Lola & the Millionaires: Part One (Sweet Omegaverse #2)(21)

I sat up a little straighter at that and then ran the conversation back through my head, turning to Wendy. “Sorry. Did you say poach?”

“Rake hasn’t gotten a chance to talk with her yet,” Cyrus said gently.

“Well, he had the chance to send me an email,” Wendy snapped back.

“He only wants her for the week until he can find a replacement for Courtney,” Cyrus said. “I heard your review of our department, Wen, I’m certainly not about to lose Lola.”

“See that you don’t,” Wendy said, offering Cyrus a poisonous grimace in the disguise of a smile.

“Umm…” My eyes bounced between the pair.

Cyrus sucked in a breath and shrugged some of their peevish war of words off his shoulders. “Right. Sorry. Rake is coming in at lunch to talk to you. He…he hasn’t had the best experience with unfamiliar makeup artists and—“

“As an omega,” Wendy cut in bitterly.

“—he’s sought after enough that as long as his artist can pick up the plan from the lead artists for the catwalk shows, he can bring someone of his own choosing. He was hoping you’d be interested,” Cyrus added gently, holding my gaze.

My lips parted in an ‘o’ but I didn’t miss the brief glare Cyrus and Wendy shot one another. There had to be some kind of history there, I just couldn’t quite piece it all together. I pushed that aside and focused on the offer and what it meant for my job.

You’re going to fuck this—I slammed the door on the voice in my head and glared down at my own hands. Could I do this? Backstage at fashion week would be no joke, and it wasn’t as though I’d spent the past year preparing for high-pressure situations.

Could I really turn it down though? Backstage. At. Fashion. Week.

“What if…what if I got permission to take close photos of the makeup looks while I was there?” I asked, turning to Wendy, whose eyes narrowed. “We could do a trend page on it. Or even a layout where we try accessible versions,” I added to Cyrus.

Wendy’s laugh was soft and her smile was genuine, changing the sharp angles of her bone structure into something classical and beautiful instead of so intense. “You know, Lola, I was really looking forward to firing you after two weeks. I’m a little annoyed with you for being this useful. Sure. Cyrus will get you a decent camera from tech.”

Cyrus was beaming again for the first time since we’d entered Wendy’s office, and she was turned away from the shine on his expression.

“Cyrus, try not to coast on this next issue, if you don’t mind.”

“I’ll gamble,” Cyrus agreed with a dip of his head, which sounded like a dangerous promise to make, but it didn’t make Wendy frown.

I rose as he did, and Wendy’s form of dismissal was to turn to her phone, so I followed Cyrus quickly out of the room. We walked past Wendy’s assistants and out to the elevator in silence, and it wasn’t until the elevator arrived that Cyrus paused, frowning.

“Oh. Should I—”

“It’s fine,” I said, even though anxiety spiked as he stepped into the small space with me. “I’m sorry—”

“Don’t. God, definitely don’t, not after you just sat through World War Wendy with me,” Cyrus said, sighing and slouching against the wall opposite mine.

“Is she…”

“She’s usually worse,” Cyrus said, groaning and rolling out his shoulders. His alpha scent was unfurling in the space between us, teasing a flush to my cheeks as if I’d been sipping on champagne. “But she liked your work and it softened her up.”

Cyrus laughed at my face. Shit, if that was Wendy ‘softened up,’ I’d hate to be in on the meeting where she was having a bad day.

“Are you…all right?” Cyrus asked. “I know your first week ended on a…sour note.”

I fidgeted in place, and the elevator dinged as we arrived on our floor. “Embarrassed, mostly,” I said.

“Don’t be,” Cyrus said, gesturing for me to walk ahead. “Rake’s going to show up a little after noon to sweet talk you into helping him next week. You were seriously interested in that, right?”

I nodded.

“Good. Your suggestion to catch the looks backstage was a stroke of luck too,” Cyrus murmured as we neared our office. “We’ll keep your fashion week adventure on the down-low for a bit longer though, to keep Betty off your ass.”

I snorted and glanced back, blinded by Cyrus’ gleaming grin.





Cyrus artfully maneuvered the rest of the team out of the office for lunch while I double-checked some copy for Corey. I caught a whiff of Rakim from the hall before I even saw him walking up the mirrored glass hall to the office. His big alpha was with him, broad in his black suit, squared features arranged somberly. They exchanged a soft word, and then the alpha returned in the direction they’d come until he was out of sight. Rakim caught my eye as he stood in the doorway, holding a bouquet of plum and pink blooms in one hand, and a takeout bag in the other.

“I come bearing bribery,” he said, eyes vivid under the bright natural lighting of our office.

My mouth curved into a smile without my permission. Rakim Oren had charm down to a science.

“Full disclosure, when Leo helped me pick out the flowers, he said to tell you they were partly from him too,” Rakim added, walking through the room, an aimless eye scoping out our product counters before he came to sit in the chair next to mine.