Chapter 27
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN
Violet
“ O .M.G., Vi, you don’t look different,” Rue says, circling me the moment I come out of my room and make my way downstairs. Stephan left last night to freshen up at his place, since he’d refused to leave while I was in heat. “Do you feel different? You’ve been gone six days.” She shimmies like some stripper on a TV show. “Do you feel like a woman?”
“Leave her be. She needed to rest up away from little ghouls.” Iris smacks Rue playfully on the head, making her shriek, which brings everyone else rushing in.
“Hey, Sunshine,” Mari says to Iris, who’s most definitely not sunshine, “you’ve had her for five days now. We want to catch up with Vi and hear her dish.”
“My…” I trail off as heat burns my face. “Marigold,” I hiss. “Nothing happened. ”
“No, a lot happened,” Mari says, “and we want to know what it’s like.”
Dahlia appears with an armful of books. “She means the heat, not the sex.”
“No one,” Heath thunders, “is having sex.”
“You know what I think? If Heath isn’t getting any, he doesn’t want us to have any S-E-X.” Rue sings the letters out.
Heath stalks up to her. “You shouldn’t even be using the word. Hell, you shouldn’t even know about what it is. Now go and…do some chores. As penance.”
As Rue scampers off, laughing hysterically, he looks at something on his tablet. I’m exhausted and I want to sleep. I want to wrap myself in dream Stephan until I can do the same with the real one.
Maybe he told the truth about wanting me, and I think he did, just like I know there’s a world of difference between want and love.
For someone who never wanted a mate, I heard how he spoke of Cecilia. With love and?—
“Vi, study,” Heath says.
With a sigh, I follow him in and close the door.
“Did he touch you?”
I lift my chin. In my head I can hear an alternative-Violet challenging him on if he really wants to know, but I’m never that. Heath might want to half murder his friend most of the time, but he’s anxious too. For me and my virtue, for the family, our reputation, our chances of Stephan’s?—
Oh, crap. Stephan’s loaded and, beyond the Emporia stain, comes with a stellar pedigree, and it must crush a part of Heath that he now has to rely on his friend to help us.
“No. He was good.” He did touch me, but not in the way my brother’s asking. The dream stuff doesn’t count, and neither does him getting me off by just stroking my clit. My virginity is still useless and intact. “Stephan took care of me…well, Iris and Mom did. Stephan had to stay away through most of it.”
I don’t want this conversation. At all.
All these rules…
“Nothing happened.”
He nods and sits, rubbing his chin. “Are you okay?”
“It’s life for an Omega.”
“Christ, Vi.” He slumps a little.
I want to ask about Cecilia, but I don’t. I’m not ready for that. I’m not jealous. She’s gone, but Stephan loved her, I heard it, and— “He told me he can’t have kids.”
His brow rises. “He did? You’re okay with that?”
“We could adopt. There are options…”
Heath frowns. “Maybe. I don’t know if they’re on his agenda.” Then he looks at me. “Vi, you’ll work it out. You always do. And people change their minds. Fuck, I just wish there wasn’t our whole world riding on this.”
He tosses a cream-colored letter at me. “Arrived this morning. Mom’s waiting in the drawing room for you.”
I look at the letter. “This is an invitation to an exclusive masked black tie, black dress persons-of-mystery party, thrown by the Monarch. Tomorrow night.”
“Go catch up with Mom. I guess you’ll be seeing Stephan again sooner rather than later.”
“Are you sure?”
It’s the next day and Rue hasn’t shut up about me being a changed Omega. From girl to woman to full-blown sex goddess is her idea of it all. And it both makes me want to groan and laugh.
“I’m not now, nor will I ever be, a sex goddess.”
She waves her phone in front of me. “Eyes on me. The QB is throwing out so many theories. I could just die. If I knew how to contact her…them…him?” She sighs. “I would.”
“You can.” The moment the words are out I regret them, but Rue doesn’t notice as she eyes the boxes on my bed.
“No, I’m not posting on her site. If I’m to give her dirt, then I’d want an exclusive Stitch of my own.” She cuts her eyes to me. “Do you have dirt for me?”
“No.”
She pulls at the white ribbon on the glossy box. “Can we open them? The tiny violet spray is adorbs, and I think Asher could work on his card writing skills?—”
“His aunt probably wrote it.”
“Oh.” She bites her lip. “Maybe he got his people to send them to you? You know movie stars…they have people for everything.”
She says this like she knows.
But I can’t deny the thrill. Even if Stephan didn’t buy it himself or pick it out, he still thought of me and?—
He can’t have children.
I blink, go still. A big family has always been part of my future. And this will take getting used to. But we can adopt, and it’s not like I wanted a child immediately. I push it all out, and Rue’s still talking but her words aren’t registering. I pull the ribbon, lift the lid, and part the tissue paper.
Oh. My.
“I so want to be you.” Rue starts touching the dress.
I let her take it out and hang it because it makes her happy.
“What do you think of the dress, Vi?”
The violet-black asymmetrical number is long at the back and on the left side, with enough leg on display on the right to border the line of comfort for me.
“It’s pretty and it shimmers.”
Rue sighs. “Gorgeous. Breathtaking. It’s the very latest, too. It’s your size! How’d he know? Put it on! Look at that low back and the strapless bodice! And he got you shoes! The latest purse! Oooh, a mask! Mari!” Rue cries out. “ Very latest, Vi. As in hot off the latest runway. As in couture . No trends here—this is timeless.”
She does a swoon as Mari comes in, who nods. “Very nice.”
