Page 39

Della

Vincent sips his coffee as Levi and Xavier enter the kitchen.

Levi is in sweats and a tank top, his hair slightly damp and muscles glistening, as if he just finished a workout.

Xavier, in ripped blue jeans and a white T-shirt, grins at me on his way to the coffee machine. “Want coffee, Della?”

I swallow my eggs and shake my head. “This is good.”

Levi pours two glasses of OJ and slides one to me. “Here.”

“I could have gotten that.” I eye him warily, not sure what to say to him. But I’ve had time to think, and now I’m no longer fueled by rage.

Xavier was right.

Levi opened up to me. He didn’t need to show me the scars on his back, just like he could have avoided telling me about his uncle’s abuse and the reason for his tattoos.

When we slept together, it hadn’t felt like pity sex. It had felt like he wanted me as much as I wanted him. Like he wanted me more . It’s why it hurt so much to hear him say that sleeping with me was a mistake.

Levi retreats to the other side of the kitchen island with his OJ. “It’s the least I could do after you killed the thing that crawled onto Xavier’s face.”

I nearly choke on my juice, laughing. “ What !”

“Ha ha.” Xavier deadpans as he strokes a hand over his smooth cheek.

“You could do with some fake tan, man. Your face is two different colors,” Levi adds.

I look at Xavier and laugh harder. “I can’t believe I missed that.”

It must have been from his gardening all day—half of his face tanning while the skin under his cheeks remained resolutely pale.

Levi is smiling, Xavier is too, and Vincent is leaning against a kitchen counter with his mug of coffee and a hint of a smile curling his lips.

This morning feels perfectly ordinary, and it shouldn’t.

This isn’t my home, and these alphas are not mine.

“It’s not that bad.” Xavier twists to study his warped reflection on the front of the massive stainless-steel refrigerator. “My face feels so naked. At least it no longer itches.”

“I don’t get it. Why was the big beard so necessary as a disguise?” I ask.

Levi joins me on the other side of the kitchen island, dragging his stool closer. The peppermint body wash he used in the shower mingles with his warm amber scent, and he smells delicious.

I offer him a piece of bacon as a peace offering, and not because he smells nice. I think I was wrong about him, and as usual, jumped to conclusions instead of talking things through like an adult.

Smiling, he takes it. “Thanks.”

“We look too much alike,” Vincent explains, drawing my gaze. He’s looking from me to Levi and smiling slightly. Guess he heard about our fallout and is happy we’ve worked things out. “People might have wondered if the new gardener had a connection with the new math professor.”

Ah.

“Your eyes are different.” I glance between them.

Xavier walks over to me, leaning on the kitchen island and almost on my breakfast. I give him a significant look, but he waggles his eyebrows at me and stays put. “Come to bed eyes. I can’t walk down a street without a woman tripping me over when she falls for me. What do you think?”

Levi rolls his eyes and mutters about inflated egos as Vincent shakes his head.

I nudge my plate aside before he can stick his elbow in my eggs and peer deep into his pretty gray eyes. “They’re okay.”

“ Okay ?” He growls, downright insulted.

Swallowing my smile, I stab a piece of bacon and lift it to my mouth. Xavier leans in and bites it off my fork.

“ Hey !” I glare. “That was mine.”

“You can claim it back.” He leans close, still chewing.

I lean back, glaring harder. “I’m not a baby bird to eat chewed food out of your mouth. Don’t be gross.”

He chews and swallows. “So, kiss me instead.”

I sniff. “No, thanks.”

He smirks at me. “Scared you’ll like it?”

I probably will.

Vincent observes me over the rim of his coffee mug while Levi has turned in his seat to face me.

I feel his arm resting on the back of my stool, and I like it there.

I hope he doesn’t move it. I’ve never been one to shy away from a dare, so I put my fork down, push my plate aside and grip the front of Xavier’s shirt, pulling him toward me.

It starts sweet, and it’s nice. His lips are firm, and he knows what he’s doing because there’s a flutter in my belly, and I’m not sure I want this kiss to end.

Then he cradles the back of my hair with one large hand as he slants his head, gently sucking my tongue into his mouth.

It’s so hot and sweet that I start giving serious thoughts to crawling up on this counter, dragging Xavier on it to, and letting him do things to me on it.

I break the kiss far sooner than I’d like and clear my throat. “It was okay, I guess.”

He stares at me.

“I think you broke his heart,” Levi says, lips twitching. “Or his brain.”

“That was nothing.” I pick at my eggs, not interested in eating. I want to go somewhere quiet and think about that perfect kiss. “You should hear what the students say about Ms. Huffman behind her back.”

