by Bonnar King
It was also a secret, because I didn’t think anyone would appreciate me sleeping with the “enemy”. So I kept my mouth shut and didn’t respond to Charles’s comment, and he eventually let the topic go and got busy. I sighed in relief and tried to keep myself busy, too, though my mind kept drifting to Nicholas.
He’d gone home that Saturday night, right after taking me home, and I hadn’t seen him since. But I had a feeling that wouldn’t be our last encounter yet.
Worked picked up again after one, and I found my heart surge as we finally sold out all the book donations. There were more promised by some sponsors for tomorrow, and it made me so excited to see so many people participating. We had already raised a considerable amount, but we still had a long way to go.
“Robin, can I talk to you?”
I looked up at Lance’s voice, surprised to see him finally talking to me. I smiled. “Yes? What’s up?”
“I can’t believe you’re dating that greedy bastard.”
My eyes widened at his harsh words. The disapproving tone was still there, and I could only stare at him in shock. “I’m sorry?”
“You sold out. I didn’t think you had it in you, and I’m very disappointed. It’s no wonder you’ve been avoiding me.”
Out of all the people here, it was Lance that I expected the least judgment from. Funny how the world worked. I narrowed my eyes at him, not about to take that comment sitting down. I opened my mouth to defend myself, but another voice popped in.
“Lance, leave his alone. You’re no saint, either. Remember that omega you dated last month and dumped after sleeping with him one time? Yeah, I thought so. Now shoo.”
I watched, stunned, as Charles’ words had Lance steadily wincing. The disapproving look on his face was gone, and he glared at Charles. Charles glared back, and he finally shook his head, glanced at me one more time, then left without another word.
I raised a brow at Charles. “That was…informative.”
He shrugged. “He was being an ass. I mean, everyone else already got over it.”
“Thanks.”
“No prob. Just ignore him.”
And that was pretty much what I did for the rest of the day. Two hours before the end of work, a box was delivered at my desk—a tiny one. Charles’ eyes widened as he watched me open the card, which had a short note from Nicholas to have a good day. I opened the box slowly and held my breath when I found a white-gold necklace with the most beautiful emerald pendant in the middle.
“Oh, my God,” Charles breathed out in awe. “That’s beautiful.”
“It’s too much,” I choked out. But he was right. It was beautiful, and I found myself holding on to it more than I should. I called out all of my willpower and finally sighed, putting it back in the box.
“What are you doing?”
“Returning it.”
“But why?” he asked incredulously.
“Because it’s too much and I don’t want him to think he can buy me,” I said firmly.
Charles kept making noises of shock, but he quietened down after that. I made a small note back to Nicholas, telling him that the gift was appreciated but I couldn’t take it. It was the same thing I’d written for all the gifts he sent. As an afterthought, I jokingly added that maybe he should try cooking me dinner next time. I grinned at that, knowing it probably wasn’t going to happen.
The next day, Charles and I stared in shock at the variety of boxes that were delivered to us early in the morning—all from Nicholas again. I opened them one by one and gasped as I was presented with a variety of dishes: bento boxes of maki, a chocolate pie and some seafood pasta. I read the note and couldn’t help grinning at what it said.
I didn’t cook the pie and maki because I’d probably just make a mess. But the pasta’s all mine. Come here when you’re free so I can cook you more at my place.
Charles squealed over the note, and I tried not to blush. It was too much and I ended up sharing with the others. Richard was very enthusiastic, deciding to stop ignoring me and partake in the food. Lance was decidedly not around, and I was pretty sure he was still holding a grudge. That made me feel bad, but not enough to apologize.
After lunch, David came to the library with an alpha I didn’t recognize. He was perhaps older than Nicholas, but not by much, with blond hair, brown eyes and a rather pleasant smile. To my surprise, David called me in to be part of their meeting. I shot Charles a look before going up. When the door to the meeting room was closed, the alpha was introduced to me as Mr. Eric Jasper.
“Mr. Jasper is another interested buyer of the library,” David said enthusiastically, giving me a pointed look. “He wants to renovate this place and turn it better after he buys it.”
A surge of shock and excitement came at me at the words, and I found myself responding more enthusiastically to the alpha’s questions. He was apparently a book lover and heard that his rival, Nicholas, was interested in demolishing the place—and he couldn’t stand by that.
I hadn’t heard of his name before, but I could always research about it later. As if he knew I was still feeling a bit cautious, he turned to me.
“There’s a party this weekend uptown with all the other businessmen. If you’re interested to see about our league that wants to protect libraries and turn it private, I can always take you there.”
I looked at David, who was giving me an encouraging look. From his expression alone, it was obvious he was positive this deal was going to work out, especially with Nicholas still on standby.
Hope surged. I wondered if I could convince this alpha to finalize the deal—or better yet, if I could convince him to let the library remain public and just fund it. If going with him to the party was going to cinch it, then what was the harm? David seemed to think it would help.
And it wasn’t a betrayal to Nicholas when my loyalties lay with the library, first and foremost.