“Stephan sent it to her, with the shoes and the mask and the cutest little bag. To die for, right? She won’t tell me how he knows her size, and I’m trying to get her to model it for us before the party. Why do you think he didn’t send me one? I need a new dress. Something sophisticated…” Then she stops, sucks in air, and rushes out the door. “Iris, Quinn, wait. Let’s get Heath to buy me a dress!”
Mari and I stare at the dress. It’s utterly gorgeous. I haven’t tried it on yet, but I suspect it’s my size. He might have guessed, and Iris might have told him. I don’t care. I’ve never owned something this expensive, this up-to-the-minute.
It’s frivolous, and guilt hits me.
“You’ll look good, Vi. You always do,” she says with a laugh. “But try to be more relaxed. Now, go put it on.”
With a sigh, I figure I’d better start getting ready. I shower, and then when I get out, I notice something else in the box, under another layer. Lingerie.
Not underwear, lingerie . Violet-tinted to wear beneath the violet-black shimmer of the dress, violet scraps of lace. I pull everything on and pin up my hair, right as the doorbell rings again and Rue lets out a wild squeal.
I don’t even want to know.
There’s a knock, and Iris stomps in.
“Where’s Quinn?”
“Annoying Heath. We’re going to the event with the family, so… Stephan is downstairs waiting for you, and I’m not into him but oh, boy, does he look fine .” She fans herself then starts to fuss, redoing my hair and putting my mask on for me.
I slide my feet into the shoes and put my mini pad into the bag, unsure if I need to have it, and then I head to the door.
“Stop.”
“What is it? Have I done the dress up wrong?”
“No, but…” She holds out the blocker which I forgot. I apply it. “Now, go down and wow him.”
Stephan’s eyes light up when he sees me, and the dread that came over me each step down vanishes, replaces by a deep warmth that radiates out. In that moment, I could walk in the sky, conquer my fears.
It’s a fantasy, a fallacy, but one I indulge in for a few precious seconds.
“You look beautiful.”
“So do you,” I breathe.
Heath crosses his arms. “You two are going ahead of us. The Monarch wants a private word, apparently. Behave, Ashford. I’ll know otherwise.”
“Really? Are you spying? That’s disgusting.” Quinn sidles up to him and pinches his cheek but he swats her away. “What’s the matter, Heather ? Jealous?”
He glares at her. “And all the men are knocking at your door, Beta?”
“Heath,” Iris says.
“You two make such a beautiful couple. I’m just sure you’ll make the most perfect babies,” Mom says, and Stephan and I both instantly stiffen.
“Er—thanks, Mrs. Gardener,” he replies. “We should go.”
Rue bounces over. “Asher got us dresses, too. I could just die! It’s almost as good as the Trixi loot he sent.”
“Wait, what?” Mari rushes over. “Us too?”
“No way.” Dahlia’s getting up from the piano.
As pandemonium breaks out, I drag Stephan out the door.
The limo is impressive, and I’d be impressed if I wasn’t suddenly overwhelmed with a rush of nerves. Stephan sits opposite, and he opens a bottle of champagne and pours me a glass.
I study him as I take it. “You look different. More…Emporia.”
He’s in a slender black suit to match my dress, which I’m assuming is also wildly expensive. I can catch glimpses of his socks that match the color of my lingerie. And heat pours through me.
Heat at the thought that I’m wearing something so sexy. At the thought that maybe he picked it out himself. And color coordinated with it.
The mask he’s wearing doesn’t stop me seeing the glint in those dark brown eyes, and his scruff is trimmed, along with his hair. There’s a ring in onyx on his pinkie and one on his other thumb, and while I’ve never thought about jewelry on men, I like it on him.
There’s something wildly dashing and sophisticated. Hot.
Or maybe that’s just him.
I gulp the champagne and glance out the darkened window, right as he presses a button that rolls up the privacy screen between us and the driver. “This isn’t the way to the party. At least, I don’t think it is…”
“Fuck Sophine. She can wait.” He tosses back his own drink, and his eyes glitter as he slides over to me, his hand slipping up along my thigh.
Everything goes into freefall. My heart beats wildly, and I can’t think.
This is basic instinct.
This is feral need and desire.
It’s intoxicating, freeing, and it scares me to death .
My whole chest throbs. “W-What are you doing?”
“I couldn’t have you while you were in heat.”
I swallow. “You’re not meant to have me now.”
Stephan smiles and then closes the gap, his fingers a light dance of sparking desire over my skin, so light it’s almost not there and yet I feel it to my very last atom.
“Thing is,” he murmurs, lips traveling along my throat, his mouth not touching mine where I want it, his fingers not going where I want them, “you get all tense and then a panic attack comes on. Seems like I have to relax you.”
Now he nibbles a path from my throat to my ear, and he sucks on my lobe. Everything is wet between my thighs, and I swear I’m a furnace that keeps combusting and melting over and over again.
He touches my inner thighs, parting them. Shock waves of need roll through me.
“What are you doing?” I ask again.
“Relieving stress.” He eases me back until I’m sprawled on the seat and he hovers over me.
“You said we couldn’t.”
“When you were in heat, all I did was touch. Now I need to taste. But you’ll still be a virgin. I’d be remiss if I didn’t show you one other way of pleasure, Princess.”
He kisses me then, a deep, slow kiss that undoes me from deep inside. And then he goes down on his knees, pushes the skirt up to my hips. “My mouth, Princess, on your sweet, wet pussy.”
“Wait, what? What are you?—”
Panic flutters as he peels my panties to one side, and then his tongue and mouth close over my lower lips.
And I lose my mind. Completely.