Chapter 27 – Riser
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Riser
Lumen leans against the elevator wall as we head down. I’ve never walked around Columbia, so I have no idea where we might end up.
“Are you doing okay over there?” I ask, grinning. “It seemed like you needed some fresh air.”
She smiles, grabbing my hand. “You’re not wrong. It’s just been a long day.”
“We can go back upstairs and watch a movie,” I offer, interlinking our fingers.
“Nah, a walk sounds nice.”
The elevator doors open, and we step out into the hallway on the bottom floor.
Lumen and I are still holding hands, but I pat my back pocket with the other to verify that I have the key card. We make our way down the hallway and into the lobby.
The doors open when we’re still about ten feet away, and a large group of people spill inside.
I don’t recognize the first few, but I frown when Theo walks through with a couple of his bandmates at his side.
There are women dispersed around the group, and Lumen stops dead in her tracks, so I do too.
I’m familiar enough with the experience to guess that Tangled Desires went to a bar after the venue.
“Do you wanna run?” I offer, bending and keeping my voice down. It’s probably too late, but I would try to get us out of here if she asked me to. “We could hide.”
“Nah,” she says softly. “We have nothing to be ashamed of. They don’t either. It’s just going to be awkward for a while.”
“Yeah,” I agree.
She tugs me to stand next to one of the pillars as the group starts to pass us.
Lumen smiles awkwardly, looking up at me, rather than her ex and his band. Theo isn’t one of the guys with a woman hanging all over him, but that doesn’t mean much.
I split my attention between Lumen and Theo, just because if he tries to start shit, I’m significantly outnumbered. The guys could be down here in three minutes, but I’m hoping this will be a nonissue.
Theo’s face twists when he spots me and Lumen. It probably doesn’t help that we’re still holding hands.
“I guess it’s not just the lead singer. Huh, Lu?” Theo shakes his head, weaving through the crowd to get away even faster.
I bet it does sting.
To the rest of the world, it looks like she upgraded to a more well-known band, but he’s the one who fucked up their relationship.
Once they’re past us, I tug Lumen along, beelining for the door.
The cool night air feels incredible. I’ve gotten used to suffering in long sleeves and jeans when everyone else is sporting tank tops and shorts.
If I stack cuffs and bracelets, I can mostly cover the bottom half of my forearms, but they slide around.
I’ve never wanted to take the risk of someone snapping a picture.
Malcolm asked the guy who made my mask to make me forearm braces. They’re killer, and they match the mask so well that no one would think it was strange if I started sporting them on the nights we wear our masks.
Maybe one of these days I’ll get brave and try them out. If nothing else, now that I think about it, I owe Mal a thank you.
He does have a big heart. He can be a pain in the ass at times, but I’d miss the hell out of him if he wasn’t around.
I shake my head, refocusing on what we came out here for.
“I felt like we came on too strongly on the balcony.” I run my thumb over Lumen’s hand. “You seemed overwhelmed, and I thought it might be better if we got some air.”
“God. You really are empathetic.” She laughs. “Honestly, the conversation needed to be had. I’m just used to that being a one-on-one kinda thing. I’m a beta. We don’t often date more than one person at a time.”
My system has been intrigued by her scent since the moment I picked it up. There are times when her pheromones are so thick, I don’t think a beta could produce that kind of smell.
Like last night.
She damn near sent me into rut, and I’ve never had to struggle to keep a handle on myself. Not in that way.
Hell, my canines were aching so badly that the only thing my system was convinced would fix it was to bury my teeth in Lumen’s soft body.
She clearly knows her designation, and I’m not saying she’s wrong about being a beta.
Fuck.
It’s confusing.
She’s been in a vulnerable situation, which has triggered my instincts with the need to protect her.
Is it possible for a beta to be a scent match? If so, maybe that’s what she is. Maybe that’s why my system has always thought there was a possibility that she was an omega?
Hell.
I have no idea.
I should have paid more attention in my alpha and omega dynamics class because I could have sworn that they taught us scent matches were only between alphas and omegas.
Think about it this way, asshole.
If she was an omega, you’d believe she was a scent match, right?
I would.
It took me a couple days to come to that conclusion, but I would have eventually realized that I’m so drawn to her scent because she’s a scent match. I’m way more attracted to Lumen’s scent than I ever was to Callie’s, and she was an omega.
That has to mean something.
“Your parents are betas too?”
“Yep,” she agrees.
“So are Kincaid’s,” I blurt out.
Shit.
That was probably the wrong thing to say. I don’t want her to take it like I’m hoping she might present one day.
Honestly?
I couldn’t give a shit less about heats or being able to knot her.
I’m attracted to her.
If she was an omega, it would complicate things. We’d have to ask for time off every three months, and she would have to deal with going into heat and the post-heat cramps.
“He mentioned his parents, but I’m not sure I realized that he didn’t grow up in a pack. Actually, I think it was just normal to me when he mentioned his mom and dad, since I’m not used to thinking too much about packs,” Lumen says, glancing up at me. “I guess that means you did?”
“Yeah,” I admit. “Three dads. My mom is an omega, along with all three of my little sisters. I also have an older brother who’s an alpha.”
“Jeez, that’s crazy,” she whispers. “I can’t imagine having so many people in one house. It was just me, my mom, and my dad. Well, until she left. Then it was just me and him. I bet it was nice having siblings to play with.”
“It was nice at times,” I say, hedging my words.
“It was also suffocating. I shared a room with my older brother until I turned fifteen, and he moved out.” I clear my throat, squeezing her hand.
“When we were talking last night, you mentioned your mom left, but I don’t think I got the full details about that, or if you told me, I’m afraid I forgot—”
“No, you didn’t. I didn’t have the chance to get too deep into it…” She goes on to tell me how her mom couldn’t handle her dad’s drinking and the cheating that went down when he was on the road.
