The Omega's Surprise Baby BOX SET
Page 25
I didn’t bother turning on all the lights when I got there, since it wasn’t that dark. A few seconds later, I found the spot where I was to place the files, then realized that they were too high for me to reach. I stood on tiptoe and tried again—and again, and again, frustration welling up in me that I was too short to reach it.
Suddenly I felt warmth behind me. Then, the hard press of a body as the files were plucked out of my hand and placed up the designated spot with no effort. Yet the body didn’t move away, freezing me as it pressed against my back lightly. I could smell him, the scent of pine and pure alpha male. It washed over my senses like pure sexual energy.
He didn’t even need to speak for my body to react uncontrollably—with tingles running up my spine and butterflies fluttering in my stomach.
“You should have asked for help to reach that,” Caden said against my ear. His voice was low and almost intimate, and my hands itched to hold the cabinet in front of me to brace myself against the onslaught of sensation running all over me. Worst, I had to fight the urge to lean against him.
This attraction was ridiculous. Damn it. I needed to focus.
I didn’t speak, waiting for him to step back. When he finally did, I turned around and faced him, but avoided his gaze.
“I could have handled that.”
“Go out with me.”
That abrupt request took me aback. He’d never really flirted in our time working together, so I didn’t know where this was coming from.
I lied to myself. I completely remember the looks he’s always giving me.
I shook my head. “I’m very busy, Mr. Shaw. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I’ll pay you for your dinner time. You’d be getting overtime pay.”
I looked up now, and saw his eyes flare in irritation. It made me realize he wasn’t used to being refused.
“I’m not for sale,” I said sweetly. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
And then I was out the stockroom before he could say another word.
The jerk was going to have to learn that money couldn’t buy everything.
I was already at home when the call came. I stared at the screen for a few seconds before reluctantly answering.
“Hello?”
“Tony.”
“Mr. Shaw, I don’t think—”
“There’s an emergency. Come to the hotel I’m in right away. I’ll text you the address.”
“What?”
“That’s an order.”
The line ended. I cursed under my breath, then lay down in bed and groaned. Great.
Overtime was going to be my new name.
5
Caden
The minute Tony walked into the hotel bar, I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
Tony was wearing blue skinny jeans and a white T-shirt that were simple enough—except it showed off his perfectly tight body and round ass. My hands itched again, and I fisted them around my glass of scotch as he approached me with a worried expression on his face.
“What’s the emergency?” Tony asked urgently.
I took a sip of my drink, watching out of the corner of my eye as his gaze trailed down my throat before it snapped back up to my face. I smirked.
“My date’s a dud.”
Tony froze in the middle of sitting down, his head slowly turning towards me.
“Your date’s a dud?” Tony echoed.
“It’s an emergency,” I said simply.
Almost immediately, he stood back up. I expected him to act all polite and professional still, because that was the façade he pushed on in his first few weeks in the office. Instead, I was treated to the sight of Tony glaring daggers at me.
“I’m not some slutty omega you can call to satisfy your whims,” he snapped.
“But you did come, didn’t you?” I corrected for the hell of it. God. Even his sharp mouth was turning me on.
Tony’s mouth dropped open before snapping shut.
“Mr. Shaw,” he said frostily. “Of all the spoiled, irresponsible—”
“Mr. Shaw! Fancy meeting you here,” came a voice to the side of me.
Ah. The other person I was expecting. I watched Tony’s shocked expression as he turned in the direction of the voice. I did the same, offering a warm, charming smile.
“Mr. Wong. You’re staying here?”
Mr. Wong was the investor I’d been trying to secure ever since I found out he’d been looking for a tech company in the US to invest in. I always screened the investors I wanted, and he passed my requirements with flying colors.
Now all I needed to do was lay down the bait.
“Yes, I just checked in this morning,” Wong said. “What are you doing here?”
“Meeting up with this beautiful omega here,” I replied. I glanced at Tony, who was watching the exchange intently. I was aware that he knew who Mr. Wong was. I knew Tony wouldn’t do anything to risk it. “This is Tony Arthur. Tony, this is Richard Wong.”
Mr. Wong held out his hand to him. Almost in awe, Tony accepted the handshake and murmured that it was nice meeting him. I could tell that Tony’s mind was working overtime as he analyzed what was happening.
Let him analyze, then.
Mr. Wong and I chatted for a bit, catching up briefly by the long bar. I often asked Tony to join in on the conversation when I deemed it a safe topic—and to my surprise, he blew me out of the water as he turned on the charm and responded to Mr. Wong’s inquiries about the city in a casual yet pleasant manner. Tony worked as a team even when I didn’t tell him to, and it was smooth and natural. This was a side of Tony I hadn’t seen before.
He was surprising me every single day. And I liked it.
In fact, I liked it so much that I’d touch his elbow when he did something that surprised me. When I ordered a juice for him from the waiter, I leaned in, brushing my mouth against his neck and smelling something sweet and addictive.
