7. Thirty
Thirty
Brea
There was more air to breathe the second the door shut behind Caine’s departure.
Which was a crazy thing to say, considering we sat on an open-air roof.
Yet the tension drained from my shoulders and Taryn’s mood lightened in the bond as well.
I was relaxed enough to be glad I hadn’t dragged Taryn back downstairs the second I scented not one, but two strange alphas, plus a beta man, waiting on the roof.
Lin leaned back against the sofa cushions in relaxed business casual—light gray shirt, dark gray slacks.
A lock of straight dark hair fell over his temple.
Shadows highlighted his cheekbones under the gentle glow of Edison lights strung across the patio.
The alpha was stunning, with a jawline that cut nearly as deep as his dark gaze.
I didn’t imagine that gaze missed much.
He took a sip of his drink, his other hand casually twined with Brooks’ beside him.
Brooks was beautiful as well, with honeyed brown curls spilling over the top of his head and dimples deep enough to fall into.
Yet I felt no strong interest in him, not the way I was currently buzzing to connect with Lin.
Judging by the overexcited glint in Brooks’ eye as he smiled at my omega, I didn’t feel too badly about neglecting him.
“So,” the alpha crooned, his thumb stroking the backs of Brooks’ knuckles, “you bored?”
I blinked rapidly a few times, wondering what about the last thirty seconds had given him the idea that—
“Yep!” Taryn answered with a chipper little bounce as she held her skateboard.
Oh. That kind of board.
I let out a small laugh of my own. “Oh, yes. Tell Tony he should watch his back for you.”
“Hey, I’ll have you know,” Taryn said, “I have a personal best of, like, fifteen seconds without losing my balance.”
Lin met my eye, and we both gave an identical amused chuckle. “Of course, Teacup. My mistake.”
“Apology accepted,” Taryn said before turning back toward the men. “So, I guess I’m not a boarder right now, but I think it’d be cool.”
“Why’s that?” Lin asked.
She gave a one-shouldered shrug. “I dunno. Just seems fun.”
“And a little bit dangerous?” Lin replied.
“Oh no, not you too,” Taryn groaned, wiping her hand down her face.
Lin sat up straighter. “No, no, no. I just mean that that’s part of the appeal, isn’t it?” He gestured with his bottle toward the board. “It isn’t the skateboard itself you care about. So, what do you care about?”
No, those eyes missed nothing.
Taryn bit her lip, the corners creeping up in a deliciously mischievous smile. “Haven’t you ever done something just to feel your heart beating in your chest?”
“Oh, I certainly hope to,” Brooks cut in with a velvety smooth voice and a sinful smirk that had my omega melting through the bond.
“I like being things an omega isn’t supposed to be,” Taryn continued. “Loud and rough and dirty. Do things that my gran and her cohort never got to.”
Lin’s smile was kind. “You’re close with your grandmother?”
Taryn nodded, her smile sad. “I was.”
The ominous past tense threatened to weigh us all down, Lin shifting with tension and myself keeping a close watch on the bond, looking for any sign of mounting distress. Because the absolute second she—
“You mentioned loud and rough and dirty ,” Brooks said, slicing right through the heavy silence. “Just how loud, rough, and dirty are we talking, sweetness?”
Brazen, but earnest. It was impossible to be affronted by this shameless, beautiful beta. They were clearly attracted to us, and we were clearly attracted to them. With Taryn’s heat due in the not-too-distant future, at least we had some potential heat partners to approach. And on-site, to boot.
That certainly wasn’t part of the complex’s listed amenities.
Taryn shrugged, not missing a beat. “It would take the fun out of things to just tell you, wouldn’t it?”
Brooks’ eyes were on fire as he watched my omega. Maybe it should’ve bothered me, but there wasn’t a jealous or possessive inkling anywhere in my gut. Just a warm satisfaction that he clearly saw the bright star that was my omega.
“How’s this for fun,” he said. “Let’s try to beat that personal best on the board, shall we?”
Taryn jumped up in glee, the two of them already heading for the more open part of the patio. I glanced to Lin and found him watching me with that gaze that saw too much. Without a word, he stood with his drink in one hand. The other, he held out to me. “There’s fun in watching, too.”
Heat erupted in my belly, my breath going shallow as I took his hand and stood, our eyes locked the whole time.
A shock jumped between us as our skin made contact, and he automatically slid his fingers between mine and squeezed my hand.
