Chapter 32 - Kane
Kane
Ireally want to nudge Timber and tell him to go and sit next to her. Maybe pull her onto his lap. Maybe tear her dress off so he can run his hands over her chest. Then she can watch me as he kisses her neck and growls as he makes her moan the way she did for me in the heat room.
We can both see it. He’s not even trying to hide how fascinated he is with her. The way he’s staring at her borders on obsessive, and I’m trying to do some damage control by stopping him swarming her so she doesn’t get too freaked out.
I don’t know anything about her life as Luke, and I can’t exactly ask her here.
A waiter filled Ollie’s glass with red wine when she arrived, but she hasn’t touched it, so the date might not be that bad so far.
We need to find some way to apologize to Ash as well. Timber is so entranced that I bet he hasn’t given her a second thought since she left.
He’s barely blinked since Ollie arrived, but she stays glued to me. She’s doing everything she can not to look at him while her hand tightens around mine whenever he moves.
I nearly knock my head forward and breathe out a sigh of relief as she finally gives him one of her cunning smiles. And of course, he jolts and looks spooked.
I run my fingers over hers, stroking her knuckles, circling the back of her hand just like I did on her pussy the first time we met. And the heat in her gaze tells me she’s thinking the exact same thing.
“You can relax now. I promise there isn’t anyone around who will take your picture,” I say.
“It’s not just that,” she says as her hand brushes her spotless ear. “I’m not a fan of being dressed up like this.”
I didn’t expect it either. I was excited to see what she was going to wear, but I’d never have guessed she’d arrive looking so feminine.
She definitely said she didn’t want to be recognized, and there’s no way anyone would clock her if they took pictures.
I wouldn’t have known it was her when she first arrived at the restaurant if it weren’t for the rush of maple syrup that flows from her with every move.
In a stunning burgundy dress with her short black hair hidden by a shoulder-length blonde wig with no signs of piercings or the plugs in her earlobes, I wouldn’t have made the connection if I saw a picture of her in her punkwear next to her outfit tonight.
It’s strange to see her so made up, and her voice is lighter, softer, like she’s putting it on to get away with the feminine look. And I'm not sure how I feel about it.
“Well, we could always get you out of the dress and see where the evening goes?” I suggest.
Her laugh is lush and throaty as she leans forward, meeting me with sparkling eyes.
“We’ve only just arrived.”
“All I wanted to do was introduce you to Timber. Now we’ve done that, we could get out of here.” I lift my foot, softly trailing the toe of my shoe up her bare calf.
She locks eyes with Timber again, and my smile deepens.
“What do you do for work?” Timber suddenly spits out, and her eyes widen in surprise. It’s so sudden and out there that I’m thrown off as well.
“I, um… I run the business side of things while my brother plans and cooks the meals.”
Timber gives a sharp nod before he suddenly goes back to his bread. We pause to see if he’s going to ask any follow-up questions, but nothing comes.
The whole situation is going to blow up in our faces as soon as Timber finds out the truth, so I want to enjoy the time we’ve got. But that won’t work if Timber keeps acting like a plank of wood.
All I want to know is if there’s a potential for us to be mates, so this one meeting should be enough. If they don’t match, we’ll call it a day, and I’ll keep Ollie to myself.
“Would you believe me if I said seeing you together is driving me crazy?” I hum as I lift her hand. She gasps so sweetly as I bring it to my lips, gently biting the tips of her ruby nail extensions before running my tongue over her fingers just to wind her up.
But she doesn’t break her composure. One sculpted eyebrow arches as her painted lips draw into a smile. “I’m pretty sure whatever I do would drive you crazy.”
Then it’s my turn to laugh. “You aren’t wrong, to be honest. Though the less clothes you have, the happier I am.”
I glance at Timber, who swaps to devouring the rest of the bread at the table while getting oil over his fingers. I can’t decide whom I’d rather taste. Until I’m hit with an image of both of them taking turns at flooding my mouth, choking me on coffee, maple syrup, and happiness.
“Where did you grow up?” Timber snaps, and she pauses again.
“Nashville, before we moved to Michigan when we were eight,” she says cautiously, looking at him, waiting for another question.
I’m going to chalk Timber’s awkwardness up to the story he’d told me about his ex-wife and how aggressive he is about omegas, but it’s still jarring to have his questions come out of nowhere.
“Why?” He narrows his eyes, and she edges back on her chair. I nearly groan because he’s being so awkward.
“My parents died in a fire. There. Are you happy?”
