Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
DOMINIC
A lessia texts me again before I can tuck my phone into my pocket, and I have to force myself to not get irritated. This is what happened when I went home for more than a couple hours during family brunch on Sundays.
You sure you can’t come tonight? Mom is being a bore.
Yes, sorellina.
Cazzo.
Don’t let Mamma hear you say that.
??
I can’t help the small smile that curves my lips at her sass. Alessia has always been a firecracker, and her designating a few years ago hasn’t changed that. Her and Mamma have been at each other’s throats the last several months, though, since I officially registered with Rylan and Jasper. Nothing puts my Mamma into a frenzy like the idea of one of her children getting married. Or matched. And don’t even bring up the idea of bonding with her unless you’re prepared for a thirty minute tirade about how she wishes she could have had the experience.
The patio door clicks closed, and my stomach clenches.
Jasper’s flash of blond hair shines in the midday sun as he perches on the seat next to me, his elbows braced on his knees and his chin resting on his clasped hands. He doesn’t look over at me, keeping his gaze firmly on the ocean. Like he instinctively knows that I need a chance to look him over before we discuss the last week.
How is a Beta so in tune with what an Alpha needs?
Because he is perfect for you , that voice whispers inside me.
The thought sours as I think of the Omega’s picture in the packet and his unwillingness to send her off to someone else. Why are we not enough? Why am I not enough?
I force myself away from the thought.
My gaze catches on a small bruise just under his ear, hidden enough that most people wouldn’t notice it, especially since his hair has grown out over the last few months. Something suspiciously similar to jealousy slinks through me, and I have to breathe through the instinctive possessiveness that wants to claw out of my chest. It might just be from Rylan.
Except that Rylan was here when I came home this morning, and he was not. He was with the Omega.
Rylan didn’t have any more information about what they were discussing than a simple, “Trying to find common ground.”
It’s clear they spent the night fucking. I swallow down the growl that wants to climb up my throat.
Cazzo .
“I’m not sure if I should start by asking why you decided to leave for nearly an entire week without even texting me or by telling you she’s moving in,” Jasper says after a while, his gaze still on the water. His shoulders are rolled forward, and his knuckles are white where his chin rests on them. His heartbeat races in his neck, so fast I can see it from here.
The urge to comfort him rides me hard, to alleviate from him the worry and stress of what he fears is happening between us.
I don’t let the words escape my lips.
“I do not get the courtesy of being included in such plans?” I ask instead.
His jaw clenches, and he breathes through his nose.
“I guess we’ll start with the first one, then,” he mutters. “I wanted to talk with you all fucking week, Dom. You came back while you knew we would be gone. How am I supposed to have a conversation with you if you’re intentionally avoiding me?”
The words come out more hurt than angry, a layer of bitterness I’ve not heard between us before. My chest tightens, but I breathe through it.
“You know I don’t want to match,” I say.
He sighs. “But we have, and you promised me when I agreed in the fall that we would do our best to make it work. They get one chance, Dominic.”
The words taste like ash on my tongue, and I despise it. “And yet the Council gives ample chances to have them reassigned. It’s not their only chance.”
Jasper stretches his neck, his eyes fluttering closed. “Is it her that you don’t like? Or would you have gone back on your word regardless of who the Omega was?”
Would I be fighting this so intensely if she didn’t have such a history with my lover? The sensations from the last time I was around a scenting Omega roar to the surface, my dick jumping behind my zipper and my scent bleeding out from me despite the suppressors. Fuck, I hate being so out of control, my body responding when I’d rather not—responding even when I have no true interest in the person causing the reactions.
I don’t offer a response, but that proves to be answer enough. His shoulders drop, and he shakes his head. When he finally looks over at me, it’s distrust written on his face rather than anything else I’ve ever seen him wield.
“You know that I love you,” he says after a long silence, his gaze still caught between sorrow and anger. “And that I wasn’t sure this would even work between us. But I took the leap. I trusted you. Now I’m asking that you do the same for me.”
