Page 31 of The Sole Suspect

Adelaide appeared at my elbow. “Good Lord,” she whispered. “Those two haven’t been in the same room for weeks, not since that disaster in Milan. Something about Victor finding Sebastian in a compromising position with a model.”

Her eyes flicked meaningfully toward Penny, and suddenly the tension made more sense. Her voice took on an indignant edge. “They decide to do thisnow?”

A subtle shift in Penny’s expression caught my eye as my friend finally realized something was amiss—the way his perfectly lined lips parted, how his warm brown eyes narrowed. The penny had dropped, so to speak, and I couldn’t help but appreciate the irony.

Penny stood frozen between their warring scents—Sebastian’s aged whiskey mixing violently with Victor’s tobacco and spice. Their eyes raked over him with unconcealed hunger. My friend’s sweet scent spiked with a mix of fear and... something else.

“Twenty-five thousand.” Sebastian’s final bid dropped like a bomb in the silent ballroom.

Margaret’s gavel cracked against the podium. The sound jolted through Penny like electricity. His face betrayed a war of emotions—shock at the sum, unease at the tension between the two alphas, and something that painted his cheeks the same shade as his carefully styled hair.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Adelaide murmured. “That’s more than enough to cover the rest of Rosie’s loan.”

I watched Penny’s fingers find his copper pendant, twisting it nervously. The familiar gesture betrayed his anxiety even as he maintained his poised smile. I tracked his movements as he made his way down the stage steps.

Sebastian rose from his chair, the motion fluid and deliberate. His polished shoes clicked against the hardwood as he approached Penny. From his seat, Victor’s dark eyes tracked his husband’s movements like a hawk.

“Jake is fine, by the way,” Adelaide murmured, drawing my attention away from my best friend and the man who’d “won” him. “He’s with Minnie in the kitchen. Apparently, the spotlights beating down and the crowd staring at him triggered him.”

A wave of relief washed through me at Adelaide’s words. Jake was safe. The image of his pale, anxious face from earlier twisted in my mind, but at least I knew he was okay.

My attention drifted back to Penny. Sebastian guided him toward an intimate corner table, far from where Victor’s dark stare burned holes into his husband’s back.

My stomach knotted—thatworried me.

A warm pressure settled on my shoulder. Dominic’s familiar scent enveloped me. “Everything alright?”

“Just keeping an eye on things,” I replied.

I leaned back, nestling deeper into Dominic’s embrace. Something shifted beneath my skin—the warmth I’d been feeling all evening suddenly intensifying. A familiar heat crept up my spine, my omega instincts suddenly hyper-focused on the alpha standing behind me.

A sound from deep in his chest rumbled against my back—he’d noticed too. His nostrils flared, scenting the change in my chocolate-and-leather fragrance.

“Leo? Is it...?” The question in his voice was clear, his arms tightening around me protectively—possessively.

I nodded slightly, confirmation enough for an alpha already attuned to my body’s signals. I’d been dancing around this inevitability since that first night in my kitchen—the heat thathad been building between us for weeks was finally manifesting physically, days earlier than my calendar had predicted.

“We should leave,” he murmured, his voice dropping to that register that made my knees weak.

Through the growing fog of pre-heat sensations, I tried to account for the evening’s loose ends. Penny sat at a table with Sebastian Fairfax, his copper coin pendant twisted between white-knuckled fingers as he avoided Victor Fairfax’s heated stare. Adelaide had reported on Jake’s situation, but was overheating and stage fright really what sent him fleeing the room, pale as a ghost?

Many questions swirled in my increasingly muddled thoughts.

“I’ll see Penny gets home safe,” Blake appeared at my side, his expression softening with genuine concern. “And I’ll check on Jake before I leave. You two have... other priorities.”

I was rapidly losing the ability to concentrate.

A small sound escaped my throat as another wave of heat rolled through me. Dominic’s scent thickened with protective alpha instinct, wrapping around me like a shield.

“Car. Now.” His hand splayed possessively across my lower back, guiding me toward the exit.

The cool night air hit my feverish skin as we stumbled down the mansion’s front steps. Every brush of Dominic’s fingers raised goosebumps on my hypersensitive skin. His own breath came ragged—rut response to my impending heat, his body automatically beginning to synchronize with mine.

“I didn’t expect this tonight,” I managed between shallow breaths. “It’s early.”

Dominic’s eyes darkened, his irises eclipsed by dilated pupils, revealing both his hunger and a primal need to safeguard me. “It’s okay. I’ll take you home.”

His voice was rough, strained with the effort of maintaining control. “Do you have everything you need to get though it?”