by Viola Grace
Dexter smiled at her. “If he tries anything, I will claw up his pretty face.”
That seemed to be what she needed. Her body told her that being with Ford could be so much fun, but her consciousness said she was a whore for thinking about it.
“Born to be a whore. Stop that stink!” Her father’s fist hit her in the jaw and knocked her to the ground.
She blinked and pulled herself out of the memory. Dexter looked at her warily. “What happened there, babe?”
“Uh, memory. Bad one. Therapy starts this week. Again.”
Ford asked Olivia. “Will you sit with me?”
She looked at him in his position on a comfortable chair. He looked so tempting, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to risk irritating her bond mates.
Ambrose blinked, and he said, “If you are attracted to him, it doesn’t damage our relationship with you. We get echoes of your pleasure through the link, but it doesn’t hurt us. We know you chose us.”
Dexter sighed. “Besides, he’s an omega. He isn’t a challenge to us when it comes to you.”
She blinked and smiled.
Ford chuckled. “What Dexter is trying to say is that it is unlikely that you will get pregnant if we have sex, even during your heat or mine.” Ford held out his hand. “Come on, baby omega. I can answer most of your questions.”
She blinked and left Dexter’s grip.
She walked toward Ford, and he smiled, his white teeth blazing against his dark skin. He held his hand out to her, and when she slid her palm along his, they both narrowed their eyes. He chuckled. “Feels nice, huh?”
She nodded. “Um, where do you want me to sit?”
“Honestly or for the sake of your comfort?”
“We are going to say for the sake of my comfort.”
“However you want to sit.”
She walked in close and sat with her back against his chest as if he was a throne. He chuckled in her ear. “Interesting placement choice. I would have you pegged for cuddling like a kitten.”
“Not with you. Not now.” She grabbed his arms and wrapped them around her waist.
“Slightly better.”
She placed her hands over his, her fingers lacing with his.
“I am not letting you weasel your way through the buttons.” She murmured, leaning her head back on his shoulder. “I thought omegas were all small.”
He grinned. “I am small for an alpha. I am slightly above average for a beta. Omega males are all over the board.”
She nodded. “How do you make money?”
“I am a video producer. I make micro-movies with a musical background.”
Ambrose added. “He wins tons of awards every year.”
Dexter grinned. “We get invited to the parties, but we don’t often go.”
She nodded and asked Ford, “You don’t have bonded alphas?”
“No, but I have always had my eye on your guys.”
She tensed.
“They have chosen you, bonded to you after only knowing you for a few days, and you weren’t even in heat yet. There is something there, Olivia. Your links are strong and bright?”
“Yeah.”
Dexter tickled her through their connection, and she smiled.
“Then, don’t worry about it. If you do anything to tick them off, hurting you would mean hurting them. You have a bond. If they don’t want you to be near someone, they will say so, and you will feel it.”
She blinked. “I am just getting used to them.”
“I know, but with the link, they feel like you have always been there. They forget.” He kissed her neck softly and nibbled her ear.
“What are you doing?” She needed it stated.
“Trying to get you comfortable with me in the way that always works for me.”
She stiffened in his grip.
“Olivia, do you like my scent?”
“Yes.”
“I like yours a lot.” He rolled his hips against hers.
“That has become apparent.”
“So, I want to get closer to you, and as we are neighbours, it stands to reason that we will spend time together. I like your guys and get along with them. When we get together for social stuff, I would like it if you would come along. What would you like?”
“You work with music?”
“Yes.” She felt his wry acceptance of whatever she was going to ask.
“Do you dance?”
“Of course.”
She leaned to the side and looked at him. “Can you teach me?”
Ford blinked. “What?”
“Can you teach me to dance? I don’t know how. Never learned. The guys have already had to put up with me learning how sex works, so I don’t think I should punish them by making them live through my stomping on their feet.”
He smiled slowly. “You are willing to stomp on me?”
“Yup. You want to get close enough to me that I will consider having sex with you? The price is teaching me how to dance.”
Argus came in, and he looked at Ford and Olivia, scowled, and then took in Ford’s expression. “She just said something that stunned you, huh?”
Ford nodded. “She is saying that she might sleep with me if I can teach her to dance. Who will be the judge of whether I have done a good job or not?”
She smiled and looked at her guys. “They got me into this; they can judge.”
He grinned. “But, my treasure, that will be fun for me. Call it extended foreplay. What can I do for you to speed the seduction?”
Argus sighed and whispered in Ford’s ear. Ford looked at him and said, “Seriously?”
Argus looked at her and leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Seriously.”
She looked at him curiously. She twisted on Ford’s lap. “What did he say?”
Ford looked confused. “He suggested that I invite you to my place.”
She looked back at Argus in confusion.
Ford finished, “And tell you that you can swim in my Olympic-sized pool anytime.”
She started to hum with excitement, and a heavy purr emerged from her chest.
