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FIFTY-THREE
Nat
THE UBER FROM DOWNTOWNto Ladue might have been the longest car ride of my entire life. Somehow, I’d ended up in the backseat of a Ford focus with Luca, while the others scored a ride in an SUV with third-row seating. My lips felt bruised, and I was desperately aware of my dick pressing against the zipper of my tailored trousers.
There was something I had to know, though.
“Are you okay with... um, withthis?” I asked, keeping my voice down. “After what happened in the warehouse. And, I mean, in general. I understand what a weird situation this must be for you.”
Thankfully, the driver kept his thoughts to himself, and his eyes fixed firmly on the road. I didn’t really want to have this conversation with a stranger in the car, but I figured it would be a hundred times worse trying to have it in front of the others once we got back to the house.
Luca wasn’t completely sober, thanks mostly to omegas being lightweights. But he wasn’t anywhere near sloppy-drunk, either. His arresting green gaze was clear in the rhythmic slide of yellow sodium light from the passing streetlights, even if his posture was loose and unguarded in a way I’d never seen before.
“Yeah,” he said, after a thoughtful moment’s pause. “Yeah, I am. Byron and I have... anunderstanding, I guess you’d say. And sometimes we share people.”
He licked his lips, and I tried not to let my eyes be drawn to that perfect pink cupid’s bow.
“There are things I do in the bedroom, and things that I don’t do,” he continued. “Sometimes those things change from one day to the next. It just depends.”
I felt so incredibly out of my depth here that I couldn’t even see the shore. “But... how do I know what’s all right?”
Luca’s gaze grew faintly pitying, then faintly amused. “Well, I mean, in general, youask. That’s kind of how the whole thing works. But as for tonight, I saw Byron’s face after he kissed you. And to be honest? I don’t think you’re going to be making many decisions tonight beyond ‘oh god, stop’or ‘oh god, keep going.’”
The Uber driver seemed to be watching the road verypointedly. He cleared his throat and reached over, cranking the radio up several notches. Yet somehow, even my growing sense of mortification didn’t stop my cock from making a spirited attempt to escape its confines of cotton and wool blend.
Longest. Car Ride.Ever.
We found the others having an impromptu meeting in the kitchen after beating us here by a couple of minutes. I’d been right that my sense of awkwardness ballooned even further when confronted with the entire pack. However, it quickly became obvious that I wasn’t the subject of discussion.
“You know you’re welcome to join us, Emiel,” Mia was saying softly.
Emiel glanced over as Luca and I entered, tipping his chin in a brief acknowledgement of our presence.
“Dunno if Byron would necessarily agree with that,” he said. “Maybe soon, but not tonight. Besides, I’ve got a book to finish.”
“And a gift to try out?” Luca asked slyly.
I wasn’t sure about the context, but I was pretty confident that Emiel was blushing beneath his dark complexion.
“Maybe,” he mumbled.
Whatever the case, it sounded like Emiel wouldn’t be joining us for... whatever was about to happen. I couldn’t help a small sense of relief, because he was afriend—the kind of friend I hadn’t had for way too long. I knew we’d eventually have to come to terms with this complicated web of sexual and non-sexual relationships that seemed to be forming around us.
But I was glad it didn’t have to happentonight.