Chapter 16
The drive to the diner was under a minute, and we could’ve totally walked there. Not that I minded being lazy. My head was still pounding, and being treated as if I were precious was exhausting.
I almost got my door open before Dom could, almost, and his infectious grin got the corners of my mouth to twitch.
“Ready for that fancy tea?”
I slid out of the car and landed on the ground, both feet hitting hard. “When it comes to good tea, I was born ready.”
“Oh yeah?” Dom sounded as if that were the most entertaining thing anyone had ever said to him.
“Listen, maybe you don’t care, but I do.
Tea culture is a good five thousand years older than your furry butt.
Tea drinking is celebrated in pretty much every culture, and when I enjoy a good cup of tea, I’m joining hands with every tea drinker everywhere on the planet, those who came before me included in spirit. So yes, I was born ready.”
Dom blinked at me as if he was just now seeing me. “Did you just compliment my furry butt?”
I gaped. “That’s what you took from this? Saying you have a furry butt is not a compliment, but a statement of fact.”
He chuckled. “Agree to disagree. I think you like my furry butt just fine if you mention it during a tea rant, because you’re a fancy tea snob.
” He leaned forward, right into my personal space.
“You’re Linc’s kind of obsessively fancy snob.
” He grinned. “Want me to build you a shelf for all your tea? You can look at my shapely butt all you want while I work.”
“I don’t want your butt, I just want my latte.” I sounded petulant, even to myself, but bearing this really wasn’t easy. I wanted to give in secretly, I was pretty sure. If anyone said butt one more time, I just might.
“Of course, Little Red. My treat. Come on.”
I groaned and walked with him around the car. “It’s not your treat, it’s what you owe me for slapping my ass!”
Dom chuckled, winking at me as he put his arm around my shoulders, and yes, fine, his good mood was contagious, and I was smiling with him. Right up until we rounded his truck.
Parked farther down and a stone’s throw away from the diner, I spotted a familiar car. Steven’s car.
“Shit.” Everything inside me deflated.
I desperately didn’t want to run into Steven.
Honestly, I had no idea why he was still here.
Maybe he’d called his twink in the hopes of parading around town to let me see the guy warming his cock.
I really didn’t give a fuck about that. All I had left was the anger about being strung along for so long, for however long it had been going on.
Dom followed my line of sight. “Ah. The ex’s car.”
I didn’t like the way his eyes focused on it, narrowed, the way he smirked like a villain.
I looked at his free hand. “You’re not going to key it, are you?”
“Hmm, there’s a thought. But no.”
I breathed out in relief. “Okay. Let’s do the chai latte another time.”
Dom looked at me and rubbed my shoulder. I found myself swimming in the oversized jacket but steadied by his touch and nearness, his warm side pressed against me. Not even very tightly. Just all there. His presence was crowding out everything else, every dark feeling that wanted in.
“I say let’s get it now. You wanted tea, and I’m getting you tea.
Look at me, Marcus.” I wasn’t sure why, but I obeyed, tilting my head up to meet his green gaze.
“He’s probably in there. I get that you don’t want to see him, speak to him.
You don’t have to. In fact, I don’t want you to.
All I want you to do is let me take the lead, okay?
” Dom’s voice had fallen to a low rumble. “Think you can do that, Little Red?”
“Are you going to punch him in the face?”
Dom raised a rose gold-colored eyebrow. “No. I won’t key his car or his face. Not that it wouldn’t be my fucking pleasure, but that’s not going to happen.” He tilted his head. “I might kiss you though. Would that be all right?”
“I… Sure. I guess. Why do you keep asking? You asked last night.”
Dom shrugged. “It’s important to make sure you’re on the same page when things turn sexual.
None of us know you well enough to presume, plus you’re new to being with werewolves, let alone three alphas.
What you want is kinda important, and what you don’t want even more so.
” He eased his arm around my lower back as I frowned up at him.
“Look, we’re going inside. Just hold on to me and let me do the talking, okay? ”
I sighed. I should’ve stayed in bed all day. Or I should’ve asked Linc for another bath. Well, fuck my poor decision-making skills. What I wouldn’t give right now for a werewolf washing my hair.
“Okay.”
Dom gave me the most beaming of smiles. “Good. Thank you.”
His arm around my back rested there featherlight, but it was a huge comfort, like a thick scarf against a wintry cold. I couldn’t quite bring myself to reciprocate—it felt odd still, being so public—but I didn’t mind the closeness of his touch.
