He sighed and looked out the window. “I know all those things from your chart, Jack. If we want to sell the dating thing, I have to know more. Favorite drink? The way you order your steak?”
I cleared my throat. “I always drink a Godfather in town, but at home, I’m a bourbon man. And I like my steak rare.”
Will, I knew his name from the other person at the clinic, rubbed his hands together. “Good, now we’re getting somewhere. So let me ask the question I’ve been really wanting to ask you.”
“Shoot.” See, this is why I don’t people. They want information so they can come back later and stab you in the back with it.
Across from me, Will got quiet and wiped his hands on the thighs of his scrubs.
“Why did you ignore me at Tak’s party?”
Certainly not the question I expected him to ask.
“I ignore everyone. Don’t take it personally.”
“Well, here’s the thing. I did. And I had put a good bit of effort into building up the courage to talk to you. I mean, I know I’m not the most attractive male, but I’m decent. You obviously don’t have a mate.”
“I don’t. And it’s not you, it’s me. I’m not good with people.”
He snickered. “No shit, Sherlock.
“I’ve been passing by your store, hoping to see you again, but to no avail and then the day after I decide I will not stalk the fine-as-fuck jeweler, you come strolling into the clinic and now you’re taking me on a date. Karma’s a real bitch.”
I slowed down to turn into the restaurant and got in line for valet parking.
“I’m not what you want,” I said, trying like hell to stare straight ahead while grinding my jaw.
“My senses tell me otherwise, alpha.”
Oh, fuck, I almost came right there in my slacks hearing the word alpha pour from Will’s delicious mouth.
I turned to face him. Fuck, he was gorgeous. That I’m-not-so-attractive bullshit was just that—bullshit. His hair was shaved close, and his caramel skin made his greenish eyes almost glow in the darkness of my car.
“Senses lie, Will. Scent lies. People lie. You can’t live your life by those things.”
His eyebrows furrowed, and he placed a hand on my cheek. I closed my eyes, trying to defend myself against his scent, the way his palm lay softly against my rough skin.
“Who hurt you, Jack?” he whispered before moving his thumb across my bottom lip. I growled slowly, denying myself the pleasure of tasting his skin. Blowing out a breath, I reached up and placed my hand over his, loving another person’s touch. It had been a long time since another male touched me, even like this. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed the sensation of another human, skin to skin. “Jack, it’s time to move up.”
I opened my eyes and realized the line of cars had moved without me. I rolled the Ferrari up to the man in a vest and killed the engine before getting out.
“No, Will, let me,” I said, seeing him reach for the door. The fucking alpha in me didn’t want him opening his own door—for fuck’s sake, my alpha nature wanted to throw him over my shoulder and get a private table in the back so I could feed the omega until he was full and then give him dessert right there on the table.
I had to get ahold of myself and right now.
I walked across the front of the car and then opened the door for my fake date. As he slid out of the car, his eyes met mine and he smiled a little as one of his hands trailed along the length of my groin already straining against my pants.
“Come on, alpha. Feed me.”
I stood there with the door open for a few seconds, trying to think of trash bags or paper plates, anything that was asexual so I could get my hard-on under control before scaring all the restaurant patrons.
We walked into the restaurant and went to the table Blake already reserved. A note stood like a tent on the white tablecloth with Jack scribbled on it.
Sorry to bail. Important meeting came up. Next time. Blake.
“He’s not coming?” Will said over my shoulder.
“No, he’s not.” I looked around and then signaled the waitress. I was a regular in this restaurant so she came flittering over at once.
“Yes, Mr. Hendrix? Is this table not satisfactory?”
“Actually, I’d like something more private,” I said, reaching out to grab Will’s hand in mine and shivering at the contact once again.
“Absolutely, sir. Right this way.”
The waitress took us through the place and behind a curtain where a lone table for two sat, looking lonely.
