Knight Life In Vegas (Sin City Omegas #3)

Chapter 14

T his was so deeply unfair I didn’t even know what to do. Sending the boys to their room to eat their jelly beans and watch cartoons on the tablet gave me peace in one sense, but then that left me alone with Beau and his maddeningly perfect scent. Vanilla musk and cinnamon with a hint of lavender. I knew he was wealthy, but I didn’t expect him to smell expensive too.

I wrestled down the instinctive desire to plaster myself against him. I needed to stay in control.

“How do you like your towels folded?” he asked, pausing in front of my mountains of laundry.

“In half, then in half again, then in thirds. They don’t fit in the linen closet otherwise.”

He nodded stiffly and cleared himself a space to sit on the couch, nudging things away so he had a folding space. Seeing a man folding laundry was almost a surreal experience. We had a laundry service back in New York for the last decade, and before that, Andrew couldn’t have been bothered. Beau didn’t seem like he would have any experience with household chores either, but he followed the instruction to a T, so I let him be while I tackled the dishes.

I allowed the silence to go on for a few minutes, but we were on borrowed time with my children’s attention span, so I forced myself to speak. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Bryce suggested I temporarily move here.”

My stupid little heart fluttered. It had no business getting excited over that when I didn’t even know him. “That doesn’t sound like something you’d want to do.”

“It’s not, but I understand my request for you to come to New York was intolerably selfish.”

“Definitely was,” I agreed, slotting a stack of plates away in the cupboard.

“I know this won’t come as a surprise to you, but I’m only really used to dealing with people in a business capacity.”

“Shocking.” I offered him a small smile. I could see he was trying, even if he wasn’t particularly successful.

“The only purpose for my coming here for an extended time would be to alleviate this abnormal stress from the scent match. If you’re not open to that, then there’s no point.”

I chewed my lip. I had already been more unstable than usual after slipping away into the night on my other scent matches. Maybe having Beau around would help.

“There would have to be rules,” I said.

“Obviously. Neither of us want the match. Our interactions would purely be to reduce our respective discomfort. I understand you don’t know the identities of your other scent matches?”

“I don’t. I panicked before getting any of their information.”

Beau nodded thoughtfully, moving from towels to the boys’ clothes. I had another basket full of hangers, and he meticulously added items to them, neatly laying them over the stack of towels. “I imagine that must be uncomfortable.”

“It is,” I agreed, switching to loading up the dishwasher. “I don’t want any of the matches, so if this would make that possible, I’m open to the idea.”

His blue eyes snared mine when I glanced over to him. “What are the rules?”

That was a good question. I hadn’t expected to get this far. “I’ll handle any questions my children have as they come up.”

“Entirely fair. Are we allowed to touch?”

I suppose there wouldn’t be much point in agreeing if we couldn’t. That was what our instincts wanted us to do. “Platonically.”

“Can I touch you right now?”

Longing washed over me in a wave and I ground my teeth together, my jaw aching to silence the omega whine that formed in my chest.

“Okay,” I croaked out.

Beau moved awkwardly toward me and tension ratcheted through my body. I rinsed my hands and dried them hastily, turning back to see him paused in the opening of my tiny U-shaped kitchen. Stepping closer, I couldn’t stop my breath in, drawing all of that spiced vanilla into my nose. I shivered as I set a careful palm on his chest and moved near enough for his arms to go around me.

I didn’t know what to do with how hard I was shaking, but it wasn’t all from me. His eyes were enormous and I ducked my head, letting my forehead rest against the hollow of his throat. His scent was strong here, like I was huffing straight from a perfume bottle. He was so warm. The shaking in his fingers dulled as he pressed me closer, his grip on the back of my shirt stilling him.

I cursed quietly. My body wanted the scent matches, all of them. I wanted to wriggle up inside his shirt and fall asleep to the sense of safety I knew I would find there.

Fate was ridiculous.

Beau and I weren’t meant for each other. My omega instincts preened over being held by my alpha. I cut that thought off. Beau wasn’t my alpha. He never would be, but in this moment his scent wove through me, offering a comfort I couldn’t get from anywhere else.

A tiny weight slammed against my leg. Ollie stared up at me. “Why are we hugging so long? Are you sad again?”

“Honey, you’re supposed to be in your room.”

“I finished all my jelly beans. Sammy told me to ask for more.”

“You can have more after dinner for dessert,” I promised.

Beau carefully extracted himself. What little tension had dissipated returned with a vengeance, the two of us standing frozen, looking at each other.

