Page 16 of Want It All

I could tell the moment Rose realised.

She went still, and I could see the hairs on her arms stand on end. She was wearing a tank top and the sexiest denim shorts I’d ever seen, her arms and legs bare. Her thighs were dimpled and fuck , it took every ounce of self-control I had not to bend down and lick every divot on her skin.

I didn’t know what was going on with me.

I’d felt off-balance all morning, too sensitive, like my chest had peeled open and my heart was on display for all to see.

I was alternately close to tears and holding back a laugh, skipping from sadness to delight in a heartbeat.

I was right next to Rose, so close we were touching, but it wasn’t enough; something inside me wanted to be closer.

I knew it was insane. I knew it couldn’t work between us. But apparently nobody had told my body that, and my body wanted to be all over Rosemary Morris like a fucking weighted blanket.

But it wasn’t me she was thinking about. It was Tristan, my alpha. Tristan, who had just tugged his shirt over his head to reveal the perfection beneath it, every line and curve of muscle, every shadow and dip and swell of light brown skin.

It was a view I knew intimately; I’d seen it every day since I was twenty. I had every pathway memorised, every rise and every valley on the map of Tristan’s body a muscle memory beneath my fingertips. I knew how every hard ridge felt pressed against me, how warm his skin was beneath my tongue.

I knew how fucking irresistible he was.

I was seeing Rose realise it in real time; seeing the moment it dawned that this innocent trip to the beach would be torture of the mind-blanking, sexy, masculine kind.

I might have felt sorry for her, but the torment was worth it.

Her entire body tensed, as if she wanted to flee, and my instincts clamoured, hating that. I nudged her gently. ‘Hey. I brought extra blockers. Just in case.’

She glanced at me, and awareness dawned in her expression. ‘Fuck, Sebastian, I’m so sorry,’ she said in a rush. ‘I didn’t mean –’

To drool over my alpha? I thought, smiling.

I wasn’t jealous. I wasn’t sure why I wasn’t jealous, but there was nothing in me but arousal for Rose, concern for Rose, and faint, affectionate amusement at Rose’s predicament.

And cheese. There was also cheese. ‘I know you didn’t,’ I said.

‘Trust me. I’ve been there before. It’s totally fine. ’

‘It’s not fine. I’m so –’

She broke off, because Byron had apparently decided to send the pair of us to an early grave by doing the same thing.

Fuck. Me .

He wasn’t chiselled, not like Tristan. I’d stared often enough at his biceps to have memorised the swell of them, and his black shirts clung in such a way that I’d been able to imagine the planes of his chest. The other parts had been a mystery; now they were unearthed and making my mouth water.

He was all slabs of muscle, roughly-hewn and so fucking sexy I shivered.

His stomach was flat, the kind of flat that begged for the scrape of fingernails to find the muscle beneath, and there was a line of dark hair running from his navel to disappear beneath his board shorts, bracketed by two perfect v-lines.

I licked my lips.

He turned, giving us a view of his back – how could it stretch forever ? – and his ass, my teeth aching with the sudden need to bite .

What the fuck, Sebastian .

‘Um,’ Rose said breathlessly. ‘I think I’ll take the blockers.’

She glanced at me, and we both broke into peals of panicked laughter.

I found my backpack and fished around until my fingers closed on the blister of blockers.

Rose poured us both a glass of juice – sensibly avoiding the champagne Tristan had packed – and she swallowed down two of the little pink pills.

And raised her eyebrows in surprise when I did the same.

Betas still needed blockers at Banksia, but not the same dosage as alphas or omegas. Though betas did have scents, they weren’t as strong as the other designations, and betas didn’t perfume like omegas, or go into ruts like alphas, so a half-dose a day was more than sufficient.

‘I haven’t taken mine for a few days,’ I said, after I’d swallowed a second mouthful of juice.

She made a noise of assent and then offered me a strawberry. I grinned and ate it from her fingers, because who could have resisted?

I tamped down the urge to lick her skin clean, though.

‘So what’s your sad family story, Rosemary Morris?’ I said, mostly to distract myself. ‘Please make me feel better about vomiting out mine.’

‘I don’t have one,’ she said faintly. Her cheeks were flushed; she tore her gaze from my lips, looking out at the water.

‘I’m an only child, but apart from that, I’m disgustingly well-adjusted.

I have two alpha parents who were momentarily astonished to find they had an omega daughter, but rose to the occasion and gave me everything I needed and wanted.

My mum and dad have always been a massive support.