She’d almost walked away when I told her that I already knew what I wanted and ordered for both of us.
“What was that?” Will asked, taking a seat.
“I know what’s good here. No reason to look at the menu,” I returned, shrugging at the common sense of it all.
“Are you bossy at all times?” He leaned back and before I could answer, the waitress came back with a bottle of red wine, glasses, and a full plate of bruschetta.
“Your meal will be out shortly, sir.” She scooted out of the area fast.
I took the wine from the ice—yeah, I liked my red cold, at least in private—and poured us both full glasses. Will looked like he could use a full glass. There were dark half moons under his eyes.
“To answer your question, Will, I’m old. I like what I want when I want. I don’t compromise. I don’t put up with bullshit and above all, I don’t tolerate dishonesty or disloyalty. I am who I am.”
He nodded and took a sip of wine, tipped his head back, eyes closed.
“Good wine?” I asked, a little desperate to know what caused his reaction.
“Yes, but I was mainly thinking about you.”
I puffed out a laugh. “What about me?”
“I was thinking...this man sounds so fucking lonely.”
Chapter Four
Will
Dinner continued almost in silence for a while, me mentally cursing myself for my sassy mouth that always got me in trouble, Jack eating with a precision any surgeon would envy. The waitress came by several times to refill our glasses or see if we needed anything, but the not-quite-easy atmosphere of earlier in the evening had deteriorated.
Jack had no reply to my comment about his loneliness. He didn’t have to. We both knew it was true. But why did I have to say it? My mother always said think twice before I speak, but my history showed how rarely I put her good advice into practice. This case above all others was heart wrenching. While I spent plenty of time by myself, traveling between jobs and practicing my violin in the evenings, I also relished the company of my friends. Tak’s birthday party had been a pleasure to organize because in the process I got to spend time with old friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in a long time.
Chris, for example. When we were in school, he’d been so popular, so good looking, so perfect at anything he did. Tak was never intimidated by all his successes, but for me, hanging out with him was like staring into the sun. I’d never imagined we’d be friends. And I’d never imagined he was doing anything but soaring on, shocked at first to learn the trajectory of his life had changed.
He didn’t even remember me when they came for the cake tasting.
But now we were friends. He was the perfect alpha for Tak, and funny! They’d dragged me out on a weekend run in that big truck of theirs once, and I sat on the bunk in the back of the cab laughing so hard my sides ached. They were going back and forth on that CB radio like two redneck truckers from the back of beyond.
But one strange thing did happen on that trip. Some guy they were talking to named Mystic Wheels asked if anyone else was along for the ride. For a moment, I was worried he might be getting Chris in trouble, riding along, but Tak had said Chris owned his truck.
When Tak said, yes, they had a guest, the other trucker replied, “Tell the vampire his silver prince will see the light.”
At the time, I’d joked it away, unwilling to even consider he might mean Jack, but sometimes
when I was casually not walking past his door—quite—I remembered the words and hope flickered. When I’d climbed into the Ferrari, it lit up all over again. But sitting here, pushing food around on my plate, I was starting to wonder if this was the prince the psychic knight of the road my friends believed him to be.
“Isn’t it good?” Jack’s words cut through my reverie, the crinkle between his brows making him even sexier. “I’ll order something else.” He raised a hand to get the server, shoulders stiff, lips tight.
“No, really.” Was he interested in whether I ate? Very alpha… “It’s delicious, I was just woolgathering.”
“If you’re sure.” He lifted his wineglass, long, elegant fingers wrapping around the stem. “Their desserts are delightful here, as well. Don’t forget I already ordered the bittersweet chocolate souffle.”
“And I can’t have any until I finish my broccoli?” Snark! Again with the snark. My alpha—at least I hoped he was—frowned in such a serious way. “I’m sorry.” I shoveled a bright-green piece into my mouth and talked around it. “I actually love broccoli.”
