Chapter 10
“Would you prefer to go somewhere else?” Baal asked from across the table later that night.
Thorn had been fidgeting in his seat, but he couldn’t help it.
As soon as he’d gotten into the car after his shift, he’d been greeted with a large gift bag and a note that told him to change.
The white silk suit had made it clear that whatever restaurant they were going to was going to be nice, but it still hadn’t prepared him for the level of opulence he was currently surrounded by.
Evergreen was the type of place he’d be too afraid to stand outside of for too long, let alone be dining within. Notoriously owned by Leviathan Morningstar, it was also a White Frost establishment, which was more of a reason he would have avoided it before now.
“No, this is fine,” he forced himself to say as a waiter brought over a bottle of wine and presented it to Baal.
The alpha didn’t even spare it a glance, merely lifting a finger, silently instructing him to fill their glasses while his gaze remained fixed on Thorn.
“Thank you,” Thorn said to the waiter, resting his fingers on the flute of his glass as soon as the blue liquid had been poured. He waited until they were alone once more before lifting it and taking a small sniff.
“I chose one without a strong taste,” Baal informed him. “It should be to your liking.”
“How did you know I prefer bland flavors?” Thorn shook his head almost as soon as the question was out. “Never mind. Don’t answer that.”
“Is it because you got used to them?” the alpha wondered.
He debated whether or not to respond, but decided it wouldn’t hurt any. “Probably? Growing up we couldn’t afford much. School lunches were usually plain bread and butter. A slice of cheese if we were lucky.”
“And milk.”
“Yes.” Thorn sipped the wine and the subtle sweetness was nice, not overpowering at all.
“What about protein?” Baal swept his gaze over him pointedly. “You’re not malnourished.”
“Now,” he stated. “You should have seen me when I was younger.”
“That’s true. You were a whisp of a thing back then.”
Thorn paused with the glass pressed to his lips and frowned over the rim.
“I’ve seen photos.” Baal waved his confusion away. “You couldn’t have survived on just bread and butter.”
“Dad worked at a butcher's for a while,” Thorn said. “He’d get to take home any scraps that were left over. Turned them into jerky. We were able to make it last that way.”
“Is that why Aster no longer eats meat?”
“Pretty much.”
“What about you? Let me guess. You don’t have the luxury of being picky.”
The corner of Thorn’s mouth twitched. “Pretty much.”
“I was going to order for you, but perhaps you’d like to look over the menu.”
“No, it’s fine.” He almost added that he trusted the alpha, catching himself at the last second. To cover it up, he downed the rest of his glass. “This is good.”
“Finish the bottle. I can buy you another.”
He snorted. “That sounds like you’re trying to get me drunk.”
“Is there any need for that?” Baal asked, the edge of seduction in his tone impossible to ignore.
Though Thorn pretended not to notice anyway.
“I suppose not.” He reached for a roll from the basket in the center of the table, but the alpha beat him to it.
“Allow me.”
“I can butter my own bread, Baal.”
He grinned, but sliced through the small roll anyway.
“What?” Thorn asked, noting his lightened mood.
“I like the way you say my name,” he admitted.
“Baal?” Thorn pursed his lips. “Isn’t that how everyone says it?”
“It’s different when it’s you.”
Whatever.
Resting back in his chair, Thorn decided to let the alpha be odd if he wanted to be. He gazed around the room, taking it all in once more as he waited. Despite the name, there was nothing green about the restaurant, the opposite, in fact.
The color scheme was akin to a winter wonderland, with crystals dangling from glittering chandeliers and shiny silver surfaces.
The table cloths, napkins, and chairs were all the pale shade of snow, and the glass steps of the spiral staircase across the room that led to the second level had been frosted for an icy effect.
The lighting was dim, but everything seemed to twinkle, creating a romantic ambiance that was also unfamiliar to Thorn.
Hell, the last “romantic” evening he’d had, he and his ex had gotten chicken wings and eaten in front of the TV.
Then they’d had bland sex on the couch that Thorn had barely gotten off to.
“What are you thinking about?” Baal’s hand deposited the roll onto the small plate in front of Thorn.
He turned to catch the alpha just as he lowered back into his seat.
“You were frowning,” Baal said.
“Oh. It’s nothing.” He picked up the roll. “Thanks.”
As soon as he had his first bite, all thoughts of his ex and any unpleasantness of the past disappeared. A sound bubbled out of him before he could help it as rich butter and flaky, slightly salty bread seduced his tongue.
“That good?” Baal chuckled knowingly.
“This is the best tasting thing I’ve ever eaten.”
“That’s because you haven’t tried my cock yet.”
Thorn choked—which was starting to become a habit—and reached for his water glass.
Only for the alpha to snatch it away and replace it with his full wine glass instead.