They call or text me every day and send me dog videos they find online.

I’ve never told them I’m a cat person,’ she went on, with a smile that warmed my body from the inside out.

‘We’ve barely ever fought, not even when I was an obnoxious teenager.

Which doesn’t make for a very interesting backstory, I’m afraid. ’

‘I’m glad,’ I said, and I was. ‘It’s nice to know that families like that exist. Tristan’s family is similar, though he’s got two mums and two dads, betas and alphas, and he has two younger brothers. They’re all hideously nice, even if they are disgustingly rich.’

‘I looked you both up,’ Rose said, looking faintly embarrassed. ‘I didn’t realise …’

‘That he’s so rich the numbers don’t even seem real?

’ I supplied. ‘Don’t worry. It doesn’t really sink in until the private jet takes you to the island Tristan’s mum bought for him when he got stressed about exams in high school and you realise that the house there has a walk-in-wardrobe bigger than your entire apartment.

Or when he takes you home to meet his family and it’s a five-thousand-acre estate in the north of England with an honest-to-fuck castle sitting in the middle of it.

’ I grinned at her. ‘Again, how sad for me, right? Having an alpha who can give me almost anything I desire? But it did take a bit of getting used to. They have an orangery , Rose. And stables . Like, what the fuck? I thought I was hallucinating.’

Rose laughed. It was a lovely sound, smooth and surprisingly deep, a melody I wanted to hear played on repeat.

‘Holy shit!’

The expletive came from the shallows, where Tristan was letting the whitewash ripple over his feet.

His beautiful face was carved into a comical expression of shock, and I couldn’t help laughing.

It really must have been cold, because my alpha had been wild swimming and in ice baths before without complaint.

‘Told you,’ Byron crowed, then turned and shot us a wide grin.

Fuck .

‘I haven’t seen him smile before,’ Rose said blankly, as if she was in my head and knew exactly what I was thinking. ‘Not properly. Not like that .’

Because Byron Griffiths happy was devastating . All straight white teeth and curving lips and grey eyes full of depths I wanted to swim in. His smile was a secret, a revelation.

What the fuck is wrong with you, Sebastian?

I put a hand to my forehead. I did feel hot. Hopefully I was getting a cold or the flu, and could pass all of today’s insane thoughts and feelings off as some kind of fevered delirium.

‘The next time I have an idea ,’ Rose said tightly, ‘it’s your job to shut it down.’

‘Absolutely not,’ I said immediately, smiling. ‘I’m a chronic enabler. The only word you’ll ever hear from me, Rosebud, is yes .’

She frowned at me, before her lips curled up. ‘Is that so?’ she said slowly, and it wasn’t my imagination – she was leaning closer, her eyes on my mouth.

Fuck the fact this couldn’t work. Fuck the weird feelings. Fuck the flu.

Fuck yes.

I want a kiss.

Her berry-sweet breath sugared the air, and my body tensed, ready.

I’d kiss her slow and soft, I decided, because that was what she deserved, something romantic and unforgettable, with my hands tangled in her hair and my lips a caress she’d think about for weeks.

I’d swallow her sweet sighs, and keep them to myself until I shared them with Tristan later, when his hands were on my skin and I could imagine the two of them –

‘Race you to the water,’ Rose said, and jumped to her feet.

She tugged her tank top over her head with surprising speed, and my body didn’t know what was happening, because I’d been expecting a kiss , and instead she was stripping off, revealing an elegant one-piece swimsuit and the generous curves beneath it, but she wasn’t technically stripping for me , and apparently I was extremely salty about it.

She unbuttoned her shorts and shimmied them down her thighs, and fuck , I couldn’t stand up now, because my cock was twitching at the sight of her rounded ass and my imagination already had his hands on it, cupping and massaging and spreading so I could kneel behind her and –

‘Come on, Seb,’ she said with a wild smile, and ran across the sand towards the alphas.

I’d been dealing with getting erections at unfortunate times for years, so I subtly reached to tuck myself into the trunks I wore beneath my board shorts, then scrambled to my feet, tearing off my shirt and sprinting after her.

She shrieked when she ran into the water, then laughed.

I followed a few moments later. Apparently, my body was doing its own thing today, because before I knew what I was doing – before I could think it through – I’d swept her up into my arms. I didn’t feel the cold as I waded in, not with her warm heat pressed to my stomach and chest.

‘I won,’ Rose crowed, but as she linked her arms around my neck and I breathed in the sea and the scent of her hair, it felt as if I was the one with the prize.