“Mommy!” Ollie’s voice jolted me. “Why can’t we have jelly beans nooow?”

“Treats wouldn’t be special if you got to have them all the time,” Beau told him.

Ollie scrunched up his face.

“Baby, go play with your brother, please. You can spend time with us soon.”

He pouted, but he went, loudly announcing to his brother that I wasn’t giving them more jelly beans.

Once we were alone again, I fixed my gaze on Beau. “Where would you stay if you moved here?”

His face brightened for a moment before his expression crumpled. I didn’t have to guess why. The hope that he would ask to stay here clashed against the reality of that being a terrible idea. On top of not wanting anyone to stay here, I certainly wasn’t set up for guests.

“I’ll find a short-term rental,” he eventually said. “I’m sure we can sort out a schedule to mitigate the effects that’s not too inconvenient for either of us.”

“I’m sure we can, too.”

“I’ll have to go back to New York briefly. I’m not prepared to work remotely, so I have to get myself organized.”

He opened his mouth and closed it again, as if thinking better of whatever he wanted to add. Probably for the best, considering his habit of sticking his foot in his mouth. My patience for men was pretty well nonexistent right now, so I was grateful he was able to keep a rein on himself.

“Could you—” He paused, pink rising in his cheeks, his discomfort obvious in the way he kept shifting. “Could you scent mark a few things for me to take back until I return?”

I hadn’t actually done that for anyone for about twenty years. In the early days of my courtship with Andrew, he had asked me to scent mark one of his shirts before I went away for the summer. “What do you want me to mark?”

“Anything I can fit in a carry-on.”

I got to my feet to do it right then, knowing as soon as the boys were out and about I would probably forget. Disappearing into the bedroom, I switched the tank top I was wearing for a fresh one and swiped the worn fabric against my cheeks and down my throat to get a double dose of my scent. Every thread smelled like a bakery as I neatly folded it and diverted to the kitchen to tuck it inside a plastic bag before handing it to him, my cheeks burning.

“Thank you,” he said briskly, holding it briefly to his chest before tucking it into the inner pocket of his suit jacket.

“How are you not dying wearing all those clothes? New York is hot in the summer too. How do you survive?”

“Stubbornness, mostly. That’s how I’ve gotten through the last two decades.”

I watched him carefully, taking in the exhaustion in his eyes and the tension in his body. My omega instincts demanded I do something about both, but I wasn’t in any mental space to invite Beau for a nap in my bed. Instead, I sat next to him, scooted closer, and rested my head on his shoulder. He let out a shuddering breath and raised a shaking hand to lay it against my head, his face turning to breathe deeply against my hair. The movement brought his wrist close, his scent potent at the gland there. My fingers curled on instinct, and I shoved my hands together between my knees, pressing them tightly so I couldn’t follow the compulsion to reach out for him.

His purr rumbled softly, so low it was almost inaudible. Somehow the sound didn’t match him, like I wasn’t certain he was even capable of making it. I melted anyway, my instincts rejoicing at having triggered his purr. Alphas did that to show their contentment, and to soothe their omegas. I was half-asleep and scent-drunk on him, my own purr responding in kind.

Beau stood up so sharply I nearly toppled off the couch. “I’m sorry…I-I’m sorry. I need to go.”

I stared after him, my sluggish brain taking too long to process everything as he retreated, disappearing into the hall and closing the door behind him. I blinked rapidly, mentally ordering myself back to reality.

What had happened? He clearly panicked, but I wasn’t sure why. I pinched the bridge of my nose, already missing the peace of that brief moment. This was going to be a long ordeal if he reacted that way every time.

I shook my head. I didn’t have time to worry about Beau.

Collecting all of the laundry he had hung for me, I set off down the hallway to free my children from their room and fill up their closet before returning to the towels and tucking them neatly away in our minuscule linen closet after one discreet sniff of Beau’s lingering musk on the fabric. I still had plenty to do, but Beau had saved me a bit of time at least.

“Mommy, can we go to the park?” Sammy asked. “The one with the spray water.”

“Sure we can.” The chores could wait. I was trying to treasure their childhoods while they still had them. I kissed each of their heads. “Go change into your swim trunks.”

They tripped over each other racing back to their room, and I smiled, soaking up their joy. Our little family was smaller than it once was, but we were finding our footing. I wasn’t certain I had it in me to expand it ever again, but that didn’t do a damn thing to silence my instincts from singing a swan song over the alpha who’d just run out on us. He could run all he wanted. I wasn’t going to chase an alpha ever again…

…No matter how much I might want to.