10. Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Liam
“How do you want to handle this?” Elijah asked, in between bites of french toast. We were having breakfast in the conference room of our in-house office after I asked him to come over for a quick meeting. While we’d dealt with the media before, this was on a whole new level. We knew how to handle press when it came to our business, and unfortunately found out how to handle hate and negative public opinion after the Darlington Ball kidnapping incident, but courting Celeste in the public eye was something else entirely. We had publications we’d never even heard of reaching out for interviews, a story, even just a quote. Omega focused magazines and websites were digging into our backgrounds, searching for clues about us and publishing stories like wildfire.
“Look what they are writing about us.” I said, turning my phone toward Elijah.
“ Who are the members of Pack Lockwood? Here’s five things to know!” He read off the headline of one of the e-mags as he raised an eyebrow at me. “Doesn’t seem so bad to me. The women are intrigued.” He was right - the pack registries that we had been blacklisted from were now reaching out, begging us to rejoin. We were getting messages on our accounts from omegas all over both provinces, and with all this positive attention, I was sure our chances of finding the missing piece to our pack were now better than they’d ever been.
“I just don’t want them poking around too much in our personal lives. I mean, Celeste’s statement has taken the heat off of us. But we can’t say we were exactly innocent in everything.” I said with a grimace.
“Stop! Don’t even speak on it!” Elijah hissed at me. We never wanted Celeste, or the other omega, to get kidnapped. That part was true.
“It’s been days since I’ve even seen her.” I admitted. After the post, she’d locked herself away in the guest wing and refused to come out except to slip to the front and pick up her meal deliveries. But we needed to get information from her. So far we hadn’t been able to hack into her emails. She was smart enough to have a private VPN, which we’d anticipated. So we needed to try her laptop next. But if she spent all her time in her room, that was going to be an issue. “We have a public outing tonight, though. Can you stay here after we leave and dig around a little?” I asked as Elijah downed a glass of orange juice. As a beta, it was easier for him to hide his scent in our house. He nodded.
“Actually, we may have an opportunity right now.” He looked over my shoulder and I turned to see a small figure heading toward the gym. If she’d left her room, Elijah could get a quick idea on what kind of data privacy devices she had set up. “Elijah, I’ll keep an eye on her, you go check her room quickly. Any type of listening devices or cameras you can find, let us know.” He nodded as I stood up, watching the omega turn the corner toward our gym suite. I followed a safe distance behind, only turning down the hall once I knew she was safely in the gym. I didn’t know how long we had, but I could send Elijah a text to warn him once she was done with her workout.
I quietly moved to see what she was doing. But as I looked into the window to our private gym, I didn’t see her anywhere. Damn. Was this all a ploy?
“Creeper much?”
I spun around at the silky voice, only to see sharp eyes and a smirk on Celeste’s face as she stood behind me. I stammered, not because she caught me, but because she was wearing only a bikini with a slight robe, open and barely covering her exceptionally toned curves. Immediately, my body started reacting to the attractive woman in front of me, and I had to bite back the instinct to get closer to her. I tried not to look below her eyes, and instead looked behind her, where the steam room was slowly filling with billows of hot, humid air.
“I was just -” I started, and she lifted an eyebrow at me as she placed her hands on her hips.
“Just what? You really don't trust me at all. I thought you said I had full use of the house, your rooms excluded." She was right. I didn’t trust her, not one bit.
“For your information, I was just headed toward the steam room.” I said, reaching past her to grab one of the robes we kept on hooks near the sauna area. Her eyes widened as I reached over her, my arm barely grazing the top of her head. For a moment I felt bad - she might have been startled that an alpha was so close to her. But I shook the feeling off. She didn’t back away.
“Oh really? You just happened to want to use it the exact same time I was using it?”
I pulled my shirt off, thankful that I was wearing my gym shorts instead of jeans when I decided to follow her.
“Yes. I need to sweat out the alcohol from all the celebratory drinks I’ve been having.” I said with a smirk, and she rolled her eyes as she turned and removed her robe. Jesus. She was hot from every. Single. Angle.
She stepped into our large steam room while I fumbled to get my shoes off. How was it possible for her to be spoiled, run a business, and be genetically blessed in this way? It wasn’t fair.
I stood at the entrance of the room, arms crossed, watching as Celeste mused over the control panel. The fierce CEO of Harringday, thorn in my side, was now invading my sanctuary. I should have stepped back and monitored from afar, but I couldn’t stop myself from wanting to know her, understand how she came to be who she was. And, I’ll admit I wanted to taunt her a little. She deserved it.
I leaned against the doorframe, my tone clipped. “So, are you planning to sweat out your sins? Or just plan how to spy on us?”
She glanced over her shoulder, her hair damp at the edges.
“Correction: I was blackmailed into this arrangement,” she shot back, spinning around. Small beads of perspiration were already starting to appear on her skin, the steam room’s heat wrapping her in a faint glow. “Or would you rather forget that like you conveniently forget about the kidnapping?” She turned and sat on a bench while I tried to control the urge to seek out her non-existent scent.
Without waiting for her permission, I stepped into the steam room and took the seat opposite her. The door clicked shut behind us. The confined space was immediately stifling, but I refused to let her see me sweat - metaphorically, at least.