Eventually, I had to cut off the conversation as I told Mr. Wong that I needed to spend quality time with Tony. But I left it open-ended and casually invited the Chinese billionaire for dinner sometime so we could discuss whatever he needed further. I trained my eyes on him like a hawk, watching the considering look on his face before he finally nodded.
“I’ll let you know when I’m free,” Mr. Wong said.
Mr. Wong left a few minutes later, and I watched him until he disappeared from the hotel bar.
“You set that up,” Tony murmured, his eyes watching the door. Then, me.
I nodded. “I had to. He ignores all invitations.”
“He didn’t exactly say yes to yours,” Tony pointed out.
“He’ll let me know when he’s free. That’s a start.”
Silence. Finally, Tony sighed. “You set me up.”
I smirked, looking Tony in the eye. He didn’t look angry anymore as he sat on the chair beside me.
“You passed with flying colors,” I said. “That’s how the business works, and I thought you should know.”
A wry smile slid off him. It was so different from his usual coolness, and it softened his features up. As we eyed each other, something intimate passed between us—a spark growing more intense, bound to singe us both.
Because I’d always played with fire—and hell, because he was too attractive to resist—I leaned forward, my gaze straying to his partly-open mouth before trailing back up. Awareness flickered in his eyes, darkening them to emeralds.
Then he jerked back at the last second.
Tony stood up, smoothing down his T-shirt. Then he lifted his chin up.
“Thanks for letting me see how the business works, Mr. Shaw,” Tony clipped out. The mask was back. “That was very…educational.”
“Let me take you home,” I replied, ignoring his formal tone.
Tony shook his head. I stood up and reached for him. Automatically, he took a step back.
I dropped my reaching hand.
“I know my way home,” Tony pointed out. Then he turned around w
ithout another word, leaving me staring at his tight, round ass, he left me in the bar.
Damn. What was it going to take to have him?
Frustration welled inside me. I’d never had to work hard to get an omega I wanted, but Tony was proving to be a challenge more than most. The frustration was replaced by a rush of thrill as I watched that sweet little butt disappear out of the door.
I liked challenges.
And I always, always won.
6
Tony
“Why do you look like a zombie? What were you up to last night?”
I hadn’t realized the question was for me until I felt someone elbowing me on the side. Blinking, I looked up and found Kevin’s gaze focused on me in concern. We’d been sitting at our favorite lunch table for a few minutes now while he talked and I listened—or at least, pretended to listen. I was just too tired from the lack of sleep.
In response, I sipped on my coffee and shrugged. “Just a regular late—”
My words were interrupted as a shadow fell across our table. We both looked up and found Nathan Johnson from the second floor. He was an omega that I thought was better suited for the catwalk than a corporate office—he looked like a supermodel. Nathan usually never gave us the time of the day, not even to Kevin, so I wasn’t sure what he was doing here.
Until the words came out of his mouth, making me still.
“Hi, Tony. I saw you and Mr. Shaw in the hotel bar last night. It was quite a surprise.”
But his tone said it wasn’t a surprise to him at all. I watched the gleam in his eyes, that knowing gleam that he couldn’t quite hide as he waited expectantly for my response.
Beside me, Kevin’s eyes widened. I did my best to act as casual as possible as I looked him in the eye.
“It was a work thing.”
I saw the disbelief cross his face before he toned it down and smiled at me. The smile was fake and malicious, and I forced myself to smile back to make him go away. Luckily, it worked, and Nathan slinked off without another word.
I thought it was rude that he hadn’t said hi to Kevin at all, but Kevin didn’t seem to care. He was still staring at me with wide eyes, right before raising a brow.
“So, just a regular late what again?”
I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “It was work. He called me when I was already home and said he needed to have me come to the hotel so I could assess his potential investor.”
“Hmm,” Kevin murmured. “So, does he know it’s just work?”
I gave Kevin a look. He shot me a look back.
“You realize that’s just one step of his seduction, right?” Kevin asked.
I shook my head—stubbornly, I might add. A nagging feeling came at me as I recalled last night. Caden had explained well why he’d called me and why I needed to be there. But there was no explaining away his subtle touches on my elbow and the way he leaned in unusually close. Or when he would deliberately brush my neck when he ordered something from the waiter. Or when he would listen to me intently, like what I said actually mattered to him.
Or when he would corner me in stock rooms late at night?
Refusing to acknowledge any of it, I shook my head again. “Even if he is trying to seduce me, I’m not going to fall for it. This job is too important. I don’t have time for alphas.”
Kevin looked at me like he couldn’t believe what I was saying, but he didn’t comment further. While we switched the topic, I couldn’t help my mind from wandering back to Caden. He wanted me, yes—and I had a feeling he wasn’t finished yet in his seduction game.
If I was honest to myself, it felt fucking fantastic to be wanted by such a good-looking and wealthy alpha, but I was just going to have to resist harder if I was going to be more than just an omega who needed am alpha to complete him. I needed to make something of myself on my own.
A week after hotel situation, my resolve to forget the incident was shot to hell as I received gift after gift from Caden—every single day.