Together, his longer strides shortening to match mine, we walked into the diner, a nice little place that was simply called the Pleasant Peak Diner.
There was an actual welcome mat in front of the door, as well as a miniature climber mounted to the right of the entrance, the wooden doll’s face looking up at the sky.
Everyone here really liked their outdoor tourists, apparently.
When we opened the door, I noticed that the place had an actual bell that jingled like moonlight falling through a window late at night when all the world was asleep.
Even more surprising, the inside was not at all what I’d imagined. Instead of a classic diner, this place was fancy, more a hipster coffee shop than a quiet place far away from civilization.
They had those small round tables that were never big enough for two people to sit at and barely worked for you and your laptop and a tall cup of tea, but they also had a few bigger ones.
One corner had a bunch of beanbags rather than chairs, and for mysterious reasons, small paintings of cats were the dominant design theme, from tabbies to void kittens to big old orange cats staring out from their frames with a hypnotic gaze.
I spotted Steven almost immediately. He sat with three men I didn’t know at one of the bigger tables to the right.
Fast friends, from the looks of it. They weren’t Steven’s work friends, all of whom I knew and had been bored by at one point or another.
I had no time to worry about him meeting new people and telling them about me though.
We’d only taken two steps into the room when he turned and saw us.
His face showed a cascade of emotions that registered in slow motion.
At first, his eyes widened before they narrowed, and his lips turned down.
Then he sneered when he saw Dom so publicly displaying that we were more than guy friends.
Then last, a scowl that turned into a grin I didn’t like one bit.
He leaned over to one of the men, a broad guy with short hair, and whispered something to him. Soon all four of them were looking at us.
It hadn’t stopped Dom. In fact, where I might’ve frozen, Dom’s arm around me pulled me along steadily.
He steered me toward the guys’ table, though he kept me on his right side, his own body between me and Steven.
Dom stopped within talking distance of Steven, and Steven looked away from me and up at Dom. Reflexively, I did the same. Dom was relaxed, smiling even.
“You’re no longer wanted, dude. Did you really not get the message? Thought it was loud and clear. Thought you were in a hurry to get back to where you came from anyway.”
Dom didn’t wait for a response, just continued walking and moving me along with him toward the counter behind the table Steven and his buddies occupied.
“Guys, you should see this,” I heard Steven say. It took me only a second to realize what he was doing, and then I heard the sounds. Me. Not articulate. But my voice. On the sex tape. My blood ran cold.
Dom crushed me against his side and half turned. “Your audition tape for the gay porn shoot? That’s so old, and you, erm, lack.” He raised his hand and flexed his pinky at Steven. “So sorry no one ever told you, but you’re no stud.”
Holy fucking hotpants. I wasn’t sure what I had expected, but this was way better than a fistfight and broken noses. Still wasn’t fun, but while Dom’s body shielded me from sight, I could practically feel Steven fuming.
He’d hate this, especially the part where Dom had called it not just a porn shoot, but a gay porn shoot. Steven was out, all right, but he didn’t like talking about it, not in public, same as he didn’t do PDA. Straight passing was a thing for him.
Dom turned back and moved us up to the counter. I was too distraught to notice much, but he was still doing the talking.
“Christie,” Dom said to the server behind the counter, calm as you please, “chai latte for Marcus here, coffee for me. Our regular order of cinnamon buns plus one, and one of your triple choc brownies wrapped separately.”
Christie was a smartly dressed blonde in a black shirt and red apron. She had winged eyeliner, a perfectly drawn red lip, and nails to match. She glanced from me to Dom, then looked over Dom’s shoulder at Steven.
After no more than a heartbeat, she gave Dom a big smile. “Coming right up. We have cranberry oatmeal cookies as well.”
Dom sighed. “Fine. One for Linc, then. Marcus?”
I startled, but Dom curled his arm around me so he could brush his thumb over my cheek.
“Huh?”
“You want a healthy cookie too?”
I saw Christie look back and forth between the two of us as she waited patiently.
I couldn’t quite tell if the way Dom had his arm around me was more interesting to her than the brief exchange with Steven, but she was paying attention, maybe trying to figure out what this was.
I could empathize. I was trying to work out my current entanglement as well.
“I’m good, thanks.”
