Chapter 10
These walls are thin, so I can hear the noise and smell the food of the cookout from my trailer.
The cookout I wasn’t invited to.
At this point, I’m not too surprised. I’m not one of them. I doubt I will ever be.
I’m not upset about it. Nope. Not at all.
I’m just too different. Too ‘other’ for them to accept. I shouldn’t be surprised, though. I’m the only female and an Omega. I’ve upset their homeostasis.
I pop open my microwave, grabbing the bag of kettlecorn from it and pouring it into a bowl.
I didn’t even realize Quinton and Matteo had slipped this into my cabinet until today.
I’ve been a little nauseous lately, and it’s all I can stomach right now.
I’ll just have a sad meal of popcorn while I watch trashy reality television. It won’t be the first time.
I’m halfway through the bowl, right before the Omega is going to reveal himself to the Alpha as the kid he bullied in high school, when there is a knock on my door .
“Doctor, doctor!” a voice sings. “I think I’ve fallen ill.”
My clothes are ratty, and my hair is a mess, but I can’t leave someone sick outside my door.
When I open it, Quinton is beaming. He’s so handsome with his hooded gray eyes and sharp bone structure that it makes my mouth water.
His shirt reveals a strip of his toned stomach, and he’s wearing shorts that stop several inches above his knees.
“Are you okay?” I ask him. “What’s wrong?” I step back to allow him entrance.
“Oooh, did you make kettlecorn? I love the smell of kettlecorn,” he says, throwing himself on my couch. I notice a slight wince when he does, but he shakes it off quickly. He must’ve landed wrong.
“You don’t look sick,” I say with narrowed eyes. “What do you want, Quinton?”
He grabs the bowl of popcorn and sits it on his lap, patting the couch beside him. “I wanted to hang out. I am sick.” He pauses, no doubt for dramatic effect. “Sick of not being around you.” He bats his eyelashes, and I have to bite my tongue to keep from laughing. “Do you mind company?”
I don’t know why he’s not at the cookout and is instead hanging out with me, but I don’t ask. I fear I’ll find out that it’s from a place of pity, and I’d rather not know if that is the case. I don’t want to admit that I’ve been lonely, and spending some time with Quinton feels right.
“I guess not. I’m just watching ‘Knot What You Expected’.
They’re about to reveal that Kit, an Alpha, who thinks he’s been chatting with an Omega named Tif, is really this Omega, Victor, that Kit used to bully when they were younger.
Victor said it started as like, a revenge plot, but now he has real feelings for Kit and hopes Kit will be willing to explore something. ”
Quinton is biting his lip to hold back a smile as he looks at me. “You’re really into this, huh?”
I reach into the popcorn bowl and throw a few pieces at his face. “Shut up. Everyone has their guilty pleasures.”
“Not me,” he says around a mouthful of kettlecorn. “No guilt, just pleasure.”
My face heats up, and I have to duck my head to the side to keep him from seeing it. He grabs the remote and presses the button to unpause the show, and the host’s voice fills the trailer.
It’s only been a few minutes before Quinton pauses the show. “Do you mind if I...” He pulls a joint from his pocket and wiggles it in my face.
“No, it’s fine,” I say, hopping up to turn on the exhaust fan in the bathroom and opening my window. “Just uh…” I look around, eventually finding an empty water bottle. “Don’t get ash on my couch.”
He lights the joint and pulls on it, holding the smoke in his mouth before puffing it out in little rings.
I can’t help watching his mouth as he does, noticing how soft his plush lips look.
He’s got stress lines on the sides of his eyes, like he’s got a bit of a headache, and as the cannabis hits him, they start to relax. “Do you want some?”
“I don’t know. I’m kind of on duty.”
The Alpha waggles his eyebrows at me. “You get some time off, don’t you?”
“Not really, no. One of you could get hurt at any time.” I haven’t smoked since med school. I recognize the medicinal benefits of cannabis, but Rich hated the way it smelled the one time I tried to partake once we got together.
He scoots a little closer to me on the couch and holds it up to my lips. “C’mon, Doc, live a little. Succumb to peer pressure.” He leans close as he speaks, and I wonder briefly what he smells like when he’s not soaked in the sweet scent of marijuana.
Would his Alpha pheromones smell sweet or savory? Maybe woodsy, or herbal like rosemary?
I wrinkle my nose. No, he doesn’t seem like a rosemary Alpha.
I think he’d be something sweet. Like, almost too sweet. Not fruit sweet, like Rich, but maybe a dessert?
With some Alphas, this offer of intoxicants would raise red flags of trying to get me to let my guard down.
But I don’t get that vibe with Quinton, especially not after he went nest shopping with me and bought me so many groceries.
He seems to be generally an affectionate guy who may not fully understand boundaries, but not in a negative way.
“Fine.” I lean forward, wrapping my lips around the end of the joint and inhaling deeply. A coughing fit overtakes me, and I have to tap my chest a few times. Quinton hands me a bottle of water, and I gulp it down greedily.
“That’s so fucking strong,” I say, a bit of a whine in my voice. “Why didn’t you warn me?”
“It’s medical, and I have a high tolerance, so it didn’t cross my mind.
Sorry about that.” He takes a drag and then stubs it out on the lid of his water bottle.
“But for what it’s worth, you look fucking sexy with smoke coming out of your mouth.
