Lola & the Millionaires: Part One (Sweet Omegaverse #2)(45)

My pack wouldn’t.

For the first time since I’d met Leo—back when Odette had still held him pinned under her boot—I found myself wanting to encourage my alphas to take in a new pack member. I’d told Lola I hated it when betas came sniffing after my alphas, and here I was wanting to matchmake them with her. But I wanted her closer, not just stealing time with her while we waited for Leo to return.

I finished washing Lola’s hair, and she floated away from me. The hot water that took her place against me seeming cold by comparison.

She faced me, hair wet and plastered down her neck to her shoulders, lips smiling. Those were dark circles under her eyes. Ones she’d always taken care to cover around me before and I wanted to see erased.

“I have a crush on you,” I blurted out.

Lola’s smile bloomed, and a soapy hand reached up from the water to cover her face for a brief second before lowering again.

“I know. I have a crush on you too,” she said.

I grinned back at her and took the soapy hand, tugging her through the water. I leaned in, and Lola’s nose bumped against mine, our smiles too wide for the brief meeting to be considered a kiss. She settled, and her lips pulled softly at mine until my smile vanished with a low moan.

This girl. This fucking girl needed to be mine, one way or another.





Fifteen





Lola





“Lola,” Leo rasped in my ear.

I opened my eyes to find Leo crouching in front of me. I leaned into his touch as he pushed strands of hair out of my face.

After the bath with Rake—which left me in a dizzy, happy haze of soft kisses—and a lunch laid out by a mysterious fairy whom I suspected was Caleb, I fell back asleep, this time on the hammock with Rake while watching something in French. Apparently, it was Rake who was into the ‘artsy shit’ Leo had mentioned.

“Hey there, gorgeous,” he whispered.

“Hey. You’re home.”

He leaned in, and my eyes shut as he pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I’m home. Fuck, it’s good to see you. I’ve been so worried.”

“No, it’s… I’m fine, Leo, honestly. The text freaked me out just ‘cause…” I shook my head, and Rake stirred behind me.

“What times’it?” Rake mumbled.

“After eight,” Leo said, smiling at his omega. “You two wanna come upstairs with me? I brought pasta, and I won’t tell anyone if we eat it in bed.” My lips quirked at that, and Leo ducked down for a quick kiss. “Do you have your phone, gorgeous?”

“It’s on the table.”

“Would you let Wes look it over? He might be able to track down where the phone was when the text was sent.”

I frowned and pushed up on the hammock, Rake’s arm slipping from around my waist. “The police said—”

“The police have to use legal channels,” Leo said, picking up my phone from the table. “Wes doesn’t. But it’s up to you.”

He held my phone in his open palm and I picked it up, swiping it open and changing the lock settings. “So he won’t need the passcode.”

“Thank you,” Leo said with a sigh.

I combed my hair back with shaking fingers and shrugged. “Thank you. Thank Wes. I’m just… I’m okay. If it’s better that I go back to the apartment—”

“No!” Leo and Rake both said at the same moment.

“I want you here,” Rake said.

“So do I.”

“The others…” I started, and Leo shook his head.

“They…they’re all glad to have you here too, they’re just trying to stay out of your hair.”

“It’s their house, Leo,” I said, frowning. “They don’t have to hide from me.”

“Come on, let’s go upstairs. Eat carbs. We’re all being way too considerate, worrying about how everyone else is feeling. Time for some omega selfish self-care lessons,” Rake said.

He slid off the back side of the hammock and Leo caught me as it swung in the other direction, pulling me to my feet. “Take the elevator up, I’ll be there in a minute.”

“There’s an elevator?” I said, gaping at them both.

Rake shook his head at Leo. “Babe, we were trying not to spook her.”

“The house is six stories, seven with the garden floor, of course there’s an elevator,” Leo defended with a baffled smile. “I take it you haven’t mentioned the pool?”

“Leo!”

“Oh, Jesus,” I said, covering my eyes.

“You are such a troll,” Rake said to Leo, trying to stifle his laughter as he came and wrapped an arm around me. “Come on, Lola, he’s just real estate bragging now.”

I hadn’t seen the elevator because it was at the back of the house, but it was a beautiful old cage elevator with soft dark velvet paneled walls. It was a small and romantic space trimmed in gold, and Rake and I fit comfortably inside, but it could probably have fit five at a squeeze. It was full of the scents of the pack, but after spending the day in the house I was starting to get used to them, almost as if they were background noise.

“Wes is good, and I don’t think he’s ever met anybody who doesn’t owe him at least one favor. He’ll track the asshole down,” Rake said, hand stroking my back absently.