Page 28 of Ashley & the A-Listers (Sweetverse)
28. NEXT
DYLAN
“We need to talk,” Ashley said.
Dylan’s heart dropped and he instinctively squeezed her hand. Outside, on Cam’s balcony, they were snuggled up on the furniture in a moment of privacy outside the bedroom they shared at Cam’s place.
“Oh no,” he teased lightly, feeling anything but.
“Nothing bad,” she reassured him, and patted his chest with the unoccupied hand. “Just… what’s next?”
“Next?” he asked.
“Yeah. When Cam is done at the gym and none of us will see each other anymore and his filming schedule is crazy.”
“Oh,” Dylan said, and cocked his head to the side. He hadn’t really thought about that. He’d been too caught up in the honeymoon phase of their bonding. Basking in the ease with which they’d found themselves together again. “I mean, we’re still going to be staying here until after filming, probably,” he said. “And then at least one of the premieres will be downtown, or that’s what Cam has been hinting at.”
But… filming was just one step. The movie wouldn’t probably debut until the next year.
What about the in-between? Why hadn’t he thought of this before?
Distracted.
Ashley disconnected their hands, and Dylan’s stomach twisted nervously as she turned to face him. “So you’re saying you’ll be in town for a few more months, but what about after that?”
Her worry fizzled in the bond, and Dylan cupped her cheek. “Hey,” he said softly.
Her big brown eyes turned up to him and he wondered how she couldn’t possibly know that he was a puddle beneath her feet. “We’re bonded. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not gonna leave.”
“What about your job?” she asked. “Do you travel a lot for clients? Where do you even live?”
“I usually have an apartment, but since this long job included housing, I put some stuff in storage and let my lease expire. I’m a free agent, baby,” he said.
Ashley rolled her eyes, but her lips were starting to curl and that was as good a sign as any. The vise in his chest relaxed.
“I do travel for clients,” he added. “But I have a bit of control on who those clients are, and I can turn down any job I need to. My boss, Wes, is a cool guy with his own pack, so he knows what it’s like. And I have other talents,” he said, placing a hand against his own chest. “I’m a talented guy. If the bodyguard thing tries to take me too far away, I’ll just find something else.”
Ashley’s full lips parted and then closed, and she cocked her head to the side. She was surprised and… affectionate as she asked, “You’d do that? Quit your job for me?”
Dylan chuckled lowly and took her hand again. “Ashley,” he said, and placed her hand on his shoulder, over where her bite mark lay beneath his shirt. “I’d do a hell of a lot more than that to make you happy. You’re my mate, ” he said.
Her gaze darkened at that word a split second before she leaned forward, and Dylan cupped the back of her head as they kissed.
Her lips were pillow-soft and welcomed him in with a sigh. They melted into each other and it was a long, drugging moment before they parted for air.
“Kenzie and Jordan would approve of that answer, I think,” she said, voice breathy.
“Oh, I get the friends’ stamp of approval?”
“I think they’ll come to love you.”
“Should we have dinner with them one night? Show them I’m not so bad?”
Ashley snickered. “I’d love that. You, not so much.”
“Oh, come on,” he drawled. “I can handle a little interrogation.”
Ashley winced. “I don’t know about that. Jordan and Kenzie can be ruthless.”
“I’ll sway them,” he promised. “It worked on you, after all.”
Her lips twitched before she murmured, “Well, that’s ‘cause I’m easy. They’re another story.”
“Easy, huh?” Dylan mused.
“Too easy,” she drawled. “All it took was one damned hike.”
“We were making up for lost time,” he said, and as Ashley curled into him, he knew he’d said the right thing.
“If we were making up for lost time, we would’ve stayed locked up in your room for about a week,” she muttered.
Dylan snorted. “Maybe we’ll have our chance. Cam’s gonna be plenty distracted soon.”
“Why? Where will you be?”
