Page 16 of Scheme
“I’m sure we will anyway since you’re staying with Nico and Violet.” I drummed my nails against the side of the cup. “I have an event of my own that I need a date for.”
Kit shrugged. “Fair is fair.”
“You don’t know what it entails yet.”
“I doubt you’re asking more of me than an entire weekend away.”
“You don’t negotiate a lot of contracts, do you?” I asked, shaking my head. “Always clarify terms. That’s like… the first rule of negotiating.”
“Fine, fine. Tell me about the event, then.”
I raised my chin, staring him down until he lost some of the attitude. From my professional life, I knew that alphas were like dogs—it was important to establish dominance right off the bat if you wanted to have a productive working relationship.
“Please,” Kit tacked on begrudgingly.
“I need you to come to my Nana’s 90th birthday party.” Kit nodded, bored. “And I need you to stand by my side and look agreeable while I announce my intention to take you into my nest at my next heat.”
Kit’s jaw went slack.
“This is why you should always clarify terms,” I chided, taking another sip of my coffee. You didn’t need my expensive law school education to know that.
“Why?” Kit spluttered. “Why? Why do you want to do that?”
“I don’twantto. I’m perfectly happy living my best single life. But that alpha who left the roses was sent by my dad, and I’m supposed to announce my intention to takehiminto my nest at that party.”
Kit looked stricken. “That’s really messed up. My mum always throws omegas at me, but it’s more in a… maybe-this-will-take-off kind of way.”
“They’ve never been this pushy in the past. They never really expected me to find a mate before now.” For reasons that were even more hurtful, and solidly rooted in fact. “But they have something I want.”
I glanced up at Asher’s painting, blown away by his talent every time I saw it. Of the six of us, he was the only one who had an artistic bone in his body. I wanted him to be free to pursue his dreams, to have all of the opportunities he deserved.
“Obviously, I don’t expect you to follow through on the mating part. Once I clear the announcement hurtle, I’ll figure out the next steps on my own.”
Kit was looking more dark and brooding than ever, so I pasted on my best and brightest smile. The one that screamed ‘I’m fine, you can be fine too’ in big neon letters.
“So, are we doing this? Or is my asking price too steep?”
“I guess, so long as you aren’t expecting me to follow through, it’s not too steep,” Kit said slowly.
“Don’t worry, I won’t ruin your reputation when I emerge from my heat alone.” I winked, pretending it was just a funny joke and that I hadn’t been jilted once before. “I’ll take the blame for it all falling apart.”
“No, I don’t want that. We’ll tell everyone it was a mutual decision. It sounds like we’ve got a deal.”
Kit rubbed the back of his neck, and Ialmostdidn’t look at the way his bicep bulged all prettily underneath his shirt.
Almost.
And that was the real glaring hole in this whole plan. Would people actually believe we were a couple?
I didn’t think I was some hideous swamp creature. Maybe I had in the aftermath of The Terrible Thing, when my self-esteem was in the dirt and I was constantly compared to my siblings, but not now.
I was no natural beauty, but I knew how to make myself feel sexy in my own skin, even if it was the kind of sexy that relied heavily on skin treatments, fake tan, makeup, and a positive relationship with my hair stylist.
Kit, on the other hand, looked like a cover model for Sexy Nerd Alphas Weekly, and I was pretty sure he’d rolled out of bed and shoved on the first clothes he’d found before wandering over here.
Had he even washed his face this morning? Did he even moisturise? Did his face justlooklike that?
Life was truly unfair.
