Page 18 of Thorns That Bloom (Venusverse #3)

Sam

For the next few days, I keep checking the door to my office, subconsciously anticipating Theo turning up, but he doesn’t.

Maybe my note was enough to tell him to back off, even without actually meaning to.

Or maybe I’m expecting him for no reason.

Perhaps I saw more in it than it was, and like Dr. Stewart said, he’s only a giving, thoughtful guy being nice.

The rest of the work week passes quietly. That is, besides me noticing how frequently I have to go to the toilet, and already getting annoyed by it. The joys of pregnancy.

Still, I wouldn’t change it for anything.

When I next go down for lunch with Kristoff, I feel myself becoming jittery, but not in the usual, anxiety-driven way.

We sit down, eat, and my eyes keep flickering to the other side of the room while I zone out what the people around me are talking about.

Finally, like I’ve found what I’ve been looking for without realizing it, I notice Theo at his regular table, and my heart hiccups inside my chest in response.

I look down sharply before there’s a chance he can meet my eyes, and poke my fork into my potatoes, feeling that fluttering in my stomach again.

Should I go say hi?

The suspicious part of me says I should leave it and stay away, to be cautious, but the old me wouldn’t care.

The old me would have gone to him and maybe even followed this unexplainable impulse to see him smile again.

After all, I need positive alphas around me, and, well, right now, I can’t think of any better candidate.

I don’t get the courage to act until there’s nothing left on my plate to distract myself with. Finally, I stand up and tell the others I’m taking my tray back, which is half the truth. Wishfully, I crane my head as I walk, hoping to still see him there.

Theo’s chatting with his coworkers, carefree, his charming smile on display.

He looks so young when he smiles, like some kid unspoiled by the world. I don’t even know how old he is. I know nothing about him.

It might be just a coincidence, or he senses that he’s being watched, but when I hesitantly walk back toward my table, Theo’s head jerks to the side, and his intense gaze finds me.

Feeling something jolt inside me, I raise my hand in a timid wave.

Theo blinks, eyes wide, and waves back. He seems to panic in his silly sort of way, looking down at his plate, scanning his tray.

He then quickly stands up with it. I suppress a smirk tugging at the corner of my lip.

There’s still food on his plate, but something tells me he’s trying to act like he’s done so that he has an excuse to come and talk to me.

This is so damn stupid. Endearing, but…stupid. Then again, my romantic pursuits always kind of were.

I catch myself, surprised by my own thoughts. Romantic? No, no, this isn’t what that is, you hormonal idiot.

And yet, the way Theo’s face lights up more and more the closer he gets to me, and how he dropped everything the second he saw me, makes me want to see it that way. Whispers to me that there’s no other way to look at it.

“Hey,” he says once he stops in front of me. Thankfully, he saves me from making conversation with his abrupt, energetic questions that pour out like streaming water. “How are you feeling? Everything okay with, um, you and the baby?”

Smiling faintly, I rest my hand over my belly, like I’ve been doing, as if it’s my emotional support animal or something, and nod.

I expected people to act differently toward me, and they definitely do, but no one asks about the baby so genuinely and with such interest as he does.

Even though it’s still inside me, it’s as if Theo sees us as two separate beings, rather than me just like a walking incubator.

“We’re both fine, yeah.”

“That’s good. Really good,” Theo says, nodding to himself and shifting on his feet.

Every time our eyes lock, he holds my gaze for only a few seconds before evading it again. But then it’s like he can’t bear to stay away, so he glances at his feet and back at me.

“When I was returning—” As the words start coming out of my mouth, I realize that Theo might not know about my voyage to Manufacturing, or that I was looking for him under the guise of giving back the plate, and I can feel my face flushing.

Shit. Redirect. “Anyway, you were sick? Feeling better, I take it.”

His brows shoot up. “Oh, yeah. It was nothing serious. Just a personal…thing. I’m totally fine now,” he blurts out, almost all at once. “Nothing you could get from me or anything. I know it can be bad for the baby to catch a cold and stuff when pregnant, so…yeah, all good.”

I can’t help but chuckle. “Good. Just wanted to make sure.” I look around as I talk and notice some of the people from his table watching us.

For some reason, it makes me more uneasy than the scent of coconut faintly drifting away from Theo, so I step back with a polite expression and nod. “Alright. See you around.”

