22. Elliott
Elliott
The following morning, Jet came by to get me, and we walked to the driveway.
“Laura let me borrow the Range Rover,” he said, unlocking it with a key fob.
Once on our way, Jet asked me if I’d gotten a better night’s sleep than I did the night before.
“A bit better,” I told him, but when I looked up at him, I could see his doubt. “I know I still look tired, but I really did sleep better.”
“You look good,” he assured me. “You just have circles under your eyes. I hate that you aren’t sleeping well.”
“It’ll get better,” I said, smiling. “You look really nice.” He wore a pair long, navy shorts and a white t-shirt. “Why is your tan so even? You’re always in pants.”
Jet chuckled. “It’s really not that even. I have a darker skin-tone than you do.” Looking slightly flustered, he added, “And I didn’t mean to imply that you don’t look good today…because you really do. That shirt matches your eyes.”
Embarrassed, I turned to look out the window at the scenery. Jessup was less than a twenty-minute drive. I was looking forward to going to the market because I’d never been.
“Do you think people will act oddly toward me?” I asked him. “I mean, I’m an omega. I might create some of that havoc the government always talked about,” I said wryly.
“Stick with me,” Jet said. “I’ll make sure everything goes smoothly.”
And I knew he would. I trusted Jet. I’d come to accept that he was special to me, even though he was an alpha. After what my friends had said the other night, I’d talked to Gail, since the night I came home, she’d made me promise to come see her.
When I’d asked her if I could have gotten pregnant, she made a call to Kristopher Gatlin and asked him to see if the doctor had done a test. “I’ll let you know when he gets back to me,” Gail told me.
I’d asked her what was foremost on my mind—if Jet and I could have mated when we had sex at the facility. What was weird was that I wasn’t sure what I wanted her answer to be.
“I’m no expert, but I believe if you’d mated, you wouldn’t have to ask that question. You would know.”
When I didn’t say anything, she added, “There is something called a partial bond. It can lead to mating. Or not, if you don’t nurture it.”
After hearing that, I probably should have called Jet and told him that going to the market together wasn’t the best idea.
But I didn’t.
After speaking with Gail, I knew two things: One, Jet and I more than likely had created a partial bond when we’d had sex.
And two, I had no desire to end that partial bond.
As Jet drove, my eyes roamed to his long, toned legs. I wondered how it would feel to run my palm over the black hairs on them. Would they be coarse or soft? In the red room, I hadn’t explored Jet’s body much, and I couldn’t help thinking what a shame that was.
“What are you thinking about?” Jet asked me, taking his eyes off the road a moment to glance at me.
Reeling myself in, I stammered, “Er, um, j-just the market. I’m excited to go.”
He grinned. “So am I.”
I stayed quiet after that; we arrived soon after, and Jet parked the Range Rover on the gravel lot. As it was still early in the morning, the grass was wet with dew when we stepped onto it, heading toward the area where dozens of booths selling everything from food to clothing to toys were set up.
“Anything in particular you want to see?” Jet asked.
“No. I want to see all of it,” I said, grinning at him.
Jet laughed. “Okay, then. We’ll start with the first booth on the left and continue from there.”
We passed a couple of men—alphas, by their scent—and I stiffened when they turned interested gazes toward me. Taking my hand in his, Jet stared them down. When I scented his pheromones rising in the air, my knees went weak. The two alphas looked away and hurried past.
As we continued to walk, I wondered what it meant that I really loved the feeling of Jet holding my hand. His hand was larger, and so warm and the way he laced our fingers together felt so intimate.
I never thought I’d feel this way about an alpha. I’d planned to be single my whole life. But when I thought about being mated to Jet, it suddenly didn’t seem like such a terrible thing.
Because these thoughts had to be making my face red, I spent a moment at the first booth intently exploring the teas sold there.
“Would you like to buy some?” Jet asked.
I looked up at him. “Oh, um. Yeah, maybe I’ll buy some of this cranberry tea. I think the guys will like it.” I picked up a tin.
Plucking it from my hand, Jet took it to the woman behind the front table and paid for it before I could object.
“Let me pay you back.” I reached for my wallet, but Jet waved the offer off. “No, I wanted to buy it for you.”
To my surprise, he took my hand again before heading for the next booth, which exhibited beautiful, handmade birdhouses.
“Did you eat breakfast before we left?” Jet asked me after we finished exploring that one.
“No,” I admitted.
“Then let’s get you something to eat.”
Jet led me to a line of food stalls. “Anything look good to you?”
My stomach growled.
