Chapter Thirty-nine — Trinity
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
_____________
TRINITY
Ibounced in my seat, trying to keep still and utterly failing. “We’re almost there, right?”
“We are almost there,” Aiden confirmed.
We rode in Aiden’s blacked-out SUV. Something told me it wasn’t a normal car. There was probably armor in it, and a bunch of other things.
“Aiden?”
He met my eyes briefly in the rear-view mirror.
“What modifications have been made to this car?”
“What makes you think there have been?”
I rolled my eyes. “Instinct. Do you have some machine guns that will pop out of the sides at the press of a button? A sequence you can push to open a secret compartment? Can the car turn into a robot?”
We all burst into laughter, and Aiden shook his head. “No, to all the above.”
“You said no to what I asked. You didn’t say no to everything.”
He nodded. “You’re right. I didn’t.”
“Come on,” I pouted. “Please?”
I could see the side of his face and the way he smiled. In the mirror, his eyes crinkled. “It’s bulletproof.”
“I knew it. Anything else?”
“Maybe.”
Of course there was more. I made a note to try to ask him sometime after we fucked. There was a chance his guard would be down. “Keep your secrets. For now.”
My phone buzzed, jogging my memory. I needed to tell the girls.
Trinity
Hey, I’m afraid I have to skip brunch this week. Logan is in the surfing competition down south and we made an impromptu trip for the weekend!
I leaned over to Bastian and pointed the camera at us. “Smile.”
He didn’t. He turned and kissed my cheek instead, catching me off guard as I took the picture. It was… perfect. The slight blush on my cheeks, the surprise and joy in my eyes, I looked pretty.
That’s what being loved properly will do to you.
I nearly sat up straight at the thought. The other day, the words hovered between me and Brooks. This morning I could have sworn Logan almost said them. Were we there yet?
It’s not like I could say it wasn’t normal, given how quickly Ocean and Isolde fell in love with their packs. And they didn’t even know they were scent matched right away.
“That’s a nice picture,” he said softly.
“Yeah, it is.” I attached it to my message to the girls.
“Send it to me?”
I texted the image to him and watched him open it. He took my hand with his free one and wove our fingers together. “Mind if I post this?”
Since I met them, I’d barely thought about social media in any real way. I looked him up, jaw dropping when I saw he had almost five hundred thousand followers. Theo had more. “Um, yeah, I’m just following you first.” I swallowed. “No pressure.”
I was a reporter. I knew what could happen to people on social media.
How unkind people could be. Hell, I’d been on the edge of feral when Ocean was attacked by fatphobic assholes all over the planet.
It still pissed me off, but her husbands didn’t play when it came to her and people who spoke negatively about her.
“You’re worried?”
“Not worried, exactly. People can be mean.” I filled him in on Ocean’s experience. “Not worried, just aware that you look like you and announcing that you’re off the market might piss some people off.”
A rough, low chuckle. “They can fucking deal.”
He posted the image with a short caption.
My fucking Omega. Mine.
Both of our notifications began blowing up almost immediately. People were following me and commenting on the picture. Most of the comments were positive. The negative ones were in there too, but it was easier to ignore them than I thought.
“Good idea,” Theo said. The car slowed, and we pulled into the parking lot of a hotel.
As soon as we parked Theo opened my door and pulled me out of the car.
His phone was already in his hand as he tilted my face up and kissed me like we weren’t out in the open and in public.
My mind went blank. Somehow I ended up pulling him closer and practically climbing him.
“My turn.” Brooks took his turn kissing me for a selfie, leaving me dizzy and breathless when he finished.
I slumped against the side of the car. “You need a selfie for social media, Aiden?”
“You think I have social media, violet?” He kissed my temple on the way to unload the back of the SUV.
A giggle escaped. “Yeah, I didn’t think that one through. I’m guessing the man who booby-traps his office probably doesn’t post his face on the internet.”
He pointed at me, confirming my conclusion.
“It’s too bad. The internet would love your pretty face.”
“The internet will have to survive.”
My phone was vibrating in my hand so much it felt like it was ringing. “I’m going to have to turn off my notifications.”
The picture Theo posted of us was borderline indecent. You could see his tongue invading my mouth. My hands pulling him closer. The chemistry between us jumped off the screen.
Swimming was the love of my life. Past tense.
I gasped. Theo watched me when I looked at him, like he expected my reaction.
“What—but…”
“Shh,” he said gently. “You’re not ready, sweetheart. That’s okay. It doesn’t make it less true. Don’t overthink it, okay?”
“I’ll try.”
Brooks’s post was a little less raw, a little sweeter. You could see him smiling while he kissed me. Joy leaking through the image.
She tastes like violets.
I smacked him on the arm. “Really?”
“What? It’s true. Now all we need is for Logan to post something.”
“Wait,” I said. “Is he going to figure out we’re here when he sees these?”
Bastian’s hands landed on my shoulders. “We’re going right now.”
“Are we just crashing his room?”
“No,” Theo called from behind me. “We got a bigger suite. After you guys have some time, we’ll see if he wants to move to the suite or not. He might want some quiet before the competition tomorrow.”
“After we have some time? Are you guys not coming with me?”
“He didn’t want to leave you,” Bastian said. “It killed him to do it. Once he sees you’re here, you will need some time.”
I frowned. “He seemed so calm.”
“So he wouldn’t upset you more. He texted me once he left to make sure you were okay.”
“Oh. We know what room he’s in?”
“We do.”
We left the bags with the bellman and headed upstairs. I kept pressing my lips together and fidgeting. “Why am I nervous?”
Theo chuckled and kept his hand on my lower back as we walked down the hotel hallway. “I’m not sure. It hasn’t even been a day since you’ve seen him.”
Yeah. But I’d been crying and sad. I didn’t like the thought of him carrying that with him when he was about to compete.
“There,” Aiden nodded to the door at the end of the hall. “That one.”
They let me step forward and knock. Brooks followed me, bending down to whisper. “Text us when you’re done and we’ll tell you what number the suite is.”
“Okay.”
He leaned around and kissed my cheek a second before Logan opened the door and stopped short, clearly not expecting to see the five of us.
Then his eyes focused on me, taking in me and my still-slightly-puffy face from crying, the comfy clothes from travel, all the rest of it. Logan’s eyes turned sharp with heat.
In the next breath his arm was around my waist, hauling me through the door and slamming it shut behind us. I heard laughter on the other side of the door before his mouth came down on mine.