20. Stanton
“Do you know Lucas Hilton?” I ask Grace as she glances at him once again over the rim of her glass of water.
She turns to me, her heavy gaze meets mine, and I’m sure there’s a whisper of curiosity showing through.
“Yes, and no. It’s complicated.”
Any recognition of me disappeared in a flash, vanishing as quickly as it appeared.
She doesn’t remember me. Whatever I thought I saw before was now gone.
I hate the way her thoughts are purely on him, but at least I know she wants him.
All I have to do is make her want me, too.
“Did he hurt you?” I ask, pretending I don’t have a clue what’s going on.
“I never realized the reason he left me was because he had someone else,” she murmurs. “And now I don’t know what to do.”
“Because he’s the father of your baby?” Just saying it hits me like a sledgehammer to my heart.
“Unless it was an immaculate conception,” she says dryly.
She doesn’t seem to remember me that night, but she sure remembers Lucas.
I hate it—but what can I do?
“What if I told you I have a plan?” I say.
She spins in her seat to me.
I take her hand in mine and kiss her palm, and if I’m not mistaken, I see her body shiver as though I’ve had an effect on her. Hopefully, not because she hated it.
“Go on.”
“I’m going to date you. We’re going to make him crazy and he’ll be begging for your forgiveness within a few days.”
She glances through her lashes at Lucas. He side eyes her as he talks to his father and another man.
Then she sighs. “He left me alone. And now he has an omega on his arm and he’s hardly looking like he’s mourning my loss.”
“Don’t worry about the girl.”
She turns until she’s facing me full on. Her deep chocolate colored eyes seem to sparkle with gold. “What are you not listening to? He left me. He told me we were temporary, and now I see why. He had someone else. You can’t make someone jealous if they don’t want you.”
“He looks like he…”
“He cheated on her with me.” She shakes her head. “Why would I want a man like that?”
“You’re wrong.” I shake my head. I could let her believe it and I hope this won’t come back and bite me on the ass. Because I hate what I’m about to admit, but I can’t have her not wanting Lucas when I want us to be a pack.
“I’m guessing you are seven weeks pregnant,” I say.
She narrows her eyes and considers me for a moment. “How did you guess that?”
“You’re not showing, and I know Lucas helped an omega through her heat around seven weeks ago. He was single then.” I nod to Lucas and Raine and say, “She is just a date.”
“You know?” she murmurs.
“Do you trust me?”
She snorts. “I’ve seen the stories about you.”
“I mean to make this right.” My gaze goes to Lucas and back to her. “Your baby needs its father.”
Inside, my alpha wants to get out and tell her the baby is mine. Is it?
It’s mine anyway. She just doesn’t know it yet.
Her eyes drop as her teeth gnaw on her lip. “Don’t make me feel guilty.”
“Were you going to tell him?”
“Honestly. I didn’t know who he was until tonight. He was a customer on Betafans and I thought he was called Henry.”
I chuckle. “That’s his father’s name.”
She groans. “Everything was a lie. I can’t even make any money anymore. Being pregnant is hardly sexy.”
“You’re gorgeous Grace.”
Her shoulders sag as tears lace her eyes, and suddenly she seems lost.
“Shush,” I whisper as I pull her to me until her face is in the crook of my neck. I stroke my hand over her back and hold her. “I’ll make it better.”
“How.” She hiccups a sob.
“We’ll make him jealous.” It’s fucking brilliant. I get to spend more time with my omega. Hopefully, by the end of it, she’ll want me too. “I’ll date you. We’ll make him so enraged with jealousy that he’ll be so consumed with thoughts of us together that he’ll give up everything for us.”
“Us?”
“I mean you.”
“I’m not fucking you. Just because you’re an alpha and I’m an omega doesn’t mean...”
“Lucas is looking. I’m going to lift your chin and kiss you.”
“Stanton...” she warns.
“Omega, do as you’re told.”
She hisses. Her eyes lock onto mine and I can see she is furious at what she’s about to do.
I stare at her face for a moment.
It’s the moment I see her.
And smell her.
I take her wrist and lift it to my nose and inhale her scent. “You smell like chocolate drizzled over toasted marshmallows and...”
“What?” Her eyes round. “It’s from a bottle.”
I smile. “That’s your smell. I can smell it underneath the spray you wear.”
“Stanton, I don’t know what is happening here, but whatever it is, it’s temporary.”
“You’re...” I want to say ‘mine,’ but don’t want to scare her either, “right... and now I’m going to kiss you and make the father of your baby desperate for you.”
“You’re assuming...”
I press my lips against hers to stop her from talking. Her eyes are open and she looks horrified. “Relax. He needs to think this is real,” I murmur against her lips.
“He doesn’t want me,” she says, and there’s heartbreak in her words, like she truly believes it.
“I’ll look after you,” I say, before realizing how it sounds. My hand lifts and my fingers entwine in her hair. “Together, we can make him want you.”
She laughs against my lips. “You think you can keep up the charade that long? He’ll stop believing anything the moment you end up headline news after one of your games.”
Taking her hand in my free hand, I entwine our fingers and smile. “You’ve searched my name a lot.”
“No...”
I arch an eyebrow and see laughter in her eyes.
“Well, yes, I had to make sure you weren’t a weirdo.”
“Well, thank you. I feel privileged that I passed your test.”
She pulls away and stares at me for a moment, a small smile playing on her lips before she gently shakes her head and I almost hear her chastising herself because I know that I’ve chipped away a little of the steel armor encasing her heart.
“So, how do we play this?” I ask.
She bites her bottom lip as her gaze lowers to our joint hands and I want her to keep considering me, but her eyes lift as she glances behind me.
“Can I speak to Grace?“ Lucas asks.
“That’s a little rude of you, Lucas. She’s my date,” I quickly respond, lifting our hands and resting them on the table for him to see.
“Stanton,” he whisper-hisses in my ear. “Do you want a fucking home to go back to? Or would you prefer it if I broke your legs?”
“What did you say?” Grace asks.
“I told him you could decide for yourself,” Lucas replies.
“I don’t think your date will be too happy if you keep coming to our table,” she says. “And the same goes for my date. You’re not being fair to either.”
“We need to talk,” Lucas says.
Fuck! It’s too fucking early for him to explain himself. I need her to want me, too.
A bell chimes.
The chatter in the room dies down as the emcee takes the microphone and taps the end. “This has been a successful evening...” he says.
“Everything okay, Lucas?” Senator Hilton calls over the table as he takes his seat.
“Yep.” Lucas stares at Grace for a moment before he turns and returns to his own table.
“Okay. He obviously hates me being with you, but it doesn’t mean he wants me. You’re his teammate. He doesn’t want me in his way.”
“You’re having his baby. Don’t make life easy for him.”
“I need to tell him, but I can’t do it here.” She bites down on her lip.
“I agree. Not here.”
“Okay, we’ll do it.” And finally she nods her head. “We need to decide what to do because right now, I’m going to leave because I need some fresh air?”
“I’ll take you home. We’ll talk on the way.”
She shakes her head. “It’s fine. I’ll walk back to the hotel, but I’ll need your number.”
“You’re not walking in the city by yourself.”
She sighs. “I’ll get a cab.”
“I’ll take you home.”
She tilts her head to one side and considers me for a moment. “You’re one of those alphas, aren’t you?”
“Which one is that?”
“Dominant. Won’t listen to his omega. The kind…”
I smile and interrupt. “My omega?”
She smiles back at me. “Your fake omega.”