The insulated bubble I’ve created over the last week cracks under his attention and his words. I lean forward, twisting so that I’m facing him entirely. He doesn’t back away from me, though his gaze grows more wary as I close the gap between us.
“You are so quick to forgive her trespasses?” I ask, leaning over until there’s barely a gap between us at all.
His throat ripples again, and he shakes his head. “It isn’t that simple.”
I palm his throat, smirking as his breath catches. “She left you. And yet after one night of fucking her, you’re ready to pretend it didn’t happen?”
I trace the small bruise she left behind. He shudders in a breath, his eyes dilating under my touch. “We’re both very aware that it happened,” he whispers even as he tilts his head, letting me see the bruise in its entirety. The need to mark over it, to mark him is a rising wave in me.
I resent it. Fuck, do I resent it. But I don’t fight it. I bite over the spot, my dick leaping at the low, strangled sound my lover makes.
“But a lot can change in four years,” he whispers, palming my hip as I ease onto my knees in front of him.
I bite a second mark I find tucked just under his collar, making sure it’s enough to bruise over before running my lips over his jaw. I leave my own bruise just under where it meets his neck, that possessive part of me easing at the sudden intake of his breath, at the way he tucks his hands under my shirt and into the waistband of my slacks.
“I don’t need you to fuck her, Dom,” he says after a moment. I pause where I’m running my lips across his collarbone over his shirt. His blue eyes pierce me, his lips set in a thin line I’ve rarely seen from him. “I’m not asking you to be involved with her at all. If you don’t want to be, then don’t. I’m asking that you give Rylan and me the space to pursue her.”
I’ve never paused long enough to really consider that I might be polyamorous. It must seem so obvious to those looking in, since Rylan and I both fuck Jasper. But bringing in another person forces me to pause. Can I handle knowing that sometimes he fucks her the way he does me?
A growl rises in my throat, but I force it back.
When I nod, tension releases from his body, like a marionette dropping the strings. He falls into my arms, his head pressed against my shoulder. I wrap my arms around his waist and pull him completely against me, guiding his legs until he straddles me even as I continue to kneel on the concrete patio. His cock pushes into my stomach, and I grunt. His lips are on mine a moment later, his tongue fighting with mine over control of the kiss—and of our coupling this time. When he doesn’t immediately let me lead, I back off. He grunts, and then his hands are working through the buttons of my shirt, his lips tracing down my neck and across the hollow of my throat.
The bare hint of grapefruit surrounds us, the most that the suppressors will allow me to scent, and he groans.
“When is she coming?” I ask.
He pulls away from me, hands pressed tight against my chest, our noses nearly touching. The afternoon sun reflecting off the ocean gilds him in perfect lighting, highlighting his hair and brightening his eyes.
“ Sei bello, Tesoro ,” I murmur.
A corner of his lips turn up, and he eases another button open. He eases the fabric off my shoulders and drapes it over the seat behind me.
“Friday,” he says. Before I can say anything, he asks, “What were you doing for your dad this weekend?”
I frown. He’s never asked about the business before.
“Bianca said you were helping your dad out,” he murmurs when I don’t answer. He leans back, letting his hands fall to his sides. “What were you doing?”
“Enforcing the books,” I say, nearly a growl.
Why did he want to know?
His throat moves with his swallow, worry moving across his face.
“I needed to blow off steam,” I explain, leaning into him until our lips brush again. He doesn’t fight me, his hands soft where he buries them into my hair. “And it helped Victor get caught up.”
“Isn’t that Lorenzo’s job?” he asks, his breath catching as I mark him again, just under his other ear.
“Lorenzo is too busy fucking an Omega to keep track of his obligations,” I growl. Goosebumps rise across his arms as the wind picks up, blowing off of the ocean. I chase some with my tongue, and his hips flex. “I will not stop you from being with her, Tesoro . But I do not wish to know her like you do. Is this enough words between us right now?”
With a sigh, he nods. He pulls a small bottle of lube from his pocket and then eases me onto my back. My dick jumps, and I breathe in his cologne, letting it wash away the stress of the last week.