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SEVENTEEN
Mia
TWO PAIRS OF EYES FELLon me—one calculating and hungry, one dazed and yearning. With a jolt, I recognized that Luca and I were getting exactly the same thing out of this.Stress relief, Luca had called it on several occasions. At the time, I hadn’t really unpacked the meaning behind the quip. At least, not beyond the obvious.
Was it the same for Byron? I was starting to wonder.
Now, the alpha tilted his head, considering me with his cool gray gaze. “Oh,” he said. “I think you and Luca will be licking cake off eachother. It wouldn’t do to keep the chef from enjoying her own dessert, now, would it?”
The terrible tension that had been gathering in my chest unknotted. This part...this part, I could do.
“Sounds like I’ll be enjoying it either way,” I told him, keeping my tone casual and flirty. “You’re the one who’s going to miss out.”
A smirk tugged at one corner of Byron’s full lips. “Mm. I think you know me better thanthat, romcom girl. Get naked. Then get your little playmate naked. Take your time... you know I like to watch.”
Sometimes, it felt like this alpha had been tailor made to be exactly what I needed when things became too much. I rolled mylower lip between my teeth, glancing at him from beneath my eyelashes. It had been so long since I’d felt like this. Like I was a sexual creature, desirable and powerful in my own omega way. Since the early days with Nat, before life and our growing mutual resentment turned the bedroom into a battleground.
I walked over, swinging my hips in a way that would have been ridiculous for Chef Dimitriadis, but was exactly right for Byron and Luca’s sexy romcom girl. Without a word, I set my plate of half-eaten cake in Byron’s lap for safekeeping, not missing the way the generous bulge behind the fly of his tailored blue trousers twitched. I took a step back, folding at the waist to meet Luca for a filthy kiss that tasted the same way Emiel smelled.
He groaned into my mouth, melting beneath the contact. God, how I loved seeing him like this. No wonder Byron’s brain had fled straight into the gutter after watching Luca’s unfiltered food-gasm in the kitchen earlier.
Not that mine had been far behind.
For the barest instant, my greedy omega hindbrain wished Zalen and Emiel were here as well. Would Zalen unbend, joining in with the playful mood? I’d never seen him in an intimate situation outside of the raw practicality of the heat nest, but I’d caught hints of his dry humor. Would Emiel watch from the sidelines, only to lose control like he had before, when he’d carried me down to see Nat?
I set the speculation aside with a flash of guilt. Emiel would find that scenario painful, not pleasurable. And Zalen... well, I wasn’t sure about Zalen. There were times when he’d been achingly tender with me. Yet, he had his own pain, and it wasn’t the type I could come close to understanding. A broken mate bond. People sometimesdiedof those.
I already had two sexy men, here in this very room and ready to rock my world. Luca gasped as I let him up for air. I stepped backward, putting space between us, and began to strip.
Slowly.
It didn’t matter that I was dressed in casual street clothes, or that my practical black cotton bra and panties were no one’s idea of sexy lingerie. Here and now, I was the center of the room’s attention, and my audience was hungry for more than cake. I marveled anew at the way Byron’s eyes on me left a physical sensation on my skin, raising gooseflesh as his gaze traveled down my body.
When I’d tossed the last scrap of black cotton aside, I turned my attention to Luca, holding out a hand to him. He took it, rising gracefully to his feet and pulling me against him. The kiss this time was scorching, and only my desire to see him naked gave me the strength to push away from his chest.
He was dressed in the emerald green button-down that I was pretty sure was his favorite, paired with a pair of skinny-cut khakis. Though I was confident he’d been model-perfect when he’d walked out of the door for work this morning, he was appealingly rumpled now.
I bared his ghost-pale skin an inch at a time, unbuttoning and unzipping. His flyaway black hair needed a trim. It was unruly at the best of times, but my grasping fingers had mussed it during our kiss, leaving it standing up in all directions. I held his forest-colored gaze as I slid his white boxer briefs down his legs, looking up from beneath my eyelashes as I crouched so he could step out of them.
There were two damp patches on the soft cotton; one at the front, and another, larger one at the crotch. Unable to help myself, I lifted the fabric to my nose, smelling the sweet honeysuckle meadow scent rising from them.
From the couch, Byron made a low noise of appreciation. With a teasing grin, I tossed them at the alpha’s head. He caught them neatly out of the air, closing his eyes as he breathed in Luca’s perfume.
“Muchbetter than bergamot,” he said. “Luca, go get the top sheet off the bed and lay it down on the floor. No point in getting chocolate on the rug.”
The tension low in my belly twisted tighter.
Wordlessly, Luca did as he was told. The sheet was an elegant dove gray, and had been recently laundered. Byron’s scent was there, but only faintly. I helped Luca smooth it out in the open area between the couch and the TV wall.
“Very nice,” Byron approved. “Now, Mia, put him on his back and smear some cake on him.”
My eyes flew to Luca’s, but his were dark and wanting. I’d never done anything quite this...transgressive... before. Not when it came to sex. ‘Don’t play with your food’was a rule with deep roots in early childhood—even for people whoweren’tchefs.
Luca folded at the knees, lowering himself gracefully to the sheet-covered floor and rolling onto his back like a sacrificial offering. I retrieved my plate of cake from Byron’s lap, letting my fingers brush carelessly against his bulge as I did. He didn’t react—not beyond pinning me with a smoldering gaze that promised payback in the not-too-distant future.