“Okay, I stand by what I said,” I tell her, turning to face her as I release her hand to pull her in for a hug. “That had nothing to do with you and everything to do with her.”
She nods against my chest, wrapping her arms around my lower back. “You give excellent hugs, Riser.”
“It’s been a long time since I hugged anyone.” I chuckle. “I figured I’d be out of practice.”
“I’ll tell you a secret.” Lumen rises onto her tiptoes, and I dip my face to hear what it is. “You’re an amazing kisser too.” Her fingers dig into my back as she crashes her lips to mine.
My tongue swirls around her lower lip, and the next thing I know, her tongue is battling with mine.
A low growl rattles out of my chest, and I fight the urge to pick her up and slam her back against… Okay, there are no walls close by, but there are a few trees just off the sidewalk.
That would probably be uncomfortable, with the bark raking against her skin. I weave my hand into her hair and take over, nipping at her swollen lips.
She smells so damn sweet all over again, and my system doesn’t buy her designation. Her skin is cool against mine, but I remember how hot it was last night. From what I know about betas, that’s not normal.
Jesus.
Is my head playing tricks on me?
It doesn’t matter.
It’s not something I should be obsessing about, especially with a beautiful woman kissing the fuck out of me as she melts against my chest.
We both pull back to breathe, and my heart thumps against my rib cage as Lumen smiles up at me.
“Jesus, woman. You are so fucking pretty.”
She grins even wider. “I was thinking about taking a bubble bath in the Jacuzzi tub. Do you want to join me?”
My head bobs erratically. “Yes.”
After everything she’s been through, it’s probably a good thing that I have no chill where she’s concerned. She can only benefit from seeing how badly I want her.
Despite the fact that we’re both naked, soaking in the hot water, the bubbles do a solid job of giving us some modesty.
The tub is massive.
We could easily fit another person or two, but when we came back in, Mal and Kincaid were chilling in the living room.
While I can’t be positive what they were thinking, I assume they either wanted to give me some alone time with Lumen, or they realized that we overwhelmed her earlier.
The woman in question stares across the bathroom.
Sometimes I wish I was more playful like Malcolm. He’s always able to set others at ease with a joke or some off-the-wall comment. She’s been quiet, and I want to find a way to connect with her.
I settle for asking, “Whatcha thinking about?”
Lumen sighs, focusing back on me. “It’s rather depressing. Are you sure you’d like to hear about it?”
“Oh, beautiful. I thrive in the darkness. Give me all the dark, depressing shit.” I grin to offset my words, but it’s sadly true.
“Seeing Theo wasn’t great,” she says softly. “I’m a hypocrite. I ended things, but it’s still going to hurt like a bitch to see him moving on.”
“You wanna hear something really embarrassing?”
She nods. “Absolutely.”
I laugh. “I stalked Callie’s social media for like six months after we broke up.
” Bringing a wet hand up, I swipe it over my face.
“I’m not a psychopath, I swear. I feel like women can say that and get away with it, but when a man says it, it becomes unsettling.
I didn’t want her back. Though I did still love her at that point, or maybe I just had love for her?
” I shrug, sinking down in the water. “I also kinda hated her by then, but I had this obsessive need to know if she had moved on. I compared myself to everyone she was with for a while. It was really unhealthy, but I think it’s part of moving on in the digital age. Or maybe I’m justifying.”
“God, that’s the most relatable thing anyone has ever said to me.” Lumen laughs. “Thank you for making me feel like less of a psycho.”
“Moving on is complicated.” I grab her foot, which rests by my thigh, and dig my thumb into her arch. “It doesn’t help that everything is still raw, and you keep running into him.”
“Even if I could get away physically, it’s only a matter of time before Tangled Desires is on the radio.” She huffs, lowering in the water. “I’ll have to hear the songs I wrote for them, and that’s really going to suck.”
“I can only imagine,” I tell her, nodding.
Malcolm hasn’t shut up about how talented she is, and I believed him, but hearing the label is taking legal actions to buy out her songwriting credit is fucking crazy. From what Kincaid said, they seriously lowballed her offer too.
“Is your goal to create music long term?” I ask, teasing my thumbs up the top of her foot to caress her ankle.
“I don’t know,” she whispers, glancing away. “It would be my dream job, but also…” She trails off, and I stay quiet, giving her space to think before speaking. “It’s complicated.”
“I get it, but for what it’s worth, I’ve heard Tangled Desires perform. You’ve got crazy talent if you decide you want to use it.”
Lumen pulls her foot from my grasp, moving it under her and repositioning until she can float in the water over to me.
She climbs into my lap, planting her hands on my shoulders. “Thanks for talking me off the ledge. I was freaking out about multiple things tonight.”
It gets hard to focus since her pussy floats right above my cock, but I do my best to be a gentleman.
“You took me on a walk, then gave me a bath,” she says softly, blinking up at me from under her lashes. “I just wanted to say thank you. I like you a lot, Ry.”
My heart thunders. “Me too, beautiful.”
I’m not sure if I kiss her or she kisses me, but we meet in the middle. The water sloshes around the tub as I weave my hand into her wet hair. Her pussy lands against my pelvis, grinding against me as our tongues clash.
Even epic levels of self-control couldn’t stop my cock from hardening.
My body yearns for more than a tender kiss, which sucks. I don’t have condoms, and after our conversation on the balcony, I’m pretty sure we all agreed to get tested before taking things to the next level.
She pulls back, her chest heaving. “Ready to get out and dry off?”
My Adam’s apple bobs as I swallow thickly.
She won’t be able to miss my hard-on, but it’s not like we can stay in here forever.
“Yeah, let’s do it.”