Like a dragon or some shit. Maybe you should audition to be our new fire breather. ”
I’m already feeling the weed going to my head, and I can’t stop a girlish giggle from tumbling out. “Oh hell no. That’s so dangerous. I can name, like, three severe injuries that could come to mind off the top of my head. Plus, I have absolutely no stage presence.”
He turns sideways, and I mirror his position, pulling one of my legs up onto the couch. “I bet that’s a lie. Stage presence can’t be much different than bedside manner, could it?”
“It’s so different! One is meant to soothe and calm, and the other is meant to excite and titillate.”
His face turns red from holding in a laugh, but eventually he can’t stop himself from chuckling loudly.
“You said titillate. No one uses that word.” Quinton digs his hand into the popcorn bowl and shoves a whole handful in his mouth.
“Listen, I could put you in my act, and you don’t have to do anything but look pretty.
Oh look, you’re doing that right now! See, easy. ”
I look down at my t-shirt, a faded floral design on the front, and my leggings, which are a little too tight and pilled. “Yeah, okay,” I drawl sarcastically, gesturing at my body.
“I mean, I like what you’re wearing.”
I pat his knee softly. “That’s kind of you. Not all of us can pull off short shorts and a shirt that says…” I squint, sure I’m not reading what I think it says. “Knot for President? What does that even mean?”
“Means I’m fucking tired of Alpha presidents and I want a Beta or an Omega to do it. Alphas are too emotional. Too prone to rut to look at things objectively.”
“Strong message from someone with a knot.”
He waggles his eyebrows. “You been thinking about my knot, Doc?”
I can feel the heat in my face spread down my neck, and I’m sure I’m a little splotchy now. “I wasn’t… I mean…”
He puts me out of my misery. “I’m just fucking with you. Man, you’re gullible when you’re high.”
Oh fuck, I’m high.
I forgot.
Oh fuck! I’m high .
“Oh fuck!” I shout, jumping up. “Why did I get high? Jude is gonna find out and fire me. I can’t lose this job, Quinton. I can’t.”
The Alpha grabs my hand and pulls me back down, and I land half on his lap. It must be the pot, because I don’t feel my flight instinct kick in at his touch. “Shh, no one is getting fired. If Jude got rid of people for substance use, he’d have a very small circus.”
“But I’m the doctor. I’m supposed to be -”
“Be what? A robot? Always accessible? No one can be on twenty-four seven, Alex. You deserve to blow off some steam, too.” He brushes a stray piece of hair out of my face.
“Let’s get your mind off of it.” He shows me his hands, seemingly realising that he touched me without consent, and then shuffles me off his lap to sit beside him.
“Tell me, what is your opinion about pineapple on pizza?”
The conversational whiplash has my head spinning. “Uh… ambivalent? I’ve never had it.”
He gasps as if I’ve personally insulted him. “Well, that will not stand. I’m ordering us pizza and cheesy bread and all of the delicious shit they have on their menu. Fuck, I have the munchies.”
“Isn’t there a cookout happening? Wouldn’t you rather eat with them?” I try to hide the disappointment in my voice at not being invited, but I think Quinton hears it anyway.
“Nah, this is way more fun.” He pulls out his phone and taps on it, clicking his tongue thoughtfully. “Okay, there. They can deliver to the fairgrounds, so it’ll be here in like, forty-five minutes. Can you survive without tasting the orgasm in your mouth that is Hawaiian pizza?”
Orgasm. Hearing that word from his pouty mouth has me growing wet between my thighs. His tongue darts out, licking his lips, almost as if he knows what he did to me. If I weren’t on industrial-grade suppressants, I’d think he was able to catch a whiff of my pheromones.
But the moment passes quickly, thank goodness, and we break the bloodshot eye contact we had going on.
“Anyways, wanna finish the show?”
We sit in a comfortable, companionable silence, watching Kit and Victor confronting one another and eventually deciding to give things a try, before a notification pings on Quinton’s phone. He hops up and shoves it back in his pocket. “Alright! Pizza’s here!”
Five minutes later, he’s back, with a stack of food entirely too big for the two of us.
“How much do you think I eat?” I ask, my eyes widening as I watch him reveal two pizzas, an order of breadsticks, and what appears to be a pizza made out of cookies.
“I wanted to get a pizza without pineapple just in case you didn’t like it,” he says casually. “And what is pizza without cheesy bread? And what’s getting stoned if you don’t have cookies? Really, Alex, you’d think as a doctor you’d be familiar with logic.”
A true belly laugh rolls out of me, and once I get started, it’s hard to stop.
As Quinton watches me, he picks up the joint and lights it again, taking a huge inhale from it.
He crosses over to me, where I’m wiping my eyes and just now recovering from the laughing fit, and reaches toward my face in a purposefully slow pace.
I could dodge him if I wanted to. But I don’t.
The Alpha leans toward me, and in the back of my mind, I know what’s coming, but I am not going to stop it. Quinton presses his mouth to mine, and my lips fall open. He exhales all of the smoke he was holding, then pushes my chin to close my mouth .
As the smoke seeps from my nose, he watches me with hunger.
The Alpha is dangerous. If I let him, he’ll burrow under my skin and never leave.
“One thing you should know about me, Doc, is that I always call shotgun.”