14. Tara
A date with Charlie was just about the last thing on my mind when Jesse was still stomping around irritated.
Well, at least that's the impression I was getting from his texts. God, we really needed to move in together already. He had this tendency to clam up when he was annoyed by something, which, honestly I sort of understood… but it did feel a little bit like being iced out. And I didn’t love that.
Hard to ignore somebody when they were right there all the time.
Right?
But I wasn’t someone who went back on my word, and knowing that Charlie and I really needed to talk about… well.. everything… I got dressed in an inviting black sundress and curled my hair all the same.
It’d been—I mean a while, obviously— since I’d been on a first date.
Plus, this wasn’t the usual ‘let’s grab dinner and drinks’ first date. This was time spent with my alpha. Solidifying our bond. Getting to know each other.
I was a little nervous, a little excited and a whole lot anxious—a group of feelings I knew Charlie was experiencing too thanks to our bond. I could feel him at the fringes of my consciousness, both of us trying to keep out of each other's way as much as possible.
I didn’t… I mean I hadn’t meant to bond him. Not really. It was a mix of heat hormones and the scent match and… everything else compiling into a snitty omega fit that had long term consequences for both of us. If anything, I was embarrassed and more than a little ashamed of the way I’d acted.
I love Jesse, I trusted him. There wasn’t a single reason for me to feel possessive of some alpha I barely knew, to resource guard him like a fucking chewtoy.
Or like how Inky was with one of those wet food tube treats.
All growling and swiping with claws and yeah, there was biting involved.
Ugh .
Charlie leaned against his door while he drove like he was trying to create as much space as possible between us, the city flying by in a blur of colors as we drove deeper into the trendy, overly-gentrified section of downtown boasting boardgame cafes and boutiques selling handmade items I was like 90% sure were mostly from online manufacturers in China at a remarkable 400% profit ratio.
The radio was set to low, the guitar solo of an old rock song providing the soundtrack to what was inarguably one of the most awkward drives in the history of cars existing.
“So…” I started slowly, making Charlie jump as I smoothed my skirt. “Where are we going?”
It wasn’t the question I wanted to ask, of which there were plenty.
Why didn’t you call?
Where have you been?
Did you miss me?
Have you thought about me at all?
Are you mad I bonded you?
And, the worst one: How long have you been in love with Jesse?
Because as much as I tried not to look, tried not to feel it, there was no arguing that when Charlie looked at them… he felt the same thing I did.
It should’ve made me angry, or maybe jealous, my alpha and my boyfriend, but, honestly it kind of bummed me out for my alpha. I don’t think Jesse even noticed. And if he did, I trusted him enough to know that nothing was going on between them.
Trust.
Fuck . Something I was totally screwing up by keeping me and Charlie’s history from them, but after the way Jesse spun out when the bond was formed… Did we really have a choice?
“It’s a surprise,” Charlie said softly, his voice not as deep as I remembered—though, I sort of was starting to realize that maybe the guy I’d met in that heat hotel wasn’t so much the Charlie that was sitting here as it was a character, like the Tara who showed up to stream on SLCK’d.
A version of himself that he thought I wanted in the moment.
He wasn’t wrong, I’d needed a big, demanding alpha to take control for my first time. Well, partially.
Charlie and I both knew that if anything, it’d been a team effort.
But now ?
I actually sort of preferred the bottoming from the top type that he seemed to be.
“A surprise?” I asked curiously, turning away from the windshield to study his strong jaw, raising a dark eyebrow. “Pulling out all the stops, alpha?”
Charlie shrugged, his massive shoulders pulling at the cottony fabric of his fitted OVWatch t-shirt, the purple and green logo resting comfortably across his chest.
“You’re my omega, I figured you deserve something nice. Besides.. Dinner is a bit dull, right? We could eat anywhere.”
“Totally,” I agreed, a little surprised. “Honestly, I kind of hate a date where all you do is eat. I’d rather be active and do something. Get to talk without worrying if I have an overpriced kale salad in my teeth.”
He smiled, and if I didn’t know better I would’ve thought that I felt a little smugness threading through our bond back to me.
I couldn’t help but smile back.
“This is like… at least a little weird right?”
“Sort of, yeah.” I admitted. “I think we’re supposed to do courting before the bond is placed, usually.”
“Well, someone, not naming any names of course—” this time, Charlie’s cheeky smile, the sly way he looked at me sidelong with those big, beautiful dark eyes that I’d been imagining while fucking myself on stream for the last year, was unmissable.
I felt it everywhere, like a stroke of his fingers directly along my center, making me fucking ache .
“—was in such a rush, we didn’t get to.”
I offered him a shy smile, trying to quiet the riot of butterflies threatening to come from my stomach and out my mouth in the most insane spill of word vomit maybe ever.
“I’ve never been good at slow or patient, alpha,” I teased, nudging his shoulder.
Charlie’s hand caught mine as I moved to pull it away, dragging it to rest in his lap as he drove.
“Two heats in and we haven’t even done the awkward first date thing yet… I’d believe it, Tara.”