Because he’d rather not make a fool of himself and keep hacking, Thorn took the alcohol and gulped it down. By the time he’d replaced the glass on the table, the alpha had refilled his original one.
“Okay,” he took a deep breath, “you really are trying to get me drunk.”
“I booked us a room at the attached hotel,” Baal informed him. “So there’s no reason to hold back tonight. Drink as much as you like.”
“And if I want to stop?” He tried not to focus on the part about the room.
“I won’t force you.” The alpha took his glass back, refilled it, and then sipped.
When the waiter returned, Baal ordered for them both, then allowed the conversation to die down for a bit while the two of them enjoyed the wine in silence.
Even if his goal was to get Thorn wasted, he clearly wasn’t in a rush to inebriate himself.
Baal milked the same glass in the time it took Thorn to drink another two.
“Did you hate your father?” The question came suddenly enough that Thorn almost choked a third time, but the alpha remained steady in his seat across the table, swirling the contents of his glass almost absently.
“Why do you ask?”
“I’m curious if we feel the same way.”
“Do you hate your father?”
“I do.” Baal hummed in thought. “But I can’t decide which of our dads I hate more. Mine for mistreating the omega under his care, or yours for mistreating the omegas under his.”
Their food arrived, fortunately giving Thorn some time to mull over that odd remark. He didn’t know what he’d been expecting from the underboss, but a bleeding heart certainly wasn’t it. Not that he thought Baal was that empathetic, but still. It was strange hearing him say something like that.
“You do recall you coerced me into signing a contract with you, right?” Thorn asked, taking in the hearty slab of steak on his plate, and noting there was finally a touch of green where the beans were displayed next to the mashed potatoes.
“That isn’t the same.”
“Because?”
“Because I’ll take care of you, Thorn.”
He paused just as he was about to cut into the meat.
“You don’t have to pick that statement apart,” Baal told him, somehow seeing through him even with this. “There’s no hidden meaning. It’s as you’ve said. I already got you to sign the contract. What need do I have for buttering you up?”
“There’s no reason for you to wine and dine me either,” he pointed out, “yet here we are.”
“That falls into the ‘taking care of you’ bit.”
Thorn set his cutlery down. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
“That’s very honest of you,” Baal noted. “Very…out of character. The Thorn Winters I know would rather die than show any sort of weakness in front of another.”
“You barely know me.”
“Am I wrong?”
No, but…
“Lucky guess.” Sure, Thorn had learned to wear a mask and act like nothing ever got to him. He was an omega on an alpha run planet, of course he’d had to do that to survive.
“What doesn’t feel right, frosty omega?”
“This.” He placed his palms on the table. “All of this. If you’d wanted me, we could have skipped straight to the hotel room.”
“I told you I want you to get used to me,” the alpha said.
“You’re not using your pheromones.” He sniffed just to be sure, but he was right. Aside from the natural hint of it that lingered in the air between them, the alpha wasn’t expressing them.
“We’re in a public place.” Baal used his knife to wave at the room, which was pretty crowded in every section except for the one they were seated in. No doubt his doing. “Make me a roll.”
What the hell?
It was on the tip of his tongue to refuse, but what would be the point?
Thorn snatched one from the basket and cut it open. He slathered on a healthy amount of butter and then stood and leaned over the table to set it on the edge of Baal’s full plate.
“What are you doing?” he asked when the alpha picked it up and merely stared at it.
“I haven’t had bread in a really long time,” he confessed.
“Why?”
“When I was a teenager, I briefly ran away from home. I stole to get by.” Baal turned the roll in his hand as though fascinated by it, seemingly unaware of the butter that dripped down his palm and ultimately stained the white cuff of his dress shirt.
“One week was particularly bad. It was the middle of winter, and I hadn’t eaten in three days.
There was a kid on his way home from school, a tiny thing, smaller than the backpack he was carrying.
He had a sandwich.” He licked his lips. “I wanted it.”
Thorn scrunched up his nose. “Don’t tell me you stole food from a kid.”
“Almost,” he confessed. “That was the plan. But the kid had a brother. Guess he was picking him up from the bus stop. He arrived just in time to see what was about to happen. Smart. Know what he did when he saw me lurking near his little brother?”
“How am I supposed to know that?”
He grunted. “The older one pulled a sandwich from his pocket and handed it over. Didn’t say a word, just stared me down.
If looks could kill, he would have set me on fire and sent me straight to hell right then and there.
He wasn’t as small as his little brother, but he was still half my size.
He had guts. Turned out the sandwich was barely more than two slices of bread stuck together. ”
“Bet you were disappointed.”
“Not at all,” Baal disagreed. “Nothing’s ever tasted sweeter.” He took a hearty bite of the roll and his eyes slipped closed. When he reopened them, there was a heat in his icy blue eyes that had Thorn’s heart leaping uncomfortably in his chest. “Until now.”