His warm touch was soft but solid. It felt right . In a way only Taryn ever had before.
That was almost more terrifying than the notion of my omega breaking her damned neck.
I swallowed as we made our slow way toward the other two.
“Fine, fine,” I called out toward her. “But don’t expect me to kiss your boo-boos if you hurt yourself.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, sweetness,” Brooks said, glancing back at us. “The doc is in and ready to take good care of you.”
I raised my brow at Lin and took a sip of my drink, my arms crossed at my waist. “Doctor, hm?”
“An emergency room doc, to be precise,” Lin answered, standing shoulder to shoulder with me.
“Impressive,” I said, turning back to look at our mates. Brooks was on the board, explaining something to Taryn as he pivoted the board back and forth with little pushes from his back foot. I nodded toward him. “He any good on that?”
Lin’s barking laugh was answer enough.
Unease wormed its way through me like spilled milk. I tried to tamp it down, ignore it. Rationally, I knew that the chance of any serious, long-lasting harm coming from playing around on a skateboard was slim to none. Maybe some bruises or scrapes. Nothing worth brooding so much over.
Yet.
I knew every inch of my omega’s body. Every freckle and curve.
Every scar. Like the little white line on the bottom of her chin, an inch long, from falling out of a treehouse when she was six.
Then there was the quarter-sized patch of white scar tissue on her hip from a diving challenge gone wrong in her teen years.
In the past, there’d been sprained ankles, sprained wrists, more than one broken finger, at least two concussions…
My omega was an adventurous one. Just not a particularly coordinated one.
I covered my nerves with a chuckle of my own.
“Just know,” I said quietly to Lin, “if she rolls off the roof, I’m killing all three of you.
” I took a sip of the drink I’d grabbed from the cooler.
Strong, sweet, smooth. Like your favorite home-cooked apple pie held the secrets to the universe, if only you could hear it whisper them.
There was no label on the small glass bottle.
Maybe they made it themselves. “That is, unless you get just the board to go over. That, I’d pay for. ”
“This may be the first time in human history someone has taken a hit out on a skateboard.” Lin knocked his shoulder against mine. “Hold on, let me get Guinness on the phone.”
“Okay, yes, I’m an overprotective alpha, ha, ha, ha,” I said with a tone of mock offense. All pretenses fell as I looked over at my smiling, giggling omega with the smiling, giggling beta. “She’s just…everything.”
When I looked to Lin, he was watching them as well. “I get it,” he said quietly.
I’d never say it out loud, but I wondered if he did, if he could truly understand how much of a mindfuck alpha and omega instincts could be in the long term.
Taryn was the sun my entire world revolved around.
Rationally, I wanted her to live her life however close to the edge she wanted to.
To taste and see and hear and feel it all.
Unfortunately, my inner alpha couldn’t be reasoned with. She hated the thought of any threat to our omega, real or imagined. The alpha supplements helped some, but it was still a constant vigilance that was difficult to shut off where her safety came into it.
Lin and Brooks were mated, but an alpha and beta bond had to be different. That base instinct to shelter and protect at all costs was absent.
Taryn stood on the board now, Brooks on the concrete behind her and bracing his hands on her waist as he guided her and the board on a slow roll across the rooftop. “Locked knees are less stable. Keep ‘em loose.”
Taryn snorted and turned toward Brooks, which made her fall off the side of the board. His hands around her waist meant it was little more than a step, though. “Oh, you’d like that?”
God, I could see his dimples from twenty yards away. And he never removed his hands. “Nothing I’d love more.”
Lin shook his head and cut a sly glance toward me. “Yeah, he comes across all smooth and sexy now. When he’s falling asleep in his rainbow unicorn t-shirt, on the other hand…”
Brooks looked over at us before giving a dramatic huff.
“Isn’t it a bit uncouth to speak of our bedroom habits in front of the ladies, Lin?
God, I am so sorry for his behavior,” Brooks added, looking between me and Taryn with a scandalized hand over his heart.
“Please do not judge me by my alpha’s unchecked vulgarity. ”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I murmured beneath my breath.
Lin rolled his eyes and chuckled like a good sport, Taryn giggling and a smile fighting to take over my own lips. The mock offense dropped from Brooks’s face as he blew a kiss toward Lin before shifting back to Taryn, resetting for another run on the board.
As Brooks explained how to turn the board, I took a deep breath and—keeping my attention on Brooks and Taryn—asked Lin, “So, real estate, hm?”