Page 49 of Toxic Revenge, Part Two (Mafia Omegas #2)

Chapter

Forty-Four

CONRAD

West got to spend the morning with Talia, but I had all afternoon to prove that I could definitely plan a better date than the firing range and a picnic.

Although that date was, admittedly, super on brand for my packmate. She’d enjoyed herself, too.

But it was my turn to show her what I had going for me in the way of my courting game. While West had gone the route of preparing her for tomorrow—again, typical of him)—I was going to distract us both with a mountain of fun.

Just as soon as West’s knot deflated and freed her.

“Can you hurry up?” I leaned against the wall beside her nest, tapping my foot impatiently. “Go soft already. You’re eating into my time.”

West growled as Talia tried to hide her laugh. She was splayed on top of him, her body glistening with sweat and slick. My cock was half hard from the sight of her stretched over my packmate’s knot, but it would have to fucking wait.

I had grander plans for my mini date.

“I don’t control how long we’re locked together for,” West muttered.

“You did control the fact that you took her back here and knotted her when you knew it was almost my turn,” I rebutted.

“I didn’t control that either. That was all Talia.”

She smiled sheepishly at me. “My bad. I didn’t realize we were on such a strict time crunch.”

I rolled my eyes but grinned at her. “Thought you understood your day was full up.”

I was just teasing. There wasn’t that much of a rush. If I didn’t get through everything on my date plan today, we’d have the rest of our lives to do it. I was only a little worried about what would happen tomorrow—overall, I was sure it would be fine.

My luck would carry us through. It had to.

If I started to doubt that, I would only be a downer for everyone.

Heckling them was just so I could amuse myself with my packmate’s annoyance.

When Talia wiggled her ass, shifting back and forth, West’s cock had finally deflated enough to slide out. A mess of slick and cum spilled out with him, sliding down his abs and onto the sheets. Talia gave him a quick kiss and hopped off the bed with a stretch.

“Going to shower quick.” She gave me a peck on the cheek. “Then we can head to wherever it is you’re taking me.”

West groaned and rolled over, swinging his legs off the bed. “I’ll shower with you. I have to come and be your secondary protection, anyway.”

“No funny business,” I said, looking between the two of them. “If you’re not out in ten minutes, I’ll figure out how to shut the hot water off.”

That probably wouldn’t be easy in this giant mansion, but it wasn’t an empty threat. I’d manage it somehow, even if I had to go into the bathroom and yank the handle to ice cold myself.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to deny you your time with me.” Talia gave me a cheeky little wave as she vanished into the bathroom. West followed her in, and I heard the shower start.

I adjusted myself in my pants, giving my cock a firm order to settle down. Naked omega wasn’t the most important thing right now. The date with our omega was.

She could be naked after.

Hopefully.

Unless I ran out of time too. Although… fuck it. I’d steal some of Mercer’s time if I had to.

Lucky for them, they made it out of the bathroom with time to spare, so I didn’t have to go hunting for the hot water shutoff. I grabbed Talia’s hand and kissed it, glancing down at her outfit. A pair of leggings and a t-shirt that looked old and worn.

“How mad would you be if those clothes got stained?” I asked.

She glanced down at herself and shrugged. “Not mad. Are we doing something messy?”

“It could go that way, yeah.”

With no further explanation, I dragged her from the room. West cursed, still putting his pants on, and rushed to follow. I led us downstairs and down a few hallways until I could open the door of a small, unused bedroom with a flourish.

There were white sheets covering everything, including the hardwood floor. Light shone in from the two large windows, covering everything in a pretty sunlit glow. Two easels sat in the centre of the room, facing each other. Paints and paintbrushes were laid out beside each.

Talia wandered inside first, going straight up to the easel and running her fingers across the empty canvas.

West caught up to us, peering past me through the door.

“You’re staying out here,” I told him.

“I’m supposed to protect her.”

“Then guard the door like a good bodyguard.” I clapped him on the shoulder. “I had to stand around in the woods for hours for you, so you can give us some date privacy.”

“But—”

I shut the door in his face. The walls weren’t that thick. He would hear if someone had managed to break in and take me by surprise.

“What’s your plan for the paints?” Talia asked.

“We’re going to paint portraits of each other.”

She snorted. “I’m not that good of an artist.”

I walked up to her, grabbing her hips and claiming her lips in a kiss. “That’s the fun of it. Neither am I.”

“Don’t be offended when I somehow manage to make you ugly,” she warned.

Laughing, I swung her around and seated her on the bed, covered in a white sheet like everything else. “I’ll go first. Pose for me, princess.”

She rolled her eyes as I squeezed out paints onto the palette and started to haphazardly mix them. I wouldn’t do her justice, but I doubted anyone could. It had to be impossible to distill all her beauty into a flat canvas painting.

I’d do my best, though.

I turned the easel, so I had a good view of both her and my work in progress and got to painting.

“You’re not good at being a still model,” I said after she’d switched positions four times.

She stood up and stretched her arms over her head, rolling her neck. “Let me start on yours. You try sitting still.”

I looked down at my completely unfinished painting and shrugged. “Sure. But you can’t look at mine until it’s done.”

Picking up the easel, I walked it to the edge of the room, the painting facing the wall. Then I positioned hers and went to sit on the bed. As she mixed her paints and started painting, a cute wrinkle of concentration formed on her forehead. I tried to stay still.

Turned out I wasn’t much good at it either.

