13. Julian
Chapter 13
Julian
W e pulled up to the house and I couldn’t stop myself from giving a little bounce. “Home now!”
Sunshine grinned. She was still a little pale from being in the icy water, and her ponytail was wet. I’d snuggled against her side the entire car ride home, with Luca on her other side.
Bubbly energy filled me. Sunshine was here. At our house. We went inside, and I took a deep breath, relishing the combination of all our scents together.
Our house was perfect. I hadn’t thought I’d like California, not the way I loved Hawaii, but Luca had found the perfect place. The design was airy and open, and the walls were white with high ceilings and pine wood floors. The furniture was all soft blond wood with overstuffed cushions.
We’d added our own touches of sea glass, driftwood, sage green and crystal blue accents to make it feel cozy.
It had been ages since Sunshine had been over, so the house no longer had any traces of her scent. Something that was about to change.
“You need to hydrate,” Logan said. “You want some water? A sports drink?”
“Please?” Sunshine looked around uncertainly, like she wasn’t sure what to do with herself.
“Okay. You’re wet.” I tugged Sunshine’s hand. “You can borrow some of my clothes while yours are in the dryer.”
The urge to “accidentally” steal some of her clothes was strong. Unfortunately, she’d only worn shorts, a t-shirt, and her undergarments to the festival. There was no sweatshirt to conveniently forget about or I would have claimed it for my nest.
“You don’t mind?” She looked worried.
“Heck no.” I shook my head, showing her the main bathroom. “One sec.”
I went into the bedroom and rummaged around for some spare clothes. I found one of my softest t-shirts, a clean pair of boxers, and a pair of sweatpants with a drawstring. I was only an inch or so taller than she was, short for a guy, but average height for an omega, so hopefully my clothes wouldn’t be too big for her.
She was hovering near the bathroom. I handed her the pile of clothes. “No bra, sadly. No girls in the house.”
“The top half of my body didn’t get too wet,” she said. “I’m okay.”
“Hmm, guess I should have splashed you.” I winked at her. “Here you go.”
She shook her head at me and took the clothes into the bathroom. I wandered back out to the living room. Sure enough, Logan was dishing out dessert while Luca paced. They both stopped what they were doing and looked at me when I walked in.
I gave them the thumbs up, bouncing on my heels a little bit. Logan went back to getting the dessert sorted and Luca sat down, looking a little more relaxed.
Sunshine was in the house, she was going to sit on the couch and I would get to snuggle her. My omega instincts were all but giving me a standing ovation at finally getting my beta back to the house.
It was shaping up to be an awesome night.
She came out of the bathroom looking adorable in my t-shirt and sweatpants, her wet clothes in her hands. “Where’s the dryer?”
Luca jumped up, and Logan stepped forward, but I beat them to it and led her to the laundry room next to the master bedroom. When I’d set the dryer going, she was in the hallway looking around curiously.
“You’ve seen the house before, right?” I cocked my head.
She blushed, like she had been caught doing more than peeking into the bedroom. “Yes, but not the guided tour.”
“That’s our bedroom.” I gestured needlessly at the massive bed, still not made. There was a pile of laundry in the corner, and some random books and papers on the end table. “Me and Luca are messy, and Logan’s neat freakiness can’t keep up.”
I opened the door opposite the bedroom. There was a massive hardwood desk with shelves lined with books and an armchair. There was a small table to the side of the chair we called the “anal table” because we’d discovered it was just the perfect height.
I decided not to tell Sunshine about the table just yet. “This is the office. Mostly Luca uses it when he works from home and he needs a quiet space when I’m too hyper.”
“You, hyper?” She smirked. “I can’t imagine.”
She looked so adorable I wanted to press her against the wall and steal kisses.
Focus, Julian. Focus.
I showed her the spare bedroom we’d talked about converting into a hobby room but had never bothered with and took her up the winding staircase to the back of the house that led up to the loft.
Where my nest was. Bubbles fizzled in my stomach. I was totally showing her my nest, except we would just stand outside it. I wasn’t going to suggest we snuggle inside the nest, because that would be too forward.
I opened the door to the loft but stayed in the hallway. “And the best nest in all the lands.”
Sunshine peeked in. “You have your own little kitchenette.”
It looked like an in-law suite, with its own bathroom with a massive tub, a little kitchen with a stove and fridge. The other side of the room was one massive circular mattress, the size of two beds put together, covered with soft and comfy blankets and pillows. Also random sweatpants and shirts, whatever I felt like I needed from day to day. The room itself was painted dark blue and had black out curtains because, like most omegas, I hated bright lights when I was in heat.
“I guess downstairs is too far away for the kitchen.” She grinned.
“Way too far away.” I smirked. “This way we get to eat well.”
I stepped back down the hallway, despite my instincts telling me to drag her into the nest and roll her all over the bedding to add her scent to it. And then maybe we would roll around for more exciting reasons.
I shoved my feelings back. I didn’t want to rush her and make her feel like it was just physical.
Tonight would be a good way to gauge how comfortable Sunshine was with the three of us.
We went back downstairs, and, after a short detour to the bedroom for blankets, I led my beta back into the living room.
I sat down on the couch and held my arms out. “Snuggle time. It’s for your own good.”
“I think my body temperature is normal,” she said, with a smirk, although it didn’t stop her from cuddling up next to me.
I rubbed my face on the side of her neck, inhaling a lungful of her linen and sky scent. “I don’t know, we better make sure.”
She relaxed in my arms. “Okay.”
Logan brought us some bottled water, and Luca hovered near the kitchen.
“Come on.” I patted my free side. “It’s snuggle time.”
Luca sat on Sunshine’s other side, and Logan pushed the chaise ottoman against the couch so we could all rest our feet up on it and then curled up against me.
I gave a happy sigh.
Sunshine laughed. “You sound so pleased.”
“I am. Movie night with my favorite people.”
Luca put our favorite cooking show on. I wrapped my arms around Sunshine’s waist, and she rested her head on my shoulder. I wasn’t going to move for a very long time.
While we watched the show, Logan judged the contestants harshly, complaining whenever they did something that he thought was ridiculous, and Sunshine and I critiqued their choice of dishes. Luca never got as invested as the rest of us and was always more entertained by our comments than by the show.
Sunshine was warm and comfortable next to me, curled up between me and Logan. Luca spooned my other side, and I kept taking in deep lungfuls of their mingled scents.
It was pure heaven. I just needed to figure out how to make tonight the norm, not just a rare occurrence.
I looked at Sunshine out of the corner of my eye. Her blinks kept getting longer and longer.
I was exhausted, too. It was still early, but it had been a long few days, and then I’d had to get up extra early to set up for the festival.
I closed my eyes, shifting on my weight a little so I could curl up better. It felt perfect to have Sunshine here, with my pack.
I should ask her on a date soon. Or at least make a joke about when she was ready to get back in the field. There had to be a cute and suave way to ask. Luca looked at her like they had already gotten naked, and Logan was incapable of being around her without his nurturing instincts being triggered and providing food for her.
Still pondering how to not so subtly ask my favorite beta if she was ready for dating, I fell asleep.