“Maybe one of those pitas.” I walked up to a stall selling Greek food and ordered a pita with chicken, hummus, feta cheese, and tzatziki. Jet ordered one with lamb, cucumber, tomatoes, and balsamic dressing.
“My treat,” he said when I reached for my wallet.
“Okay, but I get to pay if we get something else later,” I told him.
“Understood.”
We sat on a bench in the shade. Jet had ordered us each a bottle of water, and I took a long drink of mine before opening my sandwich.
“Is it good?” Jet asked when I’d bitten into mine.
Since my mouth was full, I nodded vigorously. It was delicious.
Laughing, Jet reached between us and wiped the Tzatziki that oozed out of the corner of my mouth when I took another bite. Then he shocked me by bringing it to his lips and tasting it.
“Mmm! I should have gotten some of that on my sandwich.”
“Do you want to try mine?” I offered my wrapped pita to him.
When he placed his mouth where mine had been and took a bite, my whole body heated up, my mind going back to how it had felt to having his lips trail along my throat and chest.
“Hot?” he asked, and I could only blink at him a moment before I figured out he was asking if I was too warm—probably because my face was flushed—and not something closer to the truth.
“A little,” I said, licking tzatziki from the corner of my mouth with the tip of my tongue. Jet’s eyes focused on my lips, and I stopped breathing for several beats before turning on the bench and taking a long drink of water from my cup.
After lunch, I decided I wanted to buy each of my friends something as a small apology for the worry I’d caused them by running away.
After visiting a few more booths, I found one that featured really cute crocheted keychains.
While Jet looked through some t-shirts, I took my time with my selections.
I chose a black and white cat for Riku, a pink cat with a sparkly collar for Ren, a purple meerkat for Keane, and so on, depending on the colors each of my friends liked and the animals that made me think of them.
When I left the booth with my bag, Jet was waiting for me.
“Did you buy a t-shirt?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Couldn’t find one I wanted.”
“Sorry I took so long.”
Jet smiled, making my heart jump. Lately, I noticed more and more how attractive he was.
“I need to go to the restroom. Do you?” he asked me.
I shook my head. “I’ll sit here and go through these. I bought a different one for each person and want to make sure I didn’t forget anyone.” I sat down on a bench outside the restrooms.
“What are they?” he asked.
“Keychains. See? I always think of Zeke when I see Arrow, the dark bay at the ranch.” I held up the horse crocheted out of brown yarn.
Jet smiled. “That’s thoughtful.” He looked around. “Okay, stay here, but don’t move. I’ll just be a couple of minutes.” He pushed open the restroom door and disappeared inside.
I took out the keychains one by one. They really were cute, and the booth had so many to choose from. I’d even gotten a crocheted goat keychain for myself.
And I’d bought one for Jet. I kept that one out and packed the rest in the bag after making sure I hadn’t forgotten anyone.
When he came out of the restroom, I stood up and held it out.
“I got you something.”
He smiled, holding up the keychain to look at it.
“Thank you! Why a black panther?”
“It made me think of you. A sleek, deadly panther, black because of your hair.” I said all that without thinking about how intimate it sounded. Blushing yet again, I looked at the ground.
“Thank you, El. That was really sweet of you. I’ll put my keys on it right now.”
I watched him as he sat on the bench and began changing keychains, touched that he wasn’t waiting to do it. I was so engrossed that when someone bumped into me, I fell forward, landing on Jet’s lap.
When Jet realized I’d been knocked over, he jumped to his feet and grabbed the young beta by the collar of his shirt.
“What the hell, man?” the guy exclaimed.
“You need to watch where you’re going!” Jet said angrily.
“Yeah, no kidding.” The beta cut his eyes to me. “Sorry, dude. I was in a hurry to get to the john and wasn’t paying attention.”
“It’s okay,” I said, resting my hand on Jet’s arm. “Jet? Let him go, please.”
Jet did, and the guy ran into the men’s room.
Looking me over with concern, Jet asked, “Are you okay?”
Chuckling, I said, “I ought to be asking you that. I landed on you, after all.”
Relaxing, he turned and picked up the keys and keychain he’d dropped, stuffing them in his pocket. “I’ll finish switching them later.”
“Are you usually so quick to get angry at people?” I asked as we walked. “I mean, the guy ran into me kind of hard, but it was an accident. You didn’t even give him a chance to apologize.”
Jet didn’t answer right away, seemingly thinking about it. Finally, he said, “No. I just…feel very protective of you.”
I mulled that over while we continued stopping at booths.
“Let’s sit for a bit,” I suggested an hour later.