Vincent arches his eyebrow.

“Her face is plastic,” I explain.

They all stare at me.

“ Plastic ?” Levi echoes.

I nod. “Her husband left her for a waitress, and she set herself on fire with a cigarette.”

More staring ensues. Though I don’t think Xavier ever really stopped.

Xavier narrows his eyes at me. “ Okay ? That’s it? You felt nothing ?”

Smiling faintly, I shake my head. “Nope.”

Vincent distracts Xavier with a question about the investigation, and I finish my breakfast before telling them I need to brush my teeth.

I don’t have to brush my teeth. I did that before I came down to eat breakfast.

Instead, I walk upstairs to my room, close the door behind me, and throw myself onto my bed before screaming into my pillow.

Then I roll back over and grin like an idiot at the ceiling while hugging a pillow.

Five minutes later, my brain is still melting from that kiss.

Once I’ve regained my composure, I go downstairs to spend the rest of the day trying to figure out who the omega killer is hiding at Haven Academy.

It’s ten at night, and I should be sleeping, but there’s no sleep for me after Xavier’s kiss turned on my hormones, and I haven’t been able to shut them off again.

The house is dark as I make my way down the stairs. I head straight for the kitchen, leaving the lights off because the last thing I need is for anyone to see my flushed cheeks.

As I pull open the refrigerator door, I flinch at the sudden brightness. “Shit! What the hell is the voltage on this thing?”

A male chuckle comes from behind me. Xavier.

“Are you cursing out our refrigerator?”

He switches the light on, and I flinch again. “My eyes are sensitive, okay,” I complain, rubbing them.

When I take in Xavier, in a pair of navy shorts and nothing else, this time it isn’t the bright lights blinding me. It’s a six-foot-two, heavily muscled alpha.

“Couldn’t sleep?” He walks toward me carrying a carton of orange juice.

“Nope. You?”

I shake my head as I eye the carton. “Can I have some of that?”

He hands it to me.

I lift the carton to my mouth to take a sip as he reaches around me to grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator. I know it’s gross to drink from a container, but I’m tired and lazy.

He watches me as he gulps his water.

When my mouth isn’t as dry, I return the container to the refrigerator while he screws the lid back on the water bottle and puts it back on the shelf.

“That kiss…” He studies me closely.

“What about it?”

“You really felt nothing?”

Oh boy. How to answer that?

“Why?” If all else fails, deflect. “Was that the reason you couldn’t sleep?”

He stares at me, then rests his hands on the counter on either side of me and grins. “You felt something, didn’t you?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” I play coy.

One corner of his mouth lifts as his right hand edges down my belly. “If I were to?—”

I slap his hand away. “No touching.”

His smile is smug. “Why? What would I find? Wet panties?”

“Who says I’m wearing panties?”

His smile falls away, and he swallows hard. I track the bobbing of his Adam’s apple, and I know exactly what this means. Aroused alpha.

I back up, my ass bouncing off the counter because this alpha has me pinned. “I’m joking. Quit looking at me like that.”

His mouth lowers. “Like what?”

Like you want to lick me between my legs.

I stare at him. He stares back.

“Okay, so maybe I felt a little something,” I reluctantly concede, my eyes darting to a mouth he knows how to use too damn well.

He leans closer. “How much of something?”

I hold my index finger and thumb close together. “About this much.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Really?”

I widen the fingers a little more—half an inch.

He exhales a sigh and lifts me onto the counter. “You’re killing me here. I went in guns blazing, served the biggest game I have. I was trying to impress . And I get that!”

My lips twitch. “Why would you be trying to impress?”

He bends closer, the heat of his chest warming mine. “Since I caught a girl I mistook for a squirrel, I might have liked the way she felt in my arms.”

“You mistook me for a squirrel?”

He winks. “A very sexy squirrel.”

I laugh. “You’re insane.”

“Maybe a little,” he concedes, and his smile fades. “Levi worried about hurting you. About you not being ready. That’s why he was saying it was a mistake. Not because he doesn’t like you. I forgot to say that before in the bathroom. He didn’t want to hurt you.”

“I like him. That’s why it hurt so much to hear him say it was a mistake,” I quietly admit.

“You should tell him that.”

“I was going to before a certain alpha fried my brain with a kiss I can’t get out of my mind.”

He flashes me a grin. “You have no idea how relieved I am to hear you say that.”

“Because you’re the best kisser ever and your ego would never recover?”

He loses his amiable expression. “Because I like you a lot and want you to see past the mask I sometimes like to wear.”

“I knew you were hiding something behind that bushy beard.”

“Snacks?” He lifts an eyebrow.