His nod was as regal as that of any prince as he took a long sip of the crimson wine. Setting the glass down, he patted his mouth with the white linen napkin. I was grateful we were at the back of the restaurant where nobody had to see him eating with the guy in the entirely inappropriate Dr. Who scrubs. But as I cut my steak, put slice after slice in my mouth, interspersed with thin slices of creamy potatoes and the brilliant-green broccoli, he relaxed back in his seat, a small smile playing with his lips. I’d heard alphas loved to feed their omegas, heard it was an instinctual thing indicating they were with someone special, even seen it with other couples. But nobody had ever displayed this behavior with me.
Until Jack did.
I pushed my plate away, nothing on it but steak sauce and the bone from my T-bone steak. I’d never even seen one on the menu before, but it was tender, perfectly seasoned, an amazing peppery crust on the outside, and deep pink when I cut into it.
“Ready for dessert?” Our server returned pushing a table ahead of her. It held two small dishes and a white casserole dish with the dessert standing at least four or five inches above the rim, dusted with powdered sugar, the scent of chocolate and brandy perfuming the air. Tucked behind the big dish was a silver bowl piled with fluffy white whipped cream.
Holy hells.
Jack watched me watch the server dip a shovel-shaped silver spoon into the dessert and scoop some onto each plate. She topped them with a fluffy cloud of vanilla speckled cream and set them in front of each of us.
“I’ll leave the rest on the table for you,” she murmured, doing so before wheeling her cart away.
My mouth watered. “I’ve never had one of these before. It looks amazing.”
“Taste it.” Jack’s blue eyes glittered. “I want to know what you think.”
I spooned a little of the rich chocolate concoction and cream into my mouth and closed my eyes. “Oh my God. I want to roll in it.”
At his chuckle, I came back from the land of chocolate to focus on his face. His handsome face, beaming with pleasure as he held his spoon toward me, laden with yumminess. I closed my lips around it and moaned.
“Eat up, omega.” He spooned more into my mouth and to my utter shock, leaned across the table and pressed a kiss on my chocolatey, whipped-cream messy lips. “Take it all.”
I almost came in my pants. Dessert had never been so good.
Chapter Five
Jack
This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen. But then again, I couldn’t resist. His full lips wrapped around the spoon of molten chocolate and tiny puffs of cream dotted them after he’d let go.
It was enough to make me wish our private table was even more private. Private as in my bedroom, and instead of a table, my king-sized bed.
I’d called him my omega. The precious name came out before I could stop myself, but damn it all if I didn’t mean the sentiment. His scent permeated my very veins in a way that Ellis’ never had. To the point where I knew the entire thing with Ellis had been a ruse.
I’d almost tethered myself to the wrong omega.
“Are you ready to leave?” I said before reaching over the table to wipe a dollop of whipped cream from the corner of his lips.
“I am. I’ve got to take care of my car situation before the morning and get some sleep. I don’t sleep well in those corporate apartments, when I have to travel farther from home than I can get back at night, no matter how homey they claim to be.”
A knife twisted in my gut.
“You don’t live here? In Mapleville?” I cleared my throat after the question, hearing entirely too much desperation in my tone.
“I do, but I am a traveling phlebotomist, and I also have my radiology degree. I go where the money is.”
That’s what Ellis had done, too. He’d gone where the money was and that was me. I knew he was cheating on me, but somehow had convinced myself that after we were married, it all would end. He was simply sowing his wild oats or something to that effect.
So my lawyers and advisors thought I should get him to sign a prenup.
He’d signed it the night before our wedding.
And then left me waiting there, under that canopy of camellias he’d insisted on, in front of his family and some of mine—utterly destroyed.
“They should have you stay somewhere nicer so you can get some sleep,” I commented, and then got up and held out my hand to help him from the table.
“This is Mapleville, Jack. There’s only one place to stay and it sucks, to tell you the truth.”
My chest rumbled with my disapproval. He should be staying at the best place, getting rest.