She stretched out, her lithe body the absolute image of perfection. It was impossible not to notice how she kept her body as perfect as her entire facade. Just then, a billow of steam rose up, and I had to drag my eyes off of her form. She caught me staring at her, giving me a smirk while I silently cursed at myself. I had to get back in control.
“Enjoying the news lately?” I asked, giving her a smirk of my own as I lay back, enjoying the way her own smile quickly fell into an annoyed frown. “It seems like the biggest story of the year so far. And once again, you’re the star.” My words cut into her, I could tell. She was hating the discourse over the past few days. The media was already hinting that if she was wrong about the kidnapping attempt, then it threw all of her other decision-making into question.
“It’s nothing I haven't dealt with before.” She said calmly, as if the whole ordeal was a minor annoyance. “But I can see how being the biggest news story might be exciting for someone who isn’t used to attention, or at least positive attention, for once.” She said the insult casually, and I pushed down the frustration within me. I wasn’t going to let her rile me up. The heat was making me sweat, so I flexed my muscles, reveling in the way it made me feel instantly better. I caught Celeste glancing at my chest despite herself.
“My pack and I are handling everything well, not that it’s your concern. And I want to thank you for finally setting the record straight.” I replied as more steam filled the room, heating the air between us. She crossed her arms over her stomach and looked at her nails. “Ever since your statement, we’ve been invited back to every omega ball for the next year. Hell, because of you, we might finally find our match.” I said. Her eyes shot over to me with surprise, with a flash of distress, so quick that it was gone before I could fully register it. Then she looked away.
I could see the wheels turning in her mind, probably calculating the best way to regain control of the conversation.
"I’d say you’re welcome," she drawled, "but we both know that wouldn’t be the truth.” She adjusted her body, stretching out in the heated room. I could tell she was uncomfortable, but from what exactly, I couldn’t quite place. Yes, we had her where we wanted her, but I’d never seen her look anything other than in control. Which meant our plan was working.
"The truth isn’t your style, anyway," I replied, leaning forward slightly. The movement brought me closer, close enough to notice how the steam made tiny beads of water all over her skin. "We both know that. But play your part with us the next few months, and you can go back home and we can be rid of each other for good."
She tilted her head, her full lips curving into a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. I wanted to taste those lips.
Wait . I shook my head, fighting the thought. That was my alpha talking, not me.
"Rid of each other, right." She scoffed, almost as an afterthought. “You want to be rid of me so badly, but you’re forcing me to be here.” Her words dripped with bitterness. “You might regret it if you keep me here too long.”
"That sounds like a threat," I said, my tone deepening. I wasn’t sure if it was the heat or her, but my pulse was picking up speed. "Careful, Celeste."
Her smile grew bigger. "Calm down, big boy. I just want to know if you’ll be following me around like a puppy every second of the day.” She tilted her head, and a bead of sweat slid down her temple, trailing to her collarbone. She looked at me, then bit her lip. It did something to me. That face, that look - it was almost a look of frustration and desire. But I knew she hated us. I swallowed hard, my usual composure slipping just slightly. Hormones were starting to cloud my thinking. That, plus the heat, made me misread what we were doing.
“You’ll be happy to know we actually have to work every day, so you won’t see much of us.” I said, and before she got any ideas, I quickly added, “And one of us will always be working from home, just in case of emergencies.” I could see her face drop slightly, and knew at that moment that she was hoping to get access to the house when we weren’t around. She had no idea there was nothing to find inside our house, nor did we have anything to hide.
“Good," she said quickly, her voice a little too firm.
“We did promise to take care of you, and despite the reality of our ‘relationship’, I intend to follow through with that.” I admitted. Celeste squirmed at my words, her legs snapping together tightly. Her gaze dropped, just for a second, to my lips before going back up. It was subtle, but I caught it. And judging by the faint flicker of alarm in her expression, she knew I had. What was she playing at? Whatever effect her actions were meant to have on me, it was, unfortunately, working. I needed to get out before she used any of her omega manipulations on me.
Something touched me. I looked down, and somehow we had ended up right next to each other, so close our knees were grazing.
Celeste sat up abruptly, her cheeks flushed. “I - uh - this heat. It’s… oppressive,” she stammered, looking anywhere but at me. She stood quickly. “I need water. Or air. Or something.” Suddenly she opened the door, billows of steam rising up and clouding my vision of her as she grabbed her robe and left.
Once she was gone, I sat back, my head spinning. I’d been around omegas before. I’d been around plenty of beautiful women, and many more that were light years more charming than Celeste. I knew how awful of a person she had to be in order to run Harringday Industries. So why did I feel like my world was off kilter being so close to her? Even when we verbally sparred, I somehow felt drawn to her like a moth to a flame.
Shit. I needed to text Elijah. That woman had me so distracted that I nearly forgot my mission. I quickly jumped up and left the steam room, sending off a message to make sure he wasn’t found in her area. Luckily our house was large enough that he’d have plenty of time to retreat before she got back to her room.
That was close. I wiped the sweat off of me, making a mental note to investigate what it was that caused me to be so intrigued by her. Either way, she was playing some type of game, and it was far from over.