Page 33 of Follow Your Instincts (Fairview City Omegaverse)

Thinking about Ben made me think about this morning and that possible preview of my heat.

I trusted these men, but was I ready to be that vulnerable with them?

I’d been a mess that morning, begging for Ben to touch me.

Was I ready to be that vulnerable with Lachlan in particular? Or would he not… participate anyway?

Lucas interrupted my thoughts by handing me the steaming coffee mug. “I added some whipped cream for you,” he said. “But you need some actual food too. What’ll it be?”

I wanted to protest and say that I wasn’t hungry, but that would’ve sounded immature. “Toast?”

“Toast?! No creativity,” Lucas said in exasperation. “I’ll make you something much better than toast,” he said and started pulling things out of the fridge.

“Do you need help, or is it okay if I go say hi to Lachlan?” I asked.

“I’d prefer to keep the kitchen relatively clean, so please go and say hi to Lachlan. It’ll probably make his day,” Lucas said.

I wandered into the living room and took a sip of coffee. The added whipped cream was delicious.

I didn’t hear any voices from inside Lachlan’s office, but I still knocked gently before opening the door.

Lachlan looked up from behind his monitor. His eyes swept me from head to toe before locking on mine. He didn’t say anything, just stared, and his gaze was as intense as usual. After the silence stretched on a bit too long, I decided to take initiative.

“Most people would say good morning,” I teased him, mostly to see how he would react.

“Henry, I’ll have to call you back,” he said abruptly.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry for interrupting,” I said. “I had no idea. Why didn’t you tell me to get out?”

“It’s not a problem. Henry is very long-winded, so I should thank you for helping me wrap things up,” Lachlan said, and cleared his throat. “You can come in.”

It wasn’t exactly an invitation, but I stepped further into his office.

It was rich with his dark, heady scent. I felt a bit lightheaded from the potent whiskey notes.

I clenched my legs together and willed myself not to start perfuming just from being in his presence.

Any calm I’d felt from Lucas’s scent had evaporated.

“So, um, how’s work?” I asked, trying to fill the silence. Lachlan seemed content to stare at me. I took another sip of coffee .

“Nothing interesting,” he said dismissively. “You have…” he gestured vaguely to his mouth.

I licked my top lip until I found a little bit of whipped cream in the corner. “Thanks, you’d think I’d have this drinking thing down by now,” I said lamely.

Lachlan stood abruptly. “Let’s go out in the living room,” he said, and guided me back out the door.

“I’m sorry for intruding,” I said. Clearly, he didn’t want me in his space. I tried to scurry back to the kitchen, but he laid a hand on my arm.

“I told you, it’s not a problem,” he said. “How are you feeling this morning?”

“Ah,” I said, blushing. If Lucas heard Ben and me, I’m sure Lachlan had too. “Sorry about that… Ben said it was some kind of heat thing, and it was all my fault, so don’t blame -”

“I meant your injuries,” he said, cutting me off, but I could see a little hint of a smile.

“Oh, yeah, much better,” I said. I held out one hand, showing the mostly healed scraping.

“And your leg?” he asked.

“Lucas helped me change the bandages. And my rib is achy, but it’s not too bad at all.”

Lachlan nodded, looking me up and down again. “Ben did tell me about the heat spike you had this morning.”

I blushed. “Are we sure that’s what it was?”

“From what Ben described, I think so. Spikes can happen leading up to your heat, and it usually indicates it’ll start in the next couple of weeks,” he said, a little bit of a blush staining his cheeks as well. “I did some research this morning.”

“What in the world did that Google search look like? ‘Why is this Omega so horny ’?” I asked, emboldened a bit by his blush.

“It was a bit more technical than that,” he mumbled, and I laughed, until his words registered fully.

“But that means my heat is coming earlier than they thought,” I said, my stomach sinking. “Shit.”

“It looks like it,” Lachlan said. “Would you have dinner with me tonight?”

“Uhh…” I said, trying to adjust to the conversational whiplash. “Yeah, yeah, of course.”

Lachlan nodded, blushing again. “I’d like to get to know you better. A proper… date.”

A riot of emotions was kicking off inside me. Date? With Lachlan? And what the hell was a proper date? Did that mean he didn’t want things between us to be im proper? “I’d like to get to know you better, too.”

He nodded again, not quite meeting my eye. I took another sip of coffee.

“You have more…” Instead of finishing his sentence, he gently swiped more whipped cream from the corner of my mouth with his thumb and brought it to my lips. Instinctively, I swiped my tongue against the pad of his thumb to clean it.

He took a step back. “I… I have to go back to work, but I’ll see you tonight.”

I nodded. “Of course, yes. Is it going to be a fancy place?” I asked.

“Maybe not fancy, but I’ll be dressing up a little,” he said, then gave me a little crooked smile. “I did say it was a proper date.”

Well fuck , I thought. I didn’t have anything to wear on a date with Lachlan Murray, proper or not.