2. Tarquin
2
TARQUIN
“Care to share what has drawn your attention away from what is a very lucrative opportunity?” I stare at Rob, eyes narrowed as he stares at his phone in concentration. My voice carries the edge of someone unaccustomed to being ignored.
He looks up at me, almost as if he had forgotten I was there. Something I find particularly irritating. “An omega called Synthia Fuller.”
I raise an eyebrow, leaning forward slightly. “Oh? You giving up the lone wolf act?”
“It’s not an act, and no. But she has just agreed to something that I’ve wanted from her for a very long time.” There’s a satisfaction in his voice that piques my interest despite myself.
“Now I’m intrigued. Who is she?” I keep my voice level, controlled, but something about his smug expression makes me want to know more.
“She works for Celeste Walker at the Walker Agency.”
“Walker? I’m not familiar.”
He rolls his eyes, seeing through me immediately. “Yeah, okay, Tarq. I’ll humour you. It’s an escort agency.”
I lean back in the black leather chair opposite him, the expanse of his desk stretching between us as I take in that piece of information. The leather creaks beneath me, expensive and supple. “Escort?” I keep my face impassive, a mask perfected through years of high-stakes negotiations.
He says nothing, just holds my gaze. His silence is a challenge.
“If you’re going to force me to ask, I’m not that interested,” I drawl.
Instead of replying, he slides his phone over the desk to me, the gesture casual yet deliberate.
Despite my reluctance at wanting him to know I’m curious where this is going, I lean forward and pick it up. A video is paused on the screen. The image alone tells me enough about what I will witness. “I assume you want me to press play?”
He makes a gesture which indicates I should.
Sitting back again, I press play and blink as I see a strikingly beautiful omega riding Rob’s cock as if it was her last day on earth. Her perfectly small tits bounce as she works him hard. Her dark hair falls in waves around her shoulders, her skin glowing with exertion. There’s something about her eyes—intelligent, calculating even in a moment of vulnerability.
“Sound up,” Rob murmurs, watching my reaction with unusual intensity.
I click the volume up button. Her moans fill the room and instantly make my cock go hard, despite my lack of interest in whatever the fuck this is.
“Oh, baby,” she moans. “Knot me hard.”
Rob’s hands grip her hips, and he holds her while he thrusts deep inside her. She throws her head back, her pink nipples hard as bullets. She moans loudly, cupping her tits and pinching those nipples until she reaches her orgasm. I see the second it crashes over her. Her lithe body convulses as Rob thrusts one last time and grunts as he detonates inside her.
Then, I nearly let out a noise that will give me away.
She purrs loudly, steadying herself with her hand on his chest. Her eyes are glazed, her lips parted, but that purr... it reverberates through me, striking something primal and territorial.
Fuck.
“Did you ever hear an escort purr like that before?” Rob asks quietly.
“I’ve never heard an escort purr,” I mutter, losing the pretence of never having used an agency before during my rut. We both know that’s not true, but some fictions are maintained even between old acquaintances.
“Exactly.” The satisfaction in that single word grates against my nerves.
“So you’re smitten?” I ask as a distraction as I subtly share the video to my phone via Airdrop, still activated from the documents I sent over to him a few minutes ago.
“Hardly,” Rob says as I pass the phone back to him, feeling my phone buzz in my pocket, the notification like a silent promise.
“So what?” I keep my voice neutral, though my curiosity has become something sharper, more insistent.
“So she agreed to let me have her during her heat.”
“What?” I snap with more force than is called for, my mask slipping for a fraction of a second. I recalibrate quickly. “That is illegal.” The words come out colder than I intended, but the potential consequences flash through my mind. Not for him, of course. Never for alphas like us.
“Omegas looking to service on the black market are hard to find. At least the quality ones.”
“How much are you paying for the privilege?”
“Fifty grand.”
I smirk, regaining my composure. “No wonder she gave in.”
“It’s a small price to pay to have that in my bed for three solid days, craving me and only what I can give her.” There’s a possessiveness in his tone that strikes me as uncharacteristic.
“And you’re sure you aren’t about to fall arse over tit and ask her to mate with you?” I keep my tone mocking, but there’s a genuine question beneath it. Rob doesn’t typically fixate on any omega this way.
“Fuck, no. I want her for sex, I want to feel her slick covering my dick, I want her to beg me to knot her, I want to appease her need and be the only thing she relies on while she is here. Nothing more.” The rawness of his description betrays more interest than he’s admitting, even to himself.
“Charming.” I don’t bother hiding my sarcasm.
“You heard that purr.”
Well, he has me there.
I stand up, smoothing my tailored black cashmere coat, which I didn’t even bother to take off. “As interesting as this has been, I need to go. Look over those documents and get back to me soon.”
“I will.” He sits back in his chair, turning his phone over and over. It’s clear he wants to watch that video again.
That makes two of us.
Without another word, I leave. I climb into the back of the black SUV in the driveway at the same time as Stan returns in Rob’s Rolls Royce.
“Where to, boss?” my driver, James, asks, meeting my eyes briefly in the rearview mirror.
“Home,” I murmur, already pulling out my phone and clicking on the video. The tinted windows of the vehicle offer privacy as I press play and watch with the sound off. I can’t tear my eyes away from her face this time, studying every nuance of her expression. “Synthia Fuller,” I mutter. “You are a spicy little omega, aren’t you?”
The drive home is half an hour of pure, unadulterated torture. I watch the video repeatedly, noting details beyond the obvious—the way she maintains control even in submission, the flash of something guarded in her eyes between moments of apparent abandon. My cock is absolutely raging by the time we pull up outside the mansion on the outskirts of the city, that I share with my pack mates.
I escape the confines of the SUV quickly, slipping quietly through the front door and up the sweeping staircase to the right side of the entrance hall before anyone can detect my presence.
Taking the stairs quickly, I hurry down the hallway to my bedroom at the end and enter, closing the door behind me. My sanctuary—minimalist, expensive, everything in its place. Control made manifest in interior design.
Stripping off my coat and undoing the tie, I throw them both on the bed as I toe off my shoes and undo my pants. The discipline I usually pride myself on has evaporated, replaced by an urgent need for release. I throw the phone on the bed and strip off the rest of my clothes before crawling onto the bed and picking up the phone.
With the sound turned up, I press play and grip my rock-hard cock in my left hand.
My palm slides over my shaft, her purrs vibrating through the phone’s speaker into the stillness of my bedroom. There’s something raw and authentic in that sound—a response that cannot be faked, no matter how skilled the performer.
I come with a growl that rumbles deep in my chest, spilling over my fist as her recorded moans echo through my bedroom. For a moment, I lie there, breathing heavily, staring at the ceiling as the video ends.
What the hell is wrong with me? I never lose control like this.
“Synthia Fuller.” There is something about her name that entices. It’s evocative, and I need to know more about this omega who’s agreed to spend her heat with Rob for fifty thousand pounds. The risk is significant for her. Not so much him, naturally. It is always the omega that gets criminalised in situations such as this. “So, what do you need the money for, Synthia?” I ask, holding up the phone again. “And what are you prepared to do if that price tag goes up?”
Only one way to find out.