Ford muttered, “What the hell?” He craned his head around and took in her flushed cheeks and obvious excitement.
He looked at the guys. “Can we go now? I would be disappointed if this wore off.”
Argus smiled and crouched near her, extending his hand to her. “It won’t. She loves swimming, and it has been on the forbidden list for the last decade and a half. If you let her, she will be sprinting over to your place every freaking day.”
Argus kissed her palm. “You will have to put down rules about how long she can swim per day, or she will be perpetually pruney. Any relationship you two pursue is your own business. I will just be happy if she comes home to us every night.” He glanced at Ford, “Or if she comes to us for her heats.”
She blinked, and fat tears started their way down her face. The guys jolted, and she opened the links and dumped her howling loneliness into the link. They clutched their heads, and she broke from the confused Ford’s grip and started up the stairs. She didn’t have a plan, but if they didn’t have any problem with her being gone, she would go. It would hurt less than having them shove her at other people.
Ford tackled her when she was on the steps, holding her carefully to stop her from bruising herself. “What the hell is going on?”
She blinked. “They don’t want me. You heard them. I can go, and as long as I come back for my heats, they are fine with it. I am in the way.” She gulped air.
He nodded. “Right. In that case, I will do the neighbourly thing.” He got to his feet and picked her up, carrying her out of the house through a side door.
She blinked. “What are you doing? Where are you taking me?”
He chuckled. “My house. Things happened suddenly, and they got physically ready to have you there, but they didn’t realize that your situation requires a bit more maintenance than
they were prepared to offer. You can stay with me, you can fuck them in your guestroom, but I have a schedule that I can manage, and I can take care of you.” He chuckled. “Who knows what an omega needs better than another omega?”
She looked at him. “The centre is going to be pissed.”
“You aren’t their concern. They signed you over to Ambrose and his lot. They may have meant well, but their natures mean that they aren’t going to deal with a little bundle of emotion like you. Alphas with canine or ursine characteristics are far easier to deal with. They would worship the ground you walk on.”
She looked at him. “I chose Argus.”
“Yeah, he gets it, but he knows that the others don’t quite see you as anything other than a fuckbuddy yet. Did you really write a book?”
“Yeah, but my laptop is in my suitcase.” It had been one of her presents from the guys. “I don’t know if I should get it. It was a present.”
“I will have some of the guys go and get your stuff. Call it a sleepover.”
She blinked. “I don’t really want to move in with you.”
“I know, but I don’t want you there when they all go back to work and realize that they would have left you alone in a new house in a strange city where you didn’t know anyone. I am going to make sure that you know everyone.”
She blinked. “Oh.”
“A lady as sweet as you deserves the best, and if I can’t be it, I can certainly pretend to be your fairy godfather.”
She looked at him and cocked her head. “You want me around for your heat.”
He grinned sheepishly. “That may be part of it. I am a little tired of being surrounded by men, and most betas can’t keep up. Don’t worry, it isn’t happening for a few months, but the groundwork has to happen sometime.”
She rolled her eyes. “I can barely remember mine. I just remember they had to keep switching out, and there was a lot of them falling down exhausted. Three was barely enough.”
He let out a happy sound. “Aww, honey, that is just what I wanted to hear. I have never done it with another omega. The ones I have run into have packs, and they want me to join. I like my specific niche in the universe.”
He rounded a tree, and a buff stone building loomed complete with the Olympic-sized pool. She whistled softly. “Wow.”
“Yeah, Ambrose does good work. Have they started talking about kids?”
“We have started discussing it, but we were doubly safe during this heat. They used condoms, and I have an IUD.”
He exhaled. “Well, that shows that they care for you. You are more than just a womb with legs to them.”
“I think getting someone as fucked up as I am is more than they could handle. The sex is fine, but I need a lot of work, and there doesn’t seem to be a place to start. It is very much a deep-end situation. They have to get back to their lives, but I need to start mine. Different places at the same time.”
He nodded. “I think a little space is what is needed. They need to think of ways to reach out, and you need to meet new people. I know tons of new people who will be delighted to meet you.”
“Um, isn’t it dangerous for me to be out on my own?”
“It would be if you weren’t with me. I hire bodyguards, and they come with me everywhere I go. They fend off other alphas and betas who want to try me out. I like my life the way it is.”
She nodded. “Why are you carrying me?”
“You didn’t have shoes on.”
She looked at him and laughed. “I lived in the country. Shoes are an afterthought.”
He paused. “Country? Like chickens and stuff?”
“Chickens, goats, and some pigs destined for ham, but Argus had them all taken in by rescues so that it would be one thing off my mind.”
“But, you did all that stuff?”
“Sure. Mowed lawns, fixed plumbing, put in windows. Catered weddings and parties. Ran a bed and breakfast.”
He whistled. “So, which of those do you really like doing?”
She smiled. “I like cooking. I loved swimming when I could do it. I would like to start training again. They didn’t let me use the gym at the Omega Centre. They were afraid I would hurt healing tissue.”