There were bouquets. Colorful, exotic ones, so different each day that it boggled my mind how he even got them from this city alone, or had them sent from another city or country in such a short amount of time.
There were chocolates, just as exotic as the flowers—boxes upon boxes of them, too many for me to finish that I had to give some to Kevin and the rest to my neighbors.
There were gifts. God, there were so many gifts. They were wrapped in boxes of silk and gold that I was afraid were very expensive. But they were nothing compared to the contents—expensive watches, suits and shoes, all the material things any omega could possibly want. Except this omega—I wasn’t interested in those things at all.
Yes, he was definitely a billionaire and a sexy alpha of the highest order, but the gifts felt like bribes or gifts in exchange for sex, which was insulting.
I tried returning some of the items, but Caden had this uncanny ability to disappear whenever I wanted to raise the topic—and when he was around, he was with other people, colleagues and clients so it would be rude to bring it up.
The sly devil knew exactly how to play the game.
Still, I refused to accept any of them. I distributed the flowers in the lobby on Kevin’s table, then kept the gifts in a locked drawer for safekeeping. To my relief, Kevin hadn’t said anything to anyone, though there was no ignoring the looks of speculation whenever people dropped by my desk and I hadn’t gotten rid of the gifts yet.
Lots of work kept me busy during lunchtime, so it was a quick bite at my desk again, while Kevin went ahead to eat without me. When I got a bit of time to take a break, I used it to go to the restroom and refresh myself before the next meeting, which I would be attending along with Caden when he came back.
I was just finishing up on the stall in the restroom when I heard the door open and high-pitched voices drift in. I recognized Nathan’s voice right away and prepared myself to leave before he could interrogate me again.
But the words he was saying stopped me from opening my stall.
“You saw the flowers, right?” Nathan asked.
“Yeah, who wouldn’t? They’re proudly displayed at Kevin’s desk. And he keeps making excuses about where he got them,” the other omega said.
Nathan scoffed. “Right. What an idiot. Like we don’t know where those came from.”
“So you really think they’re doing it?”
“Everywhere, most likely,” Nathan confirmed. “I knew it the moment I saw them together at the hotel. Caden was pretty intimate with him, and Tony seemed to bask in the attention.”
I felt anger at him for spreading gossip. I knew I had to stop it fast, or else it was going to grow like wildfire around the whole office—if it hadn’t already. Resolved, I raised my hand on the lock, about to give Nathan a piece of my mind.
But his next words had me freezing in place.
“I mean, that’s been Caden’s plan all along. He skipped all those qualified candidates and zoned in on Tony because he was young and pretty. He didn’t even care that Tony was under qualified.”
“Oh, that,” the other omega voice said, giggling. “I heard about that, too. My friend talked to the seventh floor manager, Andrew, who was with Caden when they saw Tony walking by for the interview and said he was the hottest piece of omega ass they’d ever seen. Andrew bragged that he could have Tony bent over on his desk in a day or two. Naturally, the boss took him up on the challenge.”
“I bet Caden’s had him on his hands and knees already,” Nathan laughed. “He’s nothing but a dog. I bet Tony would suck anyone who’d give him that kind of job opportunity. Who knows? Andrew might still have a chance.”
“You’re just jealous it wasn’t you he was giving those flowers to.”
“He’s hot. You can’t blame me.”
“Ha.”
“But I earned my position in this company,” Nathan said, voice turning hard now. “Tony just slept his way through it. Office slut.”
“Shh. Someone might hear yo
u.”
Nathan scoffed. “I speak the truth. So what if anyone hears me?”
They spoke some more, but I could no longer hear the words as blood rushed to my head in anger, making me dizzy. When they were gone, I finally got out of the stall, suddenly unable to breathe. I placed my hands on the sink tiles and leaned in, looking dully at myself in the mirror.
I wasn’t lucky after all. I was just chosen because Caden liked the look of me.
My eyes were welling up, and I had to blink them repeatedly to stop the tears from falling. Damn it. I didn’t need this now.
Anger was still inside me, but most of it wasn’t directed at Nathan now. They were directed at my boss, Caden, the alpha who proved that he just saw me as nothing but a little piece of ass he could fuck anytime he wanted.
Was I that low to him?
I took a deep breath to calm myself. Then I stared hard at the mirror.
I was already here. It just meant I had to prove myself.
And I was going to let Caden know that I was more than what his money could buy.
I had a right mind to quit this job because of the way I got it, but cooler heads prevailed. Although I may not have been the most qualified or best-suited candidate at the time, over the course of being here and carrying out my job, I had learned so much and was actually good at my job. Now I truly believed I was meant to be here. I deserved to be here, and I was going to prove it.
7
Caden
There was a bomb waiting to explode in the office, and it was located right inside Tony’s body.
I’m not sure when it started. I just suddenly knew it was there, ticking inside Tony, making him even more rigid than usual. A storm of cloud was hanging over his head, and whatever smooth rhythm we had back in the hotel bar had disappeared completely as if it hadn’t even happened.