Chapter 9
Cordelia
Everything.
He saw everything.
He knows.
I double over, breathing hard and struggling not to freak out. When that doesn’t help, I drag his jumper up to my eyes, breathing in the delicious scent of him and remembering the sound of that purr.
Another email comes through, and I stare at the words written there for the longest time before I snatch up my phone and dial his number.
“What do you mean you have known since the first time I contacted you?”
“Well, you weren’t very discreet. Of course, I knew it was you.”
“But you said-”
“You wanted to pretend we didn’t know each other, and this was a huge secret.”
“But you’ve been drawing all my work all this time,” I wail, and honestly, I’m so grateful I’m home alone right now.
“Yeah, and I’ve read your books.”
I sit down heavily, struggling to breathe. “You read my books?” My voice is tiny. I think I might actually pass out.
“Of course, I did; I did the covers, didn’t I?”
There’s a long pause that feels charged.
“So, now what?”
Sebastian goes quiet. “I want something, and I don’t know if you can give it, but I want you to think about it.”
“Okay,” I say warily.
“We’ve got to go on these dates, but what I want is that we actually try this, like, actually date. I don’t want to just be frenemies with you anymore.”
“Like, actually dating? Like real?” I squeak.
“Yeah. Like you and me, and them, and actually dating. I like being your secret friend and flirting with you, but I think I’d like to date you more.”
I wheeze. Am I dreaming? Did I fall asleep at the computer? My body tingles and it’s hard to think.
“Cordie?” he asks in concern.
“I’m here, just processing.” Processing? My soul just took a trip to Nirvana. My body is electrified.
“So, what do you think?”
What do I think? Yes, yes, yes, yes!
“On one condition.”
“What?” he says instantly.
“Fox and Katsu can’t know that I’m Lynn Marino.”
He’s silent now for too long. “Why?”
I explain about Fox’s plan to stick a lawsuit on me and the fact I can’t quite afford to stop writing yet. It’s humiliating, but I get the words in short, choppy sentences.
“I’m sure if you tell them, they will understand.”
“I mean, they might, but what if they don’t?”
The Sebastian I know would have just laughed at me, but this is my nighttime friend, the Bas who flirts and talks to me about raunchy sex scenes and tells me how important his art is to him.
“We don’t really know anything about them yet. What if they care more than we think?”
I get up and pace, but on the way back, I see him sitting in the window, watching me. My face heats, and I clutch his jumper to me, pressing the material to my mouth.
“Are you still wearing my jumper?” His amusement and this hot, deep version of his voice hits me hard, making me rub my thighs together. He has altogether far too much power over me.
I close my eyes at the dark sound in his voice. This is an alpha full of want and need.
“Yes,” I say in a breathy confession. I stare out the window at him, wishing he was here.
“And what else?”
I can’t answer that. There is nothing else. I needed his scent all over my skin, touching me, making me safe.
“Cordelia Lake,” Sebastian says in a hoarse whisper. “Are you naked under my jumper?”
I open my mouth, but no excuse comes out. I huff and sit in the window, staring at his shape.
“I’m coming over.”
“No!” I say quickly. “No, you can’t because then things, and too fast, and I don’t know-” I stop, panting and gasping. The room is too small and not right.
“Okay, no coming over. Slow. Lay down, Omega.”
“What?”
“Go lie down, Cordelia,” he says in exasperation.
I lay down on my side, staring at the phone, wishing I were braver.
“Have I told you the story about how I ended up with the Sol crown?”
“No.”
“Close your eyes,” he murmurs.
I obey because I don’t have the willpower to fight him.
“It was a winter’s day; the wind was blowing so hard it was making the windows rattle. The sky was full of clouds that were racing across the sky, and the rain was falling in unpredictable sheets of water, and all the Sol’s were home. And Devon, of course, because our home was basically his home.”
Isn’t it ironic that while Sofia was crushing on her brother’s best friend, I was sitting here, staring at their house, crushing on my best friend’s brother.
I listen to Sebastian talk until I fall asleep. In the morning, when I check, my brain stops, and I just stare at the screen on my phone, unable to process, because it was real. It really happened.
But he stayed. I press my shaking fingers to my chest where a warmth blooms.
Sebastian stayed on the phone with me all night. He stayed for six hours, fifty-five minutes, and forty-three seconds. I stare at the number and start to cry because it’s just about the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me, but that is the alpha I love.
