy after that. She didn’t remember the food even coming to the table, only that she was fighting to keep from burrowing into the alpha beside her and turning him into her meal. She had no interest in food, but his leather and spice scent coated her throat and made herhungry. She’d salivated at the thought of extending her tongue and licking along the strip of skin peeking above his collar, and she’d been seconds from doing it when that damn piece of hail smacked some sense into her.
She didn’t pay attention to what floor they got off on after Jett ushered her into a tiny elevator. They weren’t in there long, but long enough that she knew they weren’t on the first few floors.
They stepped out into a plain hallway with beige walls and simple light sconces spaced every few feet. The flooring was something hard and durable, dark enough not to show scuffs, though it wasn’t black.
Her first peek at his apartment when he opened the door was the same. Dark wood flooring that she couldn’t tell for sure was real or laminate led into deep grey carpeting. His kitchen was immediately to the left when she entered, the wooden cabinets a few shades lighter than the floor, with dark blue countertops. There was a small dining table pushed against the wall on her right that they passed to step into his living room.
She doubted Jett had much company since he only had a single couch facing his big screen TV, the coffee table in between mostly bare besides a book and a remote sitting beside it. As big as he was, even one other alpha in the room would make it feel cramped.
“Here, let me take your coat.”
She turned to face Jett as she pulled off one glove. All of her was wet and her fingers were so numb it took three tries to pull it off, but besides her toes and her cheeks, the rest of her still felt perfectly warm.
He took the gloves from her and helped her out of her coat, hanging it on a rack beside the door where he’d put his. She pulled off the cap and passed it to him too, guilt filling her as she took in the flattened curls atop his head and the little rivulets of water running down his neck.
Her tongue slipped out, wetting her lips as she watched a bead trail down from his ear to his shoulder before tipping forward and getting caught in the hollow of his throat. Once again she wondered what his skin tasted like. Would it be peppery like his scent? She’d never been one for spicy food, but she’d been craving it since coming to Eden.
“I’ll grab some towels,” he said, slipping past her through the only other door. She caught a glimpse of the foot of a bed with a black cover, but when she went to step forward, the wet skirt clinging to her legs distracted her. The end of it had soaked up a lot of rain and made it heavy and uncomfortable, so she grabbed the waistband and pushed it off her hips since she had tights on beneath it.
A growl filled the room before being choked off. She turned to stare up at Jett, her core clenching as her already tight nipples stiffened further.
“It-It’s wet. I didn’t want it dripping on your floor or anything.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, his mouth opening and closing before he spoke.
“I’ll hang it in the bathroom to dry.”
One hand raised, palm up, empty, while the other held out a fluffy grey towel. It took her a moment to close the distance between them and place her skirt in his hand before accepting the towel. Jett’s eyes never left her, burning a path along her skin as they raked down her body and back up to her face.
He swallowed again before turning and disappearing back into the bedroom. The entire apartment smelled like him, but the aroma wafting from the doorway ahead of her drew her forward, her mouth watering and wetness gathering between her thighs. She wanted to find the source of the scent and wallow in it, covering herself so anyone else who got close would know Jett was the only alpha she was interested in.
Taking another step forward, she jerked herself up short when Jett moved into the doorway, blocking her view of the rest of his room.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have a hairdryer or anything.”
It was hard for her to pull her concentration back to the reason she was in his apartment.
“It’s fine.”
She dabbed at her hair with the towel. His cap had saved her from the worst of the rain, and there wasn’t a lot a towel was going to do for her hair. Her tights were a little damp too, but her skirt had absorbed most of the water, and it wasn’t like she could remove them in front of Jett.
Well, she could…
“Let’s get your shoes off too.”
Jett knelt in front of her, and it wasn’t until then that she realized he’d removed his by the door, and she was standing on his carpet in her soggy ankle boots.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Stepping over so she wasn’t getting his carpet any wetter, she froze when a large hand wrapped around her calf. Staring as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world, Evelyn watched as Jett raised her leg to rest the tip of her boot on his knee, his deft fingers pulling down the little tab on the zipper before slipping the leather off her tingling foot.