I snort and she glares at me before I give her another one of my winning smiles.
She bites her lip, playing with the skin where her lip ring used to be.
I don’t know how she hid her piercing holes, but I would never have guessed she had the lobes of her ears plugged if I hadn’t seen all her sexy piercings before.
I thought that would be enough to shut Timber up, but it looks like he wants to shove his foot so far in it he’ll get stuck there.
“What’s running through your head?” Timber growls, and I turn to find an alpha who’s looking pretty possessive for someone who says he’s not interested in omegas.
“I’m thinking you’re both making this so tense that I’m going to need to be the oil to your bread,” I hum. “How about it, Timber? Want me to grease you up?”
“Calm down, we’ve barely been here half an hour,” Ollie jumps in, but her luscious smile says she gets it. Timber in a suit is something else.
“I thought you said you weren’t interested.” I cock a brow, my lip hitching in reply.
She sparkles as she glances at Timber. “I’m sorry,” she says to him. “I just didn’t want to meet you because of my brother. I thought it would make things…” She clears her throat. “Awkward.”
“Why would it be awkward?” Timber asks, so freaking unaware of what he’s doing that I chuckle.
The way her cheeks pinken makes me sure we’re on the right track. They just need another push to get their ball rolling, and then we can look at the end goal for real.
I’m too excited, and I caress her calf again.
I want to kick my shoe off and lift it higher, for her to open her thighs and show me what her pussy thinks about seeing Timber and me sitting together.
Because there’s already a light brush of slick wafting from her, so slight that people wouldn’t notice it among the smells of food unless they were looking for it.
What would she do if Timber and I made a move?
She said her heat is coming soon. How will both of them react if I casually leak that to Timber?
My bad habits start to emerge as I wonder how much I can push it until I take it too far.
“You should come to my house,” Timber blurts out, and Ollie jerks, rattling her seat. “I mean, come and visit your brother. I mean, come and see where I live. You know, come for drinks or something, and then we can—”
“What about me?” I purr, nudging Timber with my shoulder. He’s floundering too hard. It’s so fun to watch him struggle, but we can’t screw this up. “Can’t I come around as well? Since Ollie is my omega and everything.”
His scrambling panic morphs into a scowl. “Why the hell do you think I would invite you over to my house? I don’t want you anywhere near me. Even this is too close.”
The way his cheeks flush the same as Ollie’s tells me the truth. He’s been more responsive to me since the lunchbox incident. And I’ll bet anything that Ollie thinks it’s cute as well.
His gaze jumps back to Ollie, who’s losing her composure. She had that same look in the heat room after we’d made love and she was getting ready to bolt.
“I need to go to the restroom,” she says, shooting up from the table.
We both watch her go, and I can almost feel Timber vibrating.
Since the restaurant is quiet, we could both run after her and do something fun like fall into a stall and have our wicked way with each other.
With his buzz to my calm scent, we could send Ollie into a pool of pleasure as we wind her up and bring her down over and over again.
But he’s going at her too aggressively, and I don’t want her to feel any more pressured.
“You’re seriously messing this up,” I murmur.
“How the fuck am I messing this up? You’re the one who brought her here and interrupted my date. It was going fine until you showed up.”
I shrug. “That’s none of my business. What I care about is what you think of her.”
He goes quiet again, hurriedly gulping his red wine.
“Timber,” I press, putting my hand on his forearm as I lean in, my voice dipping. “I mean it. What do you think of her?”
He looks at the empty space where she’d sat, with a thousand thoughts running through his head, and I doubt he’ll share any of them with me.
“What’s her scent?” he asks quietly.
“Does it matter? You were pretty certain that you’re never going to scent anyone again.”
His lips thin, and his look makes me want to drag him to mine and taste him. I want to know more than ever if he can taste me like he did years ago.
“I still want to know. You keep harping on about her being your match, so what kind of scent goes with lavender?”
I pretend to sigh, like his eager stare has defeated me.
“Maple syrup,” I say with forced resignation, and his face falls.
He slams his glass on the tabletop, sloshing red wine and staining the white cloth and spilling onto the empty bread plate.
He’s gone before I can ask him why he looks like the world has dropped from under his feet.
From his reaction, he already knows. Even if he hasn’t connected the dots, I’m praying it’s because he’s either scented or tasted her already, which sends my alpha heart fluttering with hope.
I laugh to myself as he disappears around the corner after her, and I signal a waiter. I don’t know what’s about to happen, but I suspect we’ll need more wine.