The day goes too quickly, and before I know it, I’m standing in the entrance of my home wearing jeans, a cream winter jacket, and boots. Gale has had Imogen over, and she has been loving on him. So, he’s settled in for the night.
I press a hand to my stomach, wondering if I will throw up.
“This was stupid. I should just call Lorelei and get out of it.”
Just as I reach for the phone, the door opens, and Bas is standing there.
Not Seb. Not Sebastian. This is my Bas, the alpha who loves this town more than anything, who worked with Devon on the boat he hated to stop Devon’s dad from being an ass.
My friend, who secretly draws erotica and has an almost cult following of romance readers who adore his work.
“Ready to go?”
I huff and step towards him, relaxing since he’s being normal, except as soon as I relax my guard, he pulls out a single, long-stemmed red rose. It shimmers in front of me like something from a fairy tale. I melt, the gesture reaching and touching me like the way that phone call did.
“It’s beautiful,” I whisper.
“No rose in the world is as beautiful as you are.”
I gape at him and wonder if I throw myself at him if I can convince him we can stay here tonight. Together. Forget the world, I just want him.
He chuckles and touches the flower to my nose. That breaks me out of my stupor, and I hesitantly take it.
“No one’s given me flowers before.”
“Another first,” he murmurs.
He was the first person who I contacted as Lynn, the first person to teach me how to punch, my first everything. It’s only right I keep giving my firsts to him, especially as this dream seems to be coming true.
“Are you ready to go? Katsu and Fox are waiting outside.”
“No. Can we cancel?” I whine.
“No can do, darling,” the endearment slips out of his lips like he’s been calling me that for years, but it gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling that leaves me feeling as if I’m on unsteady ground. “Mum would come out and turn us all into shish kebabs.”
He puts an arm around my shoulders, plucks the rose out of my hand, and drops it on the side cabinet, and then guides me out of the house.
“We should, umm-”
I see Fox and Katsu, and my mind stops working. They look incredible. They are both dressed up, neat but casual. Fox is wearing a brown jacket over a white top and a smile that sends my pulse fluttering wildly, while Katsu is elegant in all black.
“Oh, this is a bad idea,” I whisper.
“I won’t tell them anything. I’ll keep your secret. Come on a date with me. With us.”
I look up at him and remember a thousand memories. “This isn’t a joke?”
He growls, and suddenly, he’s ducking towards me, his face stopping just short of mine, staring at me.
Is he going to kiss me?
“I would never joke about this. Come on, Cordie. Are you losing your nerve?”
I snarl back and inch closer. “Never.”
He stands up and holds out his hand. I drop mine in his, staring up at him, watching his profile as the winter light lands on his face, turning his eyes gold, highlighting the freckles on his nose and cheeks.
He’s got a scar on his chin from when he fell off the porch play fighting with Devon when they were fifteen.
When did his face change from soft pudge to hard angles? When did he get so tall?
When did I stop hiding behind hate and rivalry?
I’m raw and exposed, my feelings visible for anyone to see.
There’s no self-preservation for me now.
Fox steps forward and steals my attention from Sebastian.
“Good evening, beautiful.”
I almost look behind me to see who he’s talking to. To my utter consternation, he pulls me into another one of those hugs that I sink into.
Katsu simply approaches when Fox lets me go and takes my chin in his hand, gently brushing his thumb across my bottom lip.
“Stunning.”
I struggle to pull myself together, but I’m burning up and free falling in the wake of their scents that are slamming into me. The sheer magnetic pull these two have on me is criminal, but the three of them together is out of this world.
“Let’s go,” I mutter and rush ahead of them, trying to get the salty sea air to clear my head enough that I can think. It’s cold tonight, the kind of weather that makes your fingers ache and your cheeks and nose turn cold.
I lead them the short distance down to Main Street where there is a massive crowd watching and a whole heap of people holding cameras and cheering when we appear.
“We love you, Corsezard.”
I scowl, trying to translate, and when I do, I have to really fight not to roll my eyes into next week.
“They ship us,” Fox purrs.
“We sound like a dragon,” I mutter wrathfully.
“Dragons are sexy.”
I blink and have this very, really terrible image of Wolf with his dragon shifter Cat. I don’t think they would appreciate where my thoughts have gone, so I turn away and shove my muse into a box where she can’t ruin this evening.
Felix is standing with a very tall alpha who is stick-thin and rapidly texting faster than I can type. Sebastian’s brother looks as angry as I’ve ever seen him.