With Mr. Jasper waiting for my response, I smiled. “Of course. That sounds wonderful. I’d like to know more about this business of yours.”
Mr. Jasper smiled. “Please. Call me Eric.”
A trickle of unease settled inside me, but I shook it off and smiled wider. “Eric. I’ll see you this weekend.”
It was time to use my so-called charms over something substantial.
14
Nicholas
“Are you ready for my cooking Friday night?”
Robin’s smoky laugh on the other line sent heat down my stomach, and it was pleasant and warm at the same time. I grinned as he teased me about my cooking, then said that if I was cooking the main dish, then he might be useful by cooking dessert. I groaned and told him that his dessert might melt my senses and kill me instantly, making him laugh again.
We’d been calling each other daily since I sent the food, with Robin being the one to call first to thank me. It was amazing how, out of all the gifts I sent over, it was the home-cooked meal that would have the most impact on him—and ironically enough, the only one he would accept willingly. I remembered my effort trying to win him over with all those expensive gifts, and my frustration when he returned each and every one of them. I had thought his little note of me cooking was a joke, until I actually tried it and it produced results: that being he would finally accept something I’d given him.
It was amazing. It was also addictive in the sense that I suddenly wanted to strive harder to cook for him so he wouldn’t refuse what I gave anymore. I didn’t remember ever striving this hard just to please an omega, but honestly, I didn’t mind. It was refreshing just as much as it was challenging, and I had to admit I hadn’t had this much fun with any other omega before, either. This was more than physical.
Was I falling for Robin?
I had omega friends, but I didn’t have any lovers who were also my friends. Most of the lovers I acquired throughout the years were only there for the physical needs I had, and it never extended beyond that. They knew the deal, and they knew anything beyond sex wouldn’t happen.
> Robin was different. He knew the deal and he refused to bow down to every bit of it, showing every bit of backbone that he showed me during our first meeting. It was annoying at first. Now it was admirable. Fascinating, even.
We made plans for Friday night, and I tried to think up of creative ways to cook a new meal for him. So far I had cooked his pasta and stew, but those were the basics that I knew during my short stint as a cook for a rundown diner. I needed to come up with something better—something that would bring out a smile on his face right before I seduced him out of his clothes.
Hmm. The thought alone was getting me hard.
“So what are you wearing right now?” I asked as I settled in bed. I could hear Robin walking around his apartment, and I imagined that he was cleaning up.
“Sweat shorts. A shirt,” he replied.
“No underwear?”
He hesitated enough for me to realize that I was right. I groaned in response, feeling my cock hardening immediately. It always had that kind of reaction when it came to him.
“You hot for me right now?” I murmured.
Robin choked on a laugh and a moan. I could hear the footsteps stopping and the creak of the bed as he got on, and I imagined his shirt riding up his stomach as he settled on his pillows.
“I’m…I don’t know,” he admitted. “What are you wearing?”
“Absolutely nothing,” I said feelingly. That was a lie, because I was wearing boxers, but it didn’t matter because the material was so thin. I palmed my erection over it and groaned again, closing my eyes as I heard his gasp in the background.
“Nothing?” Robin echoed.
“Yes,” I replied. “What are you imagining?”
Silence. His breathing grew rapid, and I waited.
“I guess…”
“Don’t guess. What is it?”
“I’m…touching you,” he finally breathed out.
“Where?” I asked, pressing harder against my shaft. “Where are you touching me, Robin?”
“Down there.”
“Where?” I asked again.
“Your…your cock,” he said, almost shyly. I encouraged him to keep going, and his tone took on a more confident note as the seconds went by. “I’ll wrap my hands around it and make you come.”
His words were like magic, and soon I found my hand slipping in my boxers to wrap around my shaft. I jerked it a couple of times, listening to his breathing on the other line.
“Touch yourself,” I said. He didn’t want to at first, but I guided him to do so until he was thumbing his nipples under his shirt—then, slipping his fingers under his shorts to touch his hot, wet omega-hole. We worked on a rhythm, me using the dirtiest words I could to keep Robin going, and him simply letting out those husky moans that triggered me. Before I knew it, he was sobbing out my name on the other line as his orgasm took him to new heights, and a few seconds later, my own pleasure exploded as I spilled all over my chest and abs.
Shock filled me at how easy and fast it was. I had never done phone sex before because I could always get the real thing, and it would never be as sexy as it was with Robin. This moment was now embedded in my memory, and I was probably going to think about it every time I wanted to jerk off.
Goddamn it. He was sinking into my skin too fast.
“Robin? You okay?”
“That was fantastic,” he said with a dreamy sigh. I cleaned up as I listened to him describe the pleasure he felt, and it was enough to arouse me again. Before I knew it, I was hard as iron in no time, and I told his so.
“I want to stay there on the weekend. We can eat out again and fuck until dawn.”
He gasped at my crude language. I expected him to say yes after that sexual moment with us, expected his to be anticipating it as much as I was. But he surprised me when he suddenly declined.
“No? Why not?”