“I guess I didn’t realize how fast time was flying by,” Dylan said, pulling out his phone to check his calendar. “Cam’s heat will be coming up, and then it’s pretty much straight filming until?—“
“Cam’s heat?” Ashley questioned slowly, as if trying out the words.
Dylan was absently scrolling his calendar, until he felt the electricity of her interest. He glanced up. “Yeah, he’s on suppressants, but it’ll fuck him up if he goes six whole months without a heat, so he’s planned it for after training and before filming.”
“That’s a thing? You can just… plan it?” she asked.
Dylan nodded. “I know, right? Weird concept. He can just stop taking his suppressants and as long as all his, uh, omega needs are satisfied, it should kick in. I think. I don’t really know how it all works.”
“And where will you be during his heat?” she probed.
Dylan narrowed his eyes at the odd tone in her voice, and tried to read her through their bond. Where do you want me to be? He stopped himself from asking, visions already filling his head.
“Do you help during the heats?” she pressed.
“Uh… no. That wasn’t in the job description,” Dylan answered, swallowing. “I’m the bodyguard, so I’ll be guarding the front door while the two of them are going through it,” he said, and waved a hand behind his head to encompass River and Cam.
“But River’s a beta,” Ashley pointed out. “Omegas want alphas during heats, don’t they?”
Suddenly, it all came together.
Omegas did want alphas during their heats. And he had a perfect candidate right in front of him.
Dylan shrugged, playing it casual. “I figure they have their ways around it. I mean, they’ve been seeing each other for years, no matter if it has been under the radar, so they’ve been getting around it one way or another.”
“Right,” Ashley said, low and slow, and then sinking into the cushions once more beside him.
Dylan lifted an arm and she curled into his side.
“You interested?” he asked, finally placing that little hitch in the bond between them.
“No, no, nothing like that,” she said, far too quickly. A lie. “I’ve always heard omegas practically need an alpha during a heat, so my mind immediately went there when you said you’d be here . During it.”
He tightened his arm around her, squeezing her close. “I’m not interested in Cam like that. Also, I’d never agree to something like that without consulting you. We’re bonded, remember?” he teased, turning his gaze to the cotton candy sky.
Ashley hummed. “Yeah, right.”
Dylan sensed there was something she wasn’t saying. Did she want to see Cameron through the heat? It… didn’t bother Dylan like he once thought it might have. Instead, the idea of her alphaing Cam through a heat made him a little hot under the collar. The way Cam would beg for her lock…
Okay, calm down.
He might not have realized it when he was first getting to know Ashley again, but Ashley was a good alpha. She deserved an omega to take care of, to spoil. Dylan could still spoil her, too, of course, but he had the idea she’d find more fulfillment doing the spoiling.
Before he could dive in and ask, a knock on the glass door to the balcony sounded, and they both turned to find River sheepishly opening the door.
“Sorry to interrupt, but dinner’s here.”
“Nothing to be sorry about,” Dylan said, and helped Ashley to her feet even though she needed no help at all.
“You two just looked so cozy out there,” he said.
“Sunset was pretty, company was prettier,” Dylan said, and watched Ashley’s cheeks go as pink as the clouds.
“Stop it,” she groaned, and shoved him away playfully.
“Okay, quit being sickening and get in here,” Cam called from the dining area.
Dylan chuckled and they made their way over, finding Cam rifling through bags of takeout and placing containers on the table.
Dylan did what he was good at and melted into the background, watching Ashley interact with them. Cameron was completely at ease around her, and he didn’t know if they noticed, but they bumped elbows and wrists and arms far too often to be casual. They were scenting each other, a silent, casual claiming, even if they didn’t know it.
Ashley’s gaze lingered on him while he talked, and every time she glanced away Cameron took the opportunity to study her, too.
River didn’t seem to mind that his partner was scenting and flirting with an alpha. In fact, the way River gazed at them, head cocked, made Dylan wonder if their thoughts were similar.
Maybe packing Ashley up wouldn’t be such a challenge after all.
And now, with the heat coming?
He had the perfect plan.