“Yeah, what happened there? Ambrose was a little vague.”
He nodded for her to open the door, so she reached for the handle. “My dad had me stitched shut during my first heat.”
He froze, shaking. “He what?”
“You heard me the first time. And beat me when my scent was detectable. So...”
“So, you keep your scent back. I didn’t know we could do that.”
“Oh, I was motivated.”
He hugged her to him.
“Hey, hey. No blubbering.”
He looked offended when he straightened. “I thought you needed a hug.”
“No, I had to live with it for over seven years. It’s over.” She wrinkled her nose. “I have a list of things I want to do, but I feel weird about the guys paying for stuff.”
“They have bought into the idea that female omegas are helpless and need to be tended. Me? I can see what you are capable of, and I am going to pay you for stuff around the house.”
“Like what?”
He was moving through a kitchen even larger than the one that the guys had. “Make me breakfast to order. My bodyguards usually make something, but I would prefer for it to be what I want on a particular day.”
“I will, provided that I don’t have to go shopping. I don’t have a car and don’t even know where to start.”
“That’s fine. Do you have a license?”
“Yeah, the guys have it.”
“Cool. Can you drive stick?”
She looked at him, but he was serious. “Yeah.”
“Nice. You can be my driver to some of the evening events. Wait. Strike that. I want you on my arm during some events. We will present you as my escort for the evening, and I am going to have to find dresses that show off all your bond marks so no one will get a funny idea.”
He set her down on a couch in front of a huge television. He dropped next to her and smiled. “Let’s get a pizza and discuss your future. No one knows who you are; no one knows who your guys are. They will assume it is a pack and try to figure out who they are. You are a woman of mystery.”
She snorted. “I am a rural girl in an urban setting, and I am sitting and talking about flashing my bond marks to a bunch of strangers.”
He grinned. “And the international press. This is going to be so much fun. First, we need to teach you to dance. So, did you ever box-step?”
“Uh, when I was twelve.”
“Cool. We will start with a waltz then and work our way to hip-hop and club dancing.”
“Uh, is this going to be complicated?”
“As much as you make it. The more you trust your partner, the easier things will be.” His eyes twinkled, and he got to his feet, holding his hand out to her. “So, we will start building trust. The waltz while we wait for pizza.”
She got to her feet. “I still don’t have shoes on.”
He kicked his sneakers off. “There. Now we are on equal footing, so to speak.” He touched a remote and walked her to the open area when the music filled the air around them. He smiled. “I go forward, you go back. The opposite of fucking. We don’t want to meet in the middle. This is chase and retreat.”
Ford started dancing. She moved with him, and after a few false starts, she had managed to make one circuit of the room with him. She saw dark figures watching them, and he murmured, “The bodyguards. That dark one is Rick; the blonde is Andrew.”
“Why are they watching us?”
“Because you weren’t introduced. They think you are a groupie out to have your wicked way with the poor, helpless omega in your clutches.”
She sighed and raised her voice. “Guys, I am the omega from next door. Ambrose’s pride’s bond mate. Ford is giving me a dance lesso
n because I am hopeless, and I am probably staying in a guestroom.”
The two guards grinned. Rick called out, “Like fuck you are an omega. None of the girls would pass up a chance with Ford.”
She grinned as Ford twirled her. “I just came off my heat. I am fucked out.”
The guards blinked.
Ford grinned. “And her cum tastes like peaches.”
She blushed and elbowed him, but they kept dancing. The music faded, and she stopped.
She bit her lip. “So, how bad was it?”
“It was agony; it was torture. We are going to have to bring a professional in. Rick! Get over here.”
Rick groaned. “This isn’t in my contract.”
“Yeah, but you are a choreographer at my heels. Dance is in your blood. I am much better at seeing how things are going through a viewfinder.”
Olivia looked at the alpha in black. “You looked less scary at a distance.”
He paused and smiled. “It is not the first time I have heard that, but it is the first time someone has stepped into my arms a moment later.”
The music started, and he danced with her. “Relax a little; you are a bit stiff.”
“Nervous about your shoes and my feet, but I get that this isn’t the job you are here for, so thanks.”
He nodded, and they began to move around the space. He spun her, pulled her back, and kept the decorous space between them at all times.
Ford smiled. “That looked beautiful. Rick, isn’t it amazing that she can keep her scent locked down like that?”
Rick nodded. “I haven’t ever heard of an omega doing that. How do you do that, Miss?”
“Practice.”
Ford chuckled. “You are going to have to read the book.”
“There’s a book?”
Olivia huffed. “Not yet. It’s a memoir.”
They danced, and the music changed. He put his hand on the centre of her back, and their movements changed into something more sweeping, less rigid.
Rick smiled. “Have you ever slow danced? Like at prom?”
“No prom for me.” She smiled tightly.
He slowed and put his hands on her hips. She blinked and hissed, “Where do I put my hands?”