Lola & the Millionaires: Part One (Sweet Omegaverse #2)(27)
I didn’t really want to take her hand, but there wasn’t any reason not to. I held my breath as I got the first whiff of her alpha scent, heavy jasmine, cloying in my lungs.
“It’s a beautiful space,” I said, shaking her hand and pulling away quickly as one of her sharply manicured nails scratched gently at my wrist.
Odette smiled thinly at the compliment, her eyes tracing me from head to toe. “Are you one of Rake’s collection? Or…let me guess, Cyrus’ flavor of the month?”
“I’m sorry?” I heard her perfectly, but the words were so unexpected, I didn’t know how to process them.
Her smile flattened to a patronizing sympathy. “Oh, Lola. That pack runs through their side pieces like they’re upgrading their smartphone model.” She stood, and I was so stunned at the implication, I didn’t move out of her reach. Jasmine scratched down my arm, and her fingers took a tight but not painful grip around my wrist, nails resting their dagger tips over my pulse. “A beta as sweet as you deserves to be cherished, don’t you think?”
I flinched at the sound of my designation on her tongue and tried to back away.
“Whatever attention they’re spoiling you with will dry up before long, darling,” Odette murmured, head bending and crowding into my personal space.
“Please let go,” I said, my whisper breathless as I tugged on my arm.
Odette’s cheek grazed against mine, and I gasped at the blatant scent-marking, body frozen. “They don’t hand out bites to their toys,” she whispered in my ear.
“Odette.”
I jumped at the soft bark and stumbled backward as Odette’s grasp on my wrist vanished. My back hit a firm chest, and two hands settled on my shoulders. A scorching wave of subtle sweetness and dense warmth like wool velvet washed over me, and I whimpered at the familiar alpha scent.
“Matthieu,” Odette said, eyes wide. Her lips parted and a tinkling laugh escaped. “You have to be kidding me. She’s not your type at all, is she?”
I swallowed my panic and held it tight in my chest. Matthieu’s touch on my shoulders was soft and he’d stepped back an inch. If I wanted to run, he wouldn’t stop me, but I wasn’t stupid. The chase would be a temptation to Odette and right now, between the two of them, I knew which alpha was the lesser evil.
“You’ve always had boundary issues, Odette, but scent-marking like that?” Matthieu’s voice was beautiful and easy, and I’d never smelled an alpha scent like his before. There was something coaxing about it as it surrounded me, an enormous armchair inviting me to sink in and dream the day away. I wavered, and this time when my back hit his chest, neither of us moved.
“Well naturally, if I’d thought she had any kind of bond—”
“I need to pack up,” I murmured, a little dizzy between the two opposing alphas.
“Of course,” Matthieu answered, moving around my side and putting himself between me and Odette, forcing her to back away. “Enough toying. Leave her be,” he added to the other alpha, a growl tucked away in the words.
I put my things away in their cases on autopilot, leaving all the wipes and quick washes Rake would need to clean up.
“Moved on from Carolyn at last, Matthieu?” Odette called.
Matthieu didn’t answer her, and I heard the soft click of heels retreating as I hyper-focused on tucking my brushes into their holders. My hands were shaking, and he backed away until I could barely see him in my periphery.
“Would you like me to take you to get some fresh air?” he asked softly.
I jerked my head in an uneven nod and looked up to the mirror. He was standing behind me, eyes watching the room. He looked casual for the event in a v-neck sweater and black slacks, and I wondered if he’d come to be a spectator, or only to meet up with Rake. I stood up straighter, and his eyes flicked to meet mine in the mirror. Matthieu seemed especially unreadable to me, his gaze was warm and interested, but it seemed more watchful or concerned than the appetite Odette had shown.
I turned to face him and his head ducked, tipping in a gesture for me to follow him. We went in the opposite direction as Odette, passing a hospitality table where Matthieu grabbed two bottles of water. He led and I followed out of the studio’s backdoor and down a long, mirrored hallway. It occurred to me that I didn’t know the building and couldn’t really know where Matthieu was taking me, but just as my wariness started to creep back in, we reached our destination. Matthieu opened a tall glass door out onto a screened-in balcony, and I sighed as the first gust of sharp, chilly air hit my face.
Matthieu lingered back at the door as I crossed the open balcony to the screens, stopping and leaning against a pillar. The city air was sooty and smelled like exhaust and maybe a bit like the garbage bins in the alleys, but it was a welcome reprieve from everything that still clung to my skin.
“I’ll make it clearer to the security that you’re to be as much a priority as Rake is,” Matthieu said. He joined me by the screens, a comfortable arm’s stretch away, and held out one of the water bottles.
“That’s not really necessary,” I said, cracking the lid of the bottle and gulping it down like I’d been wandering in a desert, washing away the chocolate and jasmine.
“Anyone in that room could’ve seen how uncomfortable she was making you. Wes would’ve stepped in, but he thought it might be better for you to lessen the number of alphas you had to deal with…”