Shocking no one, probably.

I stuck my tongue out at her and watched her hide her laugh.

Then I made a few weird faces, blowing up my cheeks like a chipmunk and smiling astronomically wide.

When she put down her paintbrush, I made a show of fainting back on the bed like a delicate Victorian lady, arm splayed across my forehead.

“I can’t go on,” I said dramatically.

Talia came over, palette still in her hand. “See, it’s not as easy as you thought!”

“I need a kiss to keep me going.”

Leaning in, she placed a kiss on my cheek. Before I could turn my head and kiss her for real, her fingers had smeared cool, wet paint across my cheek. She jumped back, laughing, with red covering her fingers.

I sat up, wiping some of the paint off. “Oh, you’re asking for it.”

She backed up fast, getting to the other side of the room before I could go and grab my palette. My weapon in this fight.

I caught a glimpse of her painting on the way. She’d gotten a good start on it—I could see resemblance to me, however faintly. It was a shame we wouldn’t be getting to finish them today.

It was paint war time.

God, I’d really hoped this would happen.

Picking up some green paint on my fingers, I approached Talia. She dodged around me, darting to the other side of the room. Her fingers dipped into the white and she tried to flick it at me. A small blob of white paint flopped onto the white sheet in front of her instead.

“Shit, I thought that would work better,” she said.

I advanced on her again, laser-focused. This time, she’d put herself in a corner. She wouldn’t get away.

When I got close enough, I tried to flick paint at her too—with a tiny bit more success than she’d had. She ended up with a few specks of green on her shirt. She smirked like she’d won, but then I lunged forward and smeared green across her cheek.

She gasped and grabbed my shirt with her paint-covered hand, trying to push past me and out of the corner. I didn’t let her, backing her up until she was pressed against the wall.

Her breathing quickened, arousal heightening her cranberry rose scent. I leaned in to kiss her, groaning against her lips before forcing myself to pull back. Swiping a new dollop of paint from the palette, I rubbed it on the tip of her nose.

She glared half-heartedly at me, rubbing paint along my jawline and then down to my neck. Her fingers wrapped around my throat, and she gently squeezed.

My cock went rock hard in an instant, and my paint palette clattered loudly to the ground.

Shit, I’d been really trying to keep this some light-hearted fun, not about sex.

How the hell was I supposed to resist her when she was teasing me like this, though?

I pressed closer, pinning her more roughly against the wall and leaning into her hold on me. She tightened her grip, almost cutting off my air flow.

I loved this woman so fucking much. More than anything.

Not just because she was sexy as hell and knew every way to turn me on, but because of who she was. A kind, resilient person who wasn’t afraid to fight for herself and get some revenge when it was called for.

“We’re both really messy now,” she whispered, peering up at me through her lashes.

“I’ll be messy with you anytime, princess.”

She pulled me down using her grip on my throat, smashing our lips together. I groaned and deepened the kiss, the paint from her nose smearing across my cheek. Her scent swirled around me, making me stupid with lust even as it mixed with the chemical smell of the acrylic paints.

Talia dropped her palette too and ran a hand down my chest, tracing a teasing path to my aching cock. I got enough of a handle on myself to pull away with a gasp.

Nope. Gotta wait.

There was something I had to do before this devolved—as happy as I was for it to continue devolving.

Shoving a hand into the pocket of my jeans, I lifted a large square jewellery box up to show her. The paint had mostly dried on my hands, but I definitely got a few smudges on the velvet. Whatever, it was only a box.

It was the inside that counted, right?

Her breath caught and she dropped her hands from me, looking between me and the box. “Jewellery?” she asked. “But West already got me something.”

She played with the bracelet on her wrist. Hopefully we hadn’t gotten any paint on it.

“Yeah, but this one is from me,” I said.

We’d all gotten her something. Lavinia had helped us pick out the set from a high-end store’s catalogue and had it delivered here overnight.

She’d then had Emilia embed teeny tiny tracking chips in all three pieces.

As long as she was wearing her new gifts, we would always know where Talia was.

It felt disingenuous for me not to tell her about the tracking, but Mercer had given me firm orders to keep my mouth shut. He’d claimed it was better if she didn’t know—just for now. Whether I agreed or not, I’d been overruled by my packmates and Talia’s sisters.

I held out the box to her, waiting for her to open it. She flipped the top up and gasped, eyes going wide.

A glittering necklace laid on the bed of velvet, made of gold with a pendant inlaid with tiny rubies. The colour brought out her eyes.

“It matches the bracelet West got me,” she gasped.

“Who doesn’t love a good coordinated gift? Can I put it on you?”

She nodded and I lifted it up delicately. The chain tried to twist in my thick fingers, but after a few tries, I got it to behave and hooked it behind her neck. It rested on her paint-stained t-shirt, the elegance completely at odds with her current outfit but somehow suiting her perfectly.

“It looks pretty,” I said. “But not as pretty as you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Your pickup lines are bad.”

“Do they need to be good?” I lifted an eyebrow. “I already have you, don’t I, little omega? Or do you not love me like I love you?”

Laughing, she pushed me until the backs of my knees hit the bed. I fell onto it and she crawled on top of me, her core hovering over my desperate cock.

“Don’t worry.” She left a trail of kisses up my chest. “You have me. I love you.”

Hearing those words soothed me, and I relaxed back onto the bed.

She loved me.

Just like it was meant to be.