He hesitated. “I’m going out with someone. A business party.”
Suddenly I was sitting up in bed. “With whom?”
Silence.
“Robin?”
“Eric Jasper,” he finally replied, albeit reluctantly. “He asked me out so we can discuss his business venture.”
“What business venture?”
More hesitation. I waited tensely, not wanting to pressure his and keep his quiet in the process. A few seconds later, he finally spilled the beans about Eric’s offer to buy the place and make it a private library, and his plan to convince him to fund it instead. Anger poured off me in waves at the thought of them together.
But more than that, I knew Eric was lying. He’d never been interested in private libraries, and I couldn’t imagine why he’d be interested in this one—unless he found out I was looking to buy into it.
The bastard.
“Don’t go with him,” I said.
“I’m going to,” Robin said softly. “He’s the best offer we’ve had.”
“Robin, I said don’t go with him.”
“You’re not the boss of me,” Robin snapped. “It’s a business deal.”
“It’s a goddamn date,” I growled. “That asshole can’t be trusted. He has an ulterior motive.”
“And you don’t?”
The words were like stones thrown at me. I felt myself reeling at the mental slap. He seemed to realize the intensity of his words and tried to apologize.
“I’m sor—”
But I cut him off. “Don’t apologize. If you’re so eager to flirt with some slick asshole, then that’s your business. I don’t want anything to do with it. Let’s just cancel our Friday plans.”
I could hear Robin’s breathing stop on the other line, and I immediately regretted my words. But it was too late.
“Fine,” he said, his voice steady. “Goodbye.”
Then he hung up on me, just like that.
I stared at the phone for a while, not believing how things went from sexual to comfortable to downright nasty in the span of just a few minutes. I should have learned to control my temper better, but it just really got to me.
He would willingly date some alpha just for his damn library—just as he’d been willing to date me before for the same thing.
It made me think that maybe he wasn’t as into whatever this was we had as I was. My pride couldn’t take it, hence the cut-off—at the same time, jealousy so intense surged inside me at the thought of him in that alpha’s arms.
I tried to think it over in my head, finally realizing that maybe Robin really thought he was doing the right thing. For all I knew, that bastard had been feeding Robin with some pretty sweet lies to begin with, hooking him in right away.
And hell, I wasn’t about to let that happen.
I called my PA, asking him to clear my schedule for the weekend and for Friday afternoon.
I had some plans to make and needed time to prepare to crash a certain party.
15
Robin
I has been feeling a not off for the last few days, and I didn’t know exactly what it was. I had just put it down to the stress from the library closing down, the fling with Nicholas. But when the butterflies in my stomach ended up with me bent over the bathroom toilet, I knew something was up.
In the heat of the moment I hadn’t thought about getting a condom for Nicholas to wear. After checking with two different brands of pregnancy tests from the pharmacy, my suspicious were confirmed. I was pregnant. Nicholas had bred me.
I had always wanted a baby, but it was something I put to the side and assumed I would do it the traditional way. You know, get a decent career, find an alpha I loved, get married, the whole nine yards. This was not the way I saw myself having a baby. Getting knocked up in the library of all places.
I knew I couldn't tell anyone about this. Not yet. I had so much to deal with at work and didn’t even know where I stood with Nicholas. The last thing I wanted him to think was that I was using a fake pregnancy to win back the library or use it as a power play. In his defense, I did use my omega charms on him, rendering his
willpower useless. Maybe deep down, I wanted to get pregnant with Nicholas’ baby.
I was perfectly capable of raising a baby myself. I just needed to get past this chapter of my life first.
“Are you enjoying the party so far?”
It wasn’t as grand as the one I attended with Nicholas before, with the dress code more on cocktail rather than black-tie formal. But it was fancy all the same, and I ended up using one of the suits Nicholas had given me. It was was a rather over the top silver suit, but I thought, when in Rome! And it was pretty, hugging my body but not too much and sparkling slightly whenever I moved. I remembered how Eric’s eyes had widened in appreciation when he met up with me in the lobby, and the same trickle of unease settled over me. But I forced myself to ignore it and carry one, knowing I had a mission to accomplish.
“It’s fun so far,” I said politely. Although, truth be told, I wasn’t enjoying it at all. This was more exclusive than the charity ball Nicholas and I had attended, and the people attending this one just weren’t as friendly. In fact, if I was to be honest, they were kind of snobby, dismissing me the moment I said I was a librarian. That puzzled me, because research about Eric did say he really was a book lover, despite having the same type of real estate business as Nicholas—except his were hotels rather than luxury apartments.
“I’ll introduce you to all the other book lovers in this room,” Eric promised, placing a hand on my lower back and steering me toward the center of the venue. His hand was warm and soft, a direct contrast to Nicholas’ hard one. Suddenly it irritated me that I kept comparing the two, and that just wasn’t right.
Nicholas’ words had really hurt me when we last talked, and it still stung until now. I had thought we were past that kind of animosity, but apparently I was wrong. His words had dug deep, and I knew they were deliberate.