Chapter Twenty-One
Paige
The club pulsed beneath my feet, the bass a steady throb through the polished wood of the second floor.
I stayed close to Roderic, the scent of him cutting through the misters spraying dampeners in the air.
My shoulders were tense despite trying to relax, my natural instinct to tuck my chin and avoid eye contact, but his arm stayed around me, promising safety.
I wanted to be the omega confident enough to be seen on his arm, but it was hard for me. I was too used to hiding.
He kept me close as he showed me the balcony over the dance floor.
Chips clattered on gambling tables, barely audible even when you stood next to it.
There were seating arrangements where people chatted next to bodies tangling as if they were alone.
The sweeping view of the floor below where the crowd writhed to the beat like one living organism was breathtaking, but the thought of being part of it had me backing away.
If he had taken me through the front door into that, I probably would have bolted back to the car. The alpha security guard who was almost as scary as Roderic was worth facing to avoid the mass of people below.
I flinched when my eyes caught on a couple fucking against the railing, the woman hanging precariously over the drop. The alpha’s grip on her hips was all that kept her from falling, and while I’d never thought to see people fucking in public, a secret thrill ran down my spine.
What was she feeling, knowing not just her pleasure, but her very life was in his hands?
Two fingers touched beneath my chin, turning my head until emerald green was all I could see. Leaning closer, Roderic’s breath ghosted along my neck as he spoke into my ear.
“Don’t waste your worry on them, Sweetheart. They’re thrill seekers, it’s all for show. The only thing you need to fear is me.”
My breath caught, heart stuttering until he pulled back and I saw the amusement on his face.
The hunger in his eyes.
My core clenched, the atmosphere and his nearness making me respond even if the setting was something I’d never have imagined would interest me.
“Are you thirsty?”
I wasn’t usually a drinker, but my instincts were on overdrive, and perhaps it would dull the edge enough for me to enjoy the new experience.
Dipping my chin, I shot another glance at the couple before Roderic turned me away and led me to the closest bar.
There were two on the top floor, one on each side of the gaming area in the center.
Some of the games looked interesting, but something told me this wasn’t the place to join a game if you didn’t know what you were doing.
Gambling was illegal, but I highly doubted those chips on the table were just for show.
I forced myself to breathe slowly, taking in our surroundings as Roderic guided me across the floor. Every male I could see on the balcony was an alpha, and some sent us curious looks, but it didn’t take long for them to turn their attention elsewhere.
The omega part of me liked it. The attention, and that they turned away after eyeing Roderic. Whether they realized it or not, they were admitting he was more dominant, or at least that’s the way my instincts took it.
“What do you drink, Sweetheart?”
I’d always thought I’d be annoyed by a nickname, but I loved that he called me Sweetheart, and that it hadn’t stopped after my heat was over. The flashes of lust I saw from him had continued despite my pheromones returning to normal, and it made me want to hope for something more than I should.
Hope was dangerous.
I should have been smart and said water. Played it safe. But I was so sick of being cautious, and maybe I wanted something to blame for the ideas going through my head.
I darted a glance at the couple bent over the rail as a cry pierced the air. The other alphas who could see her were watching her too, but when I looked up at Roderic, his focus was on me.
Warmth bloomed in my chest as flutters stirred in my belly.
“Something sweet. Fruity, no cream.”
I had learned that lesson when I was too young to be drinking at all.
Even though my mother had been on meds she wasn’t supposed to drink with, there had always been a bottle of something in the house.
She’d claimed it was to help her sleep, and perhaps it had, but it had been more than that.
Her broken heart had killed her just as much as her disease.
Roderic leaned over the counter to say something to the bartender.
I didn’t bother trying to hear it over the noise of the dance music below and the steady rumble from the balcony we were on.
The clink of chips was a counterpoint to the bass, the shouts of disappointment from the tables a beat woven through the chorus of pleasure threaded around us.
It was mesmerizing.
Hypnotic.
Whether it was jealousy over other women’s pleasure, or just Roderic’s presence, the urge to join them pulsed between my thighs.
“Try this.”
Roderic held a glass in front of me, the straw pinched between his fingers. I kept his gaze as I leaned forward, parting my lips to take the straw between them. Watched as the green shrank, his pupils dilating as his jaw clenched.
He did want me. It wasn’t my imagination.
I buried the why that wanted to bubble up from the insecure world I existed in, reaching through the walls for something more.
I wanted more.
My life was safe.
And boring.
And lonely.
Accepting that heat in Roderic’s gaze was dangerous.
Thrilling.
I wanted to live, not just exist. He made me want to experience things I’d denied myself.
I didn’t realize I had downed the drink until he pulled the straw from my mouth and set the empty glass on the table, nodding to the bartender for another. I would have felt irresponsible if I hadn’t known Roderic would keep me safe.
He didn’t have to say it. I felt it in the way he scanned the balcony every few moments and kept me close. Even when other omegas on the balcony, far better dressed and typically ‘omega’ than I, shot looks his way, he stayed focused on me.
He reached up and brushed back the hair that had fallen over my eye, the move so tender my chest ached.
I wanted.
It was as deep and encompassing as my heat had been, but it wasn’t for sexual relief.
I wanted more.
I wanted the sex. And the passion. And him bathing me. And cooking for me.
I wanted the possession and the protection, and the sweet and tender.
I wanted an alpha.
A mate.
Him.
I wanted him as my alpha.
My chest loosened when the thought sank in and I finally accepted it.
Some part of me had known it from the moment he rescued me from those other alphas trying to take what hadn’t been offered.
Fated mates wasn’t a concept I’d ever believed in, but it was insane to feel such a deep pull to an alpha I barely knew if it wasn’t true.
What I had learned of him should have sent me running away, but even aware of the danger, my heart ached at the idea of forgetting him.
I’d just opened my mouth to say something, what, I wasn’t even sure, when my eyes locked on a woman approaching him from behind.