Page 67 of Scheme
“It’s just my slick messing with you, okay?” I told him sympathetically. “We won’t sleep together again, and your head will clear.”
Kit’s face split into the most unfairly beautiful smile I’d ever seen. “No, it’s not. And no, we won’t.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, some of my pity evaporating. “Where has all this confidence come from?”
“You.” Kit shrugged. “And telling Coleman to go fuck himself. That was long overdue, too. I’ve never been entirelycomfortablewith my alpha side. It seemed to bring with it a lot of expectations about the kind of person I’d be, the kind of life I’d lived. Mostly I’ve been content to ignore my designation. Until you.”
“Me?” I asked weakly, the ground feeling increasingly unstable beneath my feet, and not just because we were standing on pebbles.
“You,” Kit confirmed. “You make me want to be… an alpha. To embrace what I am, because I know my designation helps me giveyouwhat you need. Suddenly, what I always thought of expectations I realise are privileges. A bonded mate is a gift, not a burden. Changing my lifestyle to accommodate them isn’t a sacrifice, it’s an opportunity. Does that make sense?”
I opened my mouth before closing it again, totally unable to come up with words to respond to that. It was too…perfect. If I for one second believed that Kit was actually interested inmerather than myscent, that would have been the exact reassurance I’d have wanted to hear. The flawless, comforting argument that he could be the alpha I needed him to be, that being with him wouldn’t be giving anything up, but rather gaining something wonderful.
But it wasn’t true. It wasn’treal. It was a mirage created by the temptation of a single omega in pre-heat, and nothing more.
“Hey!” We startled apart at the sound of Nico’s voice, turning to find him standing on the pier above us, leaning on the railing and watching us carefully.
I sucked down a lungful of air as though I’d just been underwater, the sounds of the world around me rushing back to full volume.
“We’re coming up!” I called out shakily, grabbing Kit’s arm and leading him toward the road. “We can continue this conversation later. I’ll educate you on the error of your ways,” I added, attempting to downplay the seriousness of the conversation we’d just had and the intensity of the emotions I was feeling before Nico picked up on them.
Kit dragged his feet slightly but didn’t protest as we headed off the beach. I needed a moment to collect myself, which would be far easier to accomplish with Nico and Violet around to break the tension. Especially with Kit looking at me in that disarming way he’d increasingly been doing, seeing far more than he should.
“Everything okay?” Nico drawled, glancing between me and Kit.
“Of course.” I gave him my brightest smile. Nico had defended me in front of Kit’s friends—hisold friends—and I didn’t want to cause him any more stress when he’d already done so much for me.
Nico gave me a long look. “I need to apologise, Margot. I lost my cool back there, and I wasn’t thinking how all that alpha aggression in the air must have made you feel.”
“Oh god, please don’t apologise,” I said quickly, horrified. “You were sticking up for me, and I’m so grateful for that. You’re a good friend, Nico.”
“Even so, I should have kept my cool.” Nico grimaced. “And Violet’s a better friend—while I was raging, she found us somewhere else to stay.”
“Oh.” I glanced at Kit. “I kind of assumed we’d just take the train back home.”
When had he started looking at me like that? His gaze was searing beneath my skin, and I was trying to remember if he’d looked at me like thatbeforeBryce and Kane’s party or if it was just slick-induced insanity.
It’s definitely the latter. Don’t entertain otherwise.
How was I meant to go through with my plan to get Asher into Sutton-Harris now? Using Kit had been fine on my scale of moral acceptability when he’d been using me right back. But now that he thought—incorrectly—that he wanted something real…
It changed everything.
“It’s your call, Margot. If you want to go home, we’ll leave right away. If you want to stay the weekend, just the four of us, then we’ll do that.” Kit shrugged, as though putting my wishes first was the most natural thing in the world. As though I was the kind of omega people ever put first.
“Violet and I are staying either way,” Nico added, his expression turning mischievous. “Once you see the place, I think you’ll understand why. It’s… one of a kind.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You really know how to pique someone’s curiosity, don’t you? Obviously, I have to see it now.”
Nico grinned. “Perfect, Violet is already making us all dinner, and we’ve moved your bags over. Let’s go.”
Chapter 16
WefollowedNicoawayfrom the beach and down a few side streets, arriving outside a white brick house with a pale pink door where he let us in using an electronic key code.
“What is this place?” I asked, following Kit into the living room and looking around in awe. It was a rather traditional townhouse from the outside, and the inside retained some of those original historical fixtures, but there was nothing traditional about it.
The walls were all painted matte black and decorated with brightly coloured lewd pictures and sculptures, and every piece of furniture looked ergonomically designed for fucking.
