The Arrangement (Omegas of Hunter's Point Book 1)

Chapter 13

Damian pushed the button for the lobby, and the doors closed. His gaze drifted over her reflection in the polished metal of the elevator doors.

Von looked better than great. The elegant skirt, though the hem dipped below her knees, hugged her hips and ass like a friend, and set off shapely calves. The lace on her blouse amplified the size of her breasts. He could almost feel them in his hands, plump and round, the nipples as pink as her lips and...

"Where are we going for dinner?" she asked.

"This great grill. It's just up the street. They do a killer filet mignon."

"That sound really good," she sighed.

A thrill went through him. His unicorn was a dedicated carnivore! Called it. Gods, if she were any more perfect, he'd hit the emergency stop button and see how down she'd be for elevator sex.

Interrupting that inappropriate train of thought, the doors whooshed opened onto the lobby, thank the gods, and he ushered Von forward with a hand at the small of her back, then thrust the other into his pocket to surreptitiously adjust himself, praying to the gods she hadn't noticed that his member was fitting to burst out of his zipper like a movie alien from an astronaut's chest.

As they left the building, he offered Von his arm. She took it, her fingers curling around his forearm and bicep, and leaned into his shoulder, really selling the 'loving couple' aspect as she'd promised. He couldn't get passed how natural it felt to have her there. He'd give anything to know how she smelled.

Omegas always smelled sweet. Hillary Fang and her caramelized sugar scent came to mind. Cake, he decided. Von must smell like cake, but not like a butter cake. It would be something bolder to match her personality. A spice cake. That was it. A spice cake, just like the ones everybody served around the winter solstice holidays. Spice cake with the barest drizzle of glaze. Saliva pooled in his mouth at the thought.

"Can I ask you something?"

He placed his hand over hers, the stones of her engagement ring pressing into his palm. "Sure. We're mated now. You can ask me anything."

"What made you want to adopt your nephew so badly?"

Damian's throat tightened just thinking about Emily. He was tempted to give Von a vague answer to avoid having to speak around it. But she was his mate. He found himself wanting to tell her, wanting her to understand. "I promised Em - Emily - when Michael was born that if anything happened to her or her mate, I'd take care of Michael. Em was the family psychic. She always seemed to know things before they happened." She'd always known, even before Father came home, that he'd be in one of his moods. "So, when she asked, I took her seriously."

"Do you think she knew?" Von asked. "About the...accident?"

"I couldn't say. But she knew something. She'd made the same stipulation in her will. Her mate, MJ, signed as a witness. So, he must have been convinced enough."

They walked in silence for several beats. "Is Michael being with your mother so terrible, though?"

Damian winced. "Not terrible, but definitely not ideal, and certainly not what my sister wanted. Our mother..." he sighed. "You'll meet her eventually, so you may as well know. I don't think she ever wanted children. She's of that generation that didn't give omegas a choice in deciding on a mate. She and my father were an arranged pairing. My father was almost twice her age."

"How old was she?"

"She'd just turned seventeen." If the rumors Damian had garnered over the years had any truth to them, it had happened at her parent's house when the son of a family friend was permitted to claim a teenaged Minerva Sharp in her own bedroom in the middle of the night. The terror she must have felt as she awoke to an attack made his skin crawl.