“But you want to, right?” I asked.
His hand was so warm in mine, thumb brushing along my knuckles as his buttery blueberry scent came off his skin in waves, almost successful in pulling me across the center console to bury my nose in his throat.
Charlie laughed, turning into a small parking lot to stop the car on the side of a building painted with a mural of flowers in bright pinks and golds.
“Tara, I’m a Stanford educated man, I’m not stupid. Obviously I want to spend time with you. I’ve been looking forward to this all week.”
That little bit of reassurance was all I needed, squeezing the alpha’s fingers before I slid out of the car and onto the gravel of the lot. Charlie came around the car to take my hand, leading me onto the paved walkway and to the front of the building.
“I never come into this part of town,” I said as Charlie got the door, whisking us inside the bright, cheerily lit cafe and shop.
“Me either, but I found it online when I was looking for ideas of stuff to do.”
“Huh,” I said noncommittally.
For some reason, I’d half expected Jesse to plan the date for him. But Charlie was a surprise more often than he was what I expected.
Like his car. I’d imagined that Jesse’s insanely rich tech friend would be the sort of dickhead who at least drove a Lexus or a BMW—but the sensible Toyota Corolla Charlie had picked me up in was actually pretty nice, and it didn't cost more than a house.
The cafe’s large picture windows offered plenty of natural sunlight to bounce off the white rabbit eared chairs, and light wood tables. Along the far side of the room was the till, a large glass case of pastries and ready-made Japanese drinks available in cute bottles and cans that would’ve looked perfectly at home in my room. There was a little window and a swinging door beside the counter that hinted to a larger kitchen, likely to serve the menu hanging overhead adorned with pictures.
My eyes went wide.
“I know I said I didn’t care about eating on a date…” I started, eyeing the photos of the large, square French toast-like dessert that held the biggest place on the menu, drenched in what I hoped was blueberry syrup.
“But you really want to try it?” Charlie laughed. “I’ll order for us, do you want a drink too?”
“Maybe a coffee?” I suggested, thinking of how sweet the bread cube was likely to be. “Vanilla latte, please.”
Charlie nodded towards the other side of the counter, I’d been so distracted I’d almost entirely missed the tables and shelves of phone cases, charms, and other decorations.
This wasn’t just a cute cafe , it was a cute decoden cafe !
Excitement filtered from me into Charlie, making him smile.
“Why don’t you start picking stuff out?”
The squeal of excitement that left me was entirely real as I leaned up to kiss his cheek, dropping his hand to go and look through the options.
There were so many choices it was overwhelming, but I knew one thing—at the very least, there was going to be a whole lot of purple.
It didn’t take Charlie long to order our snacks, coming to meet me as I carefully picked through a bowl of glittering star charms.
“I have no idea how you knew, but I’ve always wanted to try this,” I said excitedly, showing him the phone case I’d picked along with some of the charms.
“Kind of made me think of your room,” he said, collecting a tray for himself to begin making choices. “I thought it would be cool to like, match? Have something to make you think of me?”
Like I was doing much of anything else at this point, but the sentiment was cute.
“We should make one for Jesse too, so he doesn’t feel left out.”
“Great idea, babygirl,” Charlie said, grabbing a third tray. “Color?”
“Orange for Jess, for sure.”
“Bit of a clash, don’t you think? Orange and purple?”
“Nah, depends on the shade. Besides, you can be our middle point. Blue, right?”
“Am I really that obvious?”
“Maybe a teeny, tiny bit basic.” I said, holding my fingers only a breadth apart to show him. “Let’s reframe that as dependable. It’s way more flattering.”
He chuckled, rolling his eyes as he selected elements for his case.
I picked out a little black cat charm for Inky, looking around for a moth—though I was more likely to find a butterfly, and I was okay with that, when Charlie held up a little glittering cherry charm.
“For you?”
I smiled, reaching for it. “Perfect! Do you think there is a lemon and a blueberry too?”
Our fingers brushed as I took the charm from him, and the tips of Charlie’s ears went pink. His eyes dipped to my lips, thoughts clearly deviating from the very important task at hand of completing our little pack in small glittery fruits for our phone cases.
“If you want to kiss me you’re allowed, you know,” I said softly, leaning into his personal space.
The faintest hint of a purr left him as his hand closed around mine, bending a little to press his lips against mine in a soft kiss. “Sorry, I, uh—I don’t date much.” he admitted awkwardly.
I stole another quick peck to his lips before pulling away with a shrug. “Me either, really. No time with work. Besides, you’re doing fine.”
“You have a whole ass boyfriend…”
Charlie turned away to hide his blush, carefully picking out some more charms while I hunted through the rest of the fruit. I found the lemon slice easily, but a blueberry continued to elude me when he spoke again, voicing the question I’d been dreading.
“You’re a streamer like Jesse, right?”
I cleared my throat awkwardly.
What if Charlie alpha’d out and told me I couldn’t cam anymore?
I knew he was rich, but the idea of being some kept woman kind of gave me the heebie jeebies.