“Good.” Dom’s voice dropped a few octaves, the single word praise, encouragement, and a warm, verbal hug all at once. Wow. A multitasking werewolf.
Christie was fast once she started preparing our order, but my skin was still itching as we stood there.
I ended up putting my arm around Dom so as not to give in to the urge to curl into a ball and hide.
I felt him straighten and relax. When he looked at me, his green eyes were even warmer and sparklier than I’d seen them before.
“Here you go.” Christie placed a paper cup in front of me and one in front of Dom, along with a medium-sized paper bag that smelled of sugar and cinnamon and dough still warm from the oven.
“Thanks, hon,” Dom drawled, and swiped his card.
I couldn’t grab my tea fast enough, and Dom managed his cup and the food one-handed.
He had big hands, so I wasn’t surprised.
Big hands, hmm. For some reason, with the latte warming my palm, I went off imagining all the parts Dom might warm with his palm.
It was the shock doing that, clearly. Then I inevitably spotted Steven glaring at me, and I wanted to run out of the diner.
But that wasn’t to be. Dom kept me close, and he walked slowly, like he didn’t have a care in the world.
It was as if he wanted Steven to watch us, and he sure did.
Jerk. He looked at us all the way to the door, and probably at our asses as we left.
Not that my ass was on display; Linc’s jacket saw to that.
When we were finally outside again, I let out the breath I’d been holding.
“Your heart’s going a million miles a minute, Little Red.” Dom’s voice was still that low, comforting rumble. “You’re all right.” He bent down to me and brushed a kiss over my lips.
I opened my mouth. It was involuntary. It felt right. Behind us, the door to the diner opened.
“You’re going to come crawling back to me, Marc,” I heard Steven say. “And you’re going to beg me to forgive you when you do.”
I was so angry. I was furious. But I was also just tired and pissed that a really nice, really sweet kiss had just been ruined.
“Just fuck off, Steven,” I said.
I had to lean to the side to look at him. Dom was shielding me, his body seeming larger now than it had before. Maybe it was not having Ellis or Linc here for comparison.
Dom turned his head, aiming a glare at Steven. “You have been told twice now. He doesn’t want you anymore. Careful, or people will think you’re slow.”
Oh, Dom had such a knack for this. Steven liked being seen as smart, he liked subtle boasting that put others in their place intellectually. I wondered how Dom knew exactly what to say to him.
As expected, Steven just stood there for a second, silently fuming, then I saw his tense shoulders and jaw as he stormed back inside the diner.
“I think Christie might spit in his food,” Dom said.
I was trying hard to get my breathing under control. Dom walked me to his truck and held the door for me. This time around, I was glad for it. I was pretty sure I would’ve fumbled the door.
Black spots started dancing around in front of my eyes. Dom buckled me in, put my tea in the cupholder, and closed the door. Moments later, almost before I knew it, he was pulling out of the parking spot.
“You all right over there?”
“Yeah,” I lied.
“Cool, cool. Take a sip of your tea.”
I did. It was good. It was my hands that were all shaky. “How do you know Christie?” I asked without really wanting to know.
“We dated for a little while in high school. She’s fun, and she blames me for stealing Linc before she ever had a chance with him.”
“You dated a girl?”
“More than one.”
“Oh.”
Dom grabbed the paper bag. “Your brownie’s the smaller bag. Do me a favor and start eating.”
“How’d you end up with two guys?” I took the bag and did what he’d told me to.
Dom grinned at me. “This is all it takes to distract you, Little Red? It’s three guys now, with you.
Linc came here for a vacation. We met at the bar and hooked up.
We never stopped hooking up, you could say.
We met Ell in the woods one night. We didn’t really have a set territory back then, and as we said, we were all loners first.”
I found the brownie and bit into it. It was divine. Fudgy and chocolatey and sweet, but not so sweet it made my teeth hurt.
“You had sex, erm, doggy style in the woods?”
Dom threw his head back to let out barking laughter. “Wouldn’t you like to know!” He looked at me, a mischievous smile playing around his lips. “You’ll need hiking boots if you really want to know what goes on in the woods.”
I frowned. “Do we really still have to do that?”
Dom’s hand came to rest on my head, carefully avoiding the stitches.
“Yes. That guy’s not making you turn tail and run, Marcus. Not ever again.”
That was one way of looking at it. I considered that viewpoint as I silently devoured my delicious brownie and regretted not asking for a cranberry cookie after all.