“I have an idea.” I tossed him the keys to the car after the valet retrieved it for me and I tipped him heavily for taking care of my baby.
“What?” He looked down at my keys like I’d thrown a boa constrictor at him.
“Take my car tonight. Drop me off at home. I’ll get Trey to tow your car to the mechanic and this way you don’t have to worry.”
He got into the car hesitantly and revved up the engine with a smile before taking off.
“Fuck, this feels good,” he said and leaned back into the seat, getting comfortable.
“It does feel good the first time.”
Will’s eyebrows furrowed and then he turned to me with a slight smirk on his face. “It feels good every time if you’re doing it right.”
That mouth of his was going to get me and him in some trouble—deep trouble.
“You know how to get me home?”
Damn it all, every sentence I muttered in the presence of Will came off as some kind of innuendo.
Maybe there was a reason for that.
He made me feel like a horny teenager.
“I remember how to get you home, Jack.” He sped up and took the turns like a NASCAR driver.
I wrung my hands in the seat next to him, trying to make them stop wanting to reach over and touch him. It wasn’t working—at all.
Before long, I was sliding my hand up his thigh, giving the muscles there a squeeze.
“Careful, Jack. I might not want to leave you at home all alone if you keep it up.”
“Not yet, omega. But soon,” I breathed into the air between us.
“Good. One night with you and I think I’d be ruined in the best way possible.”
I turned in my seat so I could see his expression. “I could ruin you right here in my car, Will.” To prove my point, I reached between his legs and cupped his sac, just to tease.
“I’m going to wreck this completely overpriced vehicle if you don’t behave, Jack. I mean it.”
I chuckled and removed my hand only to have him pull it back quickly, but this time he placed it against his thickened cock barely contained by those kiddie scrubs.
“So pull over.”
After the next curve, he parked the car under an expanse of trees between two streetlights
. We were plunged into utter darkness.
I couldn’t see him but his breaths were shallow as were mine as we both removed our seat belts and shifted on the leather beneath us.
“Please, alpha. I need you to kiss me again. That little peck in the restaurant wasn’t enough. Not by a long shot.”
That wasn’t all he needed. I leaned forward and took his mouth, tonguing him, tasting the chocolate essence still clinging to his tongue. While I did and our kiss grew deeper, he moved my hand, and I felt him untie his scrub bottoms and adjust so that he was bare to me. I rooted around until I found what I was looking for and wrapped my hand around his warmth, stroking him up and down while my mouth explored his, my control fading second by second.
Fuck, I wanted to lay him across the hood of my Ferrari and make love to him right there.
He broke the kiss to speak to me in heavy breaths. “Jack, faster. And squeeze me harder. I’m going to come for you, alpha.” That was all he said before grabbing the front of my sweater and pulling me in for more desperate kisses. I did as my omega asked and from base to tip tightened my grip on his stiff cock, loving the feel of him in my grasp. He was so close to coming, I could feel the veins bulge along the shaft and as I reached the bottom, his balls had tightened into his body.
I broke away, wanting to see him come at my bidding.
“Lean back, omega. Let me see you.”
I reached over us with my free hand and turned on the overhead light. I needed to watch Will come.
Good omega. He put his head against the headrest and closed his eyes, readying for the onslaught of pure pleasure that awaited him. I stroked him with one hand and massaged his sac with the other, all the while watching his face, awaiting my show.
“Oh, Jack. Yes. Make me come, alpha.”
I knew by his hitched breath that his orgasm would come any second so with the hand that once cupped his balls, I moved up and under his scrub shirt and pinched his left nipple as hard as I could.
That did it. His body rocked and jerked with pleasure as the climax took over. I watched as his face turned to pure ecstasy and the proof of his little death spurted onto my hand.
The Omega's Silver Alpha_MM Non-shifter Alpha Omega Mpreg_A Mapleville Romance Page 2