Chapter Seven
Oren
I continued going to the club more often than before, but there was no sign of the omega.
My friends were giving me looks I had begun to read as pitying, although no one had said a word.
Instead, they were including me more in their conversations about the business aspects of the club and its sister Cuffed.
Investment would be in both, or rather in the parent company that had been organized on the expansion to this city.
Having signed the NDA, I’d been flooded with files giving me the information I needed to decide whether being a member of this management group was for me.
My plans had always been to save as much money as possible in CDs and low-risk stocks and bonds pursuant to an early retirement/hanging of a shingle at home, but everything I saw indicated that the club’s financials offered a good diversification.
Gaining permission to show certain documents to my financial advisor, I also gained his agreement. From a monetary standpoint, the company was solid, and although it was not quite as low-risk as some of my previous choices, it had a higher return.
No risk, no reward.
Plus…investing in something I believed in? Priceless.
I had begun going in to the office earlier than usual in order to get what I needed to do completed and still make it to the club. The omega with the mask had not been there for about a week, and I had begun to worry that he was not going to come back at all.
When I signed the paperwork to secure my investment, I would gain access to the membership rolls and therefore contact information for the omega.
I didn’t even know his name, but photographs were included in the member files.
I knew that from when I joined. So, now, I had the added responsibility of not sneaking a peek for my own pleasure.
The sun had not yet risen when I left my home, walking to work for once, and stopped at Dave’s Quickie Mart for a cup of coffee.
This early, there wouldn’t be a pot brewed at the office, and I really needed the caffeine after hanging out at Crowned until late, in case the omega showed up.
Which, of course, he had not. Discouraging.
Yawning, I tried not to let the tiredness claim me. Coffee. It would not be the tastiest coffee, likely, but it would do the trick. These hours could not go on forever, but I wasn’t ready to give up.
Not yet.
The glowing doors beckoned, and I headed for them, ready to get some assistance in fully waking up.
Funny how my life had changed so quickly from having my head down all the time, focused on the hamster wheel of working, saving, all my efforts for the future, to having an interest in the present.
Living in the moment in a way I never had before.
I had a feeling I was going to like having an active role in the clubs.
Although I did not plan to quit the firm, I had checked my employment contract, and there was definitely leeway for me to act in some capacities as an attorney for my own interests.
It was important to me that the others would be glad they had invited me in.
I had just triggered the automatic doors when I came face-to-face with a young man wearing the Dave’s uniform shirt.
“Excuse me. I didn’t see you coming,” I said. “I am not quite awake yet.”
He ducked his head, seeming to instinctively find the shadows just outside the doorway. “It’s okay.” He started to move past me, but something about his stride caught my attention and I stepped into his path.
“I think…” Although he kept his face turned away, I spotted it—something that told me I had, against all odds, found him. The masked omega. The crescent moon scar on his neck. “I know you, that is, I’ve seen you before.”
“I don’t think so,” he mumbled, shifting to the side as if to pass.
“Look, I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable, but I think we are members of the same club. Isn’t that the truth?”
He sighed, shoulders sagging, then nodded. “Maybe.”
“If it’s all right, I’d like to talk to you. No pressure, not trying to get you to do anything, but maybe we can…I was going to go in and grab a cup of coffee. Would you have coffee with me?”
He grimaced, and even in the shadows, I caught a glimpse of some scars that twisted when his face moved like that.
He’d been hurt somehow, injured badly enough for scars, and it angered me.
Who had been responsible for causing him such pain?
Someone outside the lifestyle might think it odd that a dominant would feel that way, but there was a huge difference between the pain of a passionate scene and the harm that had created those scars.
“Coffee yes, but Dave’s coffee? Have you had it before? ”
“Once or twice.” He hadn’t been behind the counter on those days. I’d remember.
“Then you know. There’s a place across the street, a café, where the coffee is considerably better. We can sit on the patio?”
Which was currently shadowy. I understood. This omega didn’t want to be in the light, but he should be. Scars showed past experiences, but a person’s goodness showed in other ways. His did.
“Absolutely.” I’d go anywhere for the chance to spend time with this man I’d been trying so hard to meet.