“Kinda?” I said, met with a curious hum from Charlie to keep going. “I’m on Streamverse, yeah… But I make most of my money on SLCK’d.”
“SLCK’d?” he asked, not turning to look at me as he debated between little skulls or bubbles. “What’s that?”
Heat crept up the back of my neck. It wasn’t that I was embarrassed about what I did—I fucking loved my job. But, uh, explaining an adult camming website on our first date?
Brutal.
“It’s a, uh, adult streaming website for people who are interested in omegas,” I said, as delicately as possible. “Like Streamverse but porn, sort of.”
Charlie nodded, cutting me a look that was a mix of surprise and interest. “Like fully naked?”
“Uh, yeah. The whole nine really. I’m a solo streamer so I don’t like, do anything with a partner or whatever. Well, I mean… I might kind of soon. My whale—the guy who pays like all my bills—asked me to fuck Jesse on stream.”
“What did Jesse say?”
“That he’d think about it. I’m not like, me, on there. I play this like… super submissive character.” I shrugged, Charlie’s open curiosity and lack of judgement making me feel more at ease. “And Jesse doesn’t want to do it unless I’m myself so I need to think about it too.”
“Sounds complicated.”
“A little, yeah. But the money is like… Stupid good. And Glitch is good on keeping his word, so…”
Charlie hummed. “I think you should do it then, if it’ll make you happy.” He led us to a table to start working on our cases, waggling his eyebrows in an exaggeratedly flirty way. “Maybe I’ll even watch, see how it stacks up to the live show?”
I couldn’t help but laugh, even as I pressed my thighs together.
The idea of my alpha watching me on the other side of the screen—and even better, me not knowing if he was or not? I could practically feel the gush of slick forming at the thought.
“You should,” I said, carefully using a piping bag full of the fluffy TK decoden glue to carefully make a pattern to place my charms on. “I’d be into it. I’m sure this isn’t a surprise but… being watched is sort of like, a thing that I’m into.”
He mock gasped, and I could practically see the memory that’d surfaced shining back to me in the alpha’s eyes. Charlie sat at my desk, watching me fuck Jesse as I begged for alpha dick to help me through my heat.
The tension mounted between us until he cleared his throat, looking away shyly. “Speaking of Jesse, though…”
Arousal was quickly replaced with guilt and shame as I sighed, using a pair of tweezers to help settle glittering purple stars in place around the border of the case. “Yeah, listen… He’s pissed.”
“Naturally,” Charlie muttered, a little defeated as he made an abject mess of his own case, pressing too hard so that the glue came out in a mound. “I’m not sure how to fix it. It wasn’t like I bit you.”
“I know,” I assured. “And I think after he has a second to like, cool off, it’ll all be fine. But for right now…”
“It’s fucked, yeah. I get it.” The alpha’s jaw worked, his scent going slightly bitter with his stress.
I ran my foot along his calf soothingly, drawing his eyes back to me. “It’ll be okay, Charlie. Just give him a bit of time… and maybe we just… don’t mention Omega’s Lust. Not for a while at least.”
The idea of lying to Jesse didn’t sit right with me. But I didn’t have to lie… not exactly. I just wouldn’t bring it up.
Ever .
Or at the very least not until he could hear Charlie’s name without huffing irritably.
“I don’t love that,” my alpha muttered. “And I really don’t love that I think you’re right.”
“It was, what? A one night stand? And we never talked after, it's not like we’ve been building this big relationship in the background without him. I had no idea you were that alpha.” I scrunched my nose, offering my pinky to Charlie. “It never happened?”
He hesitated, guilty emotions heavy in our bond. But ultimately, his large pinky wrapped around mine.
“What never happened?” he asked, pulling my hand towards him to kiss my knuckles.
“Exactly,” I said, offering him a smile and pushing aside the conversation.
We’d revisit it another time, when the moment was right.
Jesse would understand.
I hoped.
“So…” Charlie started a little awkwardly, hunting around for another topic of conversation.
“I told you one of my fantasies… you tell me one of yours?” I offered helpfully. “Gotta keep things fair.”
He didn’t miss a beat. “Findom.”
I couldn’t help the surprised giggle that escaped me, hand clapping over my mouth to try and stop it as Charlie shrugged, unabashed.
“Listen, I just want a hot girl to take my money.” His long, lingering look was so much smoother than I’d seen him be before, the goofy smile that followed as our dessert arrived way more in line with the Charlie I’d come to expect.
We thanked the worker, and I grabbed a fork, cutting into the large cube to take a bite. Fluffier than I expected, like way way less dense than a veritable brick of French toast looked, but yes, super sweet.
Fucking delicious.
I groaned, eyes sliding shut in bliss. “I can do that for you, you know. I have a couple regulars who are into the pay pig thing.”
“Puppy,” he corrected softly, eyes glued to my mouth as I sucked some sticky syrup off my thumb. “If you don’t mind, babygirl.”
“Of course not, Charlie,” I said softly, letting my voice take on that buttery soft quality I usually did when I was streaming. “Is my big, strong alpha going to be a good boy and pay for this for me?”