For a moment, it looks like Theo might reach out to me as I’m moving away. He doesn’t. Instead, he smiles awkwardly and raises his arm to mess with his hair.

Kristoff stands by the entrance to the cafeteria, chatting up the girl he’s been interested in.

A couple of other engineers are standing with them.

I cock my brow in surprise when I realize he’s been waiting for me, and in turn, the entire group.

“You didn’t have to,” I say as we all make our way out.

“No problem.” Kristoff sounds as light as ever. He’s getting used to me just disappearing somewhere without saying anything, but he still cares enough to watch over me to a non-suffocating degree, which I appreciate.

In the corner of my eye, I notice one of the guys watching me in a…suspiciously curious way. It sends prickles of unease down my back, but I ignore it. We all get into the elevator, and eight people definitely is at the higher end of my comfort level.

“Sam?” the same man who looked at me weird moments ago asks, throwing my name out into the air with hesitancy that makes me even more nervous. Narrowing my eyes, I turn to him, trying my best to remember his name but failing.

“Um, yeah?”

Everyone else is part of the conversation now, even though they all try to act like they’re not paying attention. The elevator ride is short, but the time seems to stretch and slow with each passing second.

“Do you have an alpha?” he asks lightly, cautiously, but not as tactfully as one probably should.

Frowning, I feel my chest tighten. Who the fuck asks someone that out of the blue?

“Why?”

“Well, you know, considering—” He pauses, gesturing at my stomach. When I narrow my eyes at him even more, he finally starts showing some discomfort. “I saw you talking to that alpha from manufacturing, is all, and it made me wonder if…you know.”

“And you were wondering if I was cheating? Because I talked to an alpha? Because I’m pregnant?” I say sharply, kind of amazed at his audacity.

Kristoff next to me darts his eyes between us, looking pale and nervous. “What Daniel’s trying to say is that—”

“No, I don’t have an alpha. People can be pregnant and single, didn’t you know?”

Daniel hunches a little. “I know, I was… I didn’t mean to sound rude.”

Well, you fucking did. Prick. I bite back the response and look away instead. When the elevator dings and the doors open, everyone stays in place, motionless, like they’re too entranced by our little drama to move.

At least until someone takes a sharp breath, which finally serves as a signal for people to disperse. One could cut the awkwardness in the air with a knife. Flashing Daniel a scowl, I step out too, but then he clears his throat and I know it’s not over yet.

“Hey, I got… I got cheated on recently, so I was just making sure. Especially considering, you know, things I hear from Manufacturing. I wasn’t accusing you, just—”

I turn sharply. “What are you hearing from Manufacturing?”

He and Kristoff glance at each other. We move aside for passersby to get into the elevator. With my arms crossed over my chest, I lean with my side against the wall and glare at him, letting Daniel know that I’m not leaving before he tells me what the hell he means.

“Eh, nothing,” he says, shrugging. “I’m friends with one of the workers. He’s my sister’s brother-in-law and— What I’m trying to say is that I thought you and the blond guy were like…getting close.”

Why would he think that? Because we talked together twice in the cafeteria? What the fuck?

“Theo,” I mutter. “His name’s Theo.”

I think he can read my thoughts on my face, because he continues.

“Yeah, Theo. He…erm, it’s just that my friend was saying how all the guys make fun of him because he’s been all sappy, talking about fated mates and babies all of the sudden, and…

well, he won’t tell anyone who it’s about, but it’s…

pretty obvious.” My cheeks heat, only this time there’s an uncomfortable, nauseating sensation behind it.

“Considering it started after you turned up and…ya know.” He shrugs awkwardly.

I guess it is obvious, huh? He’s so damn awkward around me, and he—

I swallow, glaring at the floor as my emotions swirl wildly inside my chest. I’ve allowed myself to be flattered by the interest of this sweet, clueless guy after the hell that’s been the past months without thinking about the most important thing: he’s an alpha.

An alpha being interested in an omega means more than that.

It’s an alpha being innately possessive of them.

And that thought terrifies me.

Drawing in a ragged breath, I mutter a quick, “It’s fine,” and dash toward my office, away from Kristoff and Daniel.

I need safety. Silence. Solitude. I close the door behind me and turn the light off, leaving only the small lamp on my desk and the monitor on to illuminate the surroundings. Shaky, I sink into the chair, pressing my hands against my chest, as if that will somehow slow my pounding heart.