Page 56 of Fourth Base with the Alpha

“Isabella, come in,” I tell her.

I wait for her car to swing into the drive and when nothing pulls up, I set off down towards the gate. I meet Isabella half way up, coming towards me. No sign of a bike, let alone a car.

“Where’s your car?” I ask.

“I don’t have one,” she says simply.

“Then how did you get here?”

“The bus.”

“No buses stop around here.”

“Okay, the bus and then my legs. It is possible to walk in LA, you know.”

I scowl towards the gate as if it’s to blame for her lack of transport. Omegas shouldn’t be riding the bus alone. They shouldn’t be trekking through the city alone. It’s fucking dangerous.

I’m going to buy her a car.

“Can you drive?”

“No, I never had one, so I never learned.”

And I’m going to hire her a driver.

I shake my head. How could she be so careless with her safety? Does she want to get hurt?

I march in the direction of the house, Isabella trotting along beside me.

At the doorway, I hesitate, wondering where the hell I should take her. Because as if I haven’t imagined bending her over every piece of furniture I own!

I decide the garden is the safest bet. I stomp through the house with her following, grab two bottles of water from the fridge, and lead her onto the deck.

“Wow,” she says, taking in the Japanese garden I had designed here. The delicate leaves of the acer trees flutter in the faint breeze, their green reflected in the still pond. Water trickles over stones to our left and a statue of a buddha rests to our right. “It’s like a sanctuary.”

“That was the idea.”

I drop down into a chair.

Isabella snaps off the lid of her bottle, eyeing me as she chugs a mouthful. She doesn’t sit.

“Are you mad at me?”

“No.”

“Are you regretting Saturday night?”

“No.”

“Then …”

“Then what?”

She smiles and steps towards me, halting right in front of me. I watch her with suspicion, and a frown that would usually have people backing the hell away from me.

She traces the tip of her finger over the deep lines furrowed between my eyebrows.

“What are these all about?”