Lola & the Millionaires: Part One (Sweet Omegaverse #2)(49)

I wasn’t sure it would matter. Or I was…trying not to be optimistic. Wes was watching me carefully, and I shook my head. Better to admit it to him.

“Okay. So she stays with Leo and, let’s be honest, Rake too. She gets used to the rest of us. I…”

“You’re attracted to her,” Wes finished bluntly. I glared at him, and his eyebrows jumped. “Oh, I’m sorry. Am I supposed to be shocked? She’s fuckin’ gorgeous, Matt. I’m not immune either.”

“You don’t think that’s a conflict?”

“Are you incapable of keeping your shit together if she isn’t interested in you?” Wes asked.

“No! Well. No. But also, I don’t know. It wasn’t an issue with Leo.”

“It might’ve been,” Wes said with a shrug. “I mean, no, you’re not attracted to Leo. But you and him get along. You have similar tastes in architecture, in food. Before Leo, Rake dated plenty of other men and women that you didn’t like. Do you like Lola?”

“I don’t know, it’s hard to tell.” Yes, although I suspected that was the base hindbrain physical attraction talking. I liked her work for the magazine. I liked that, despite all the challenges it presented to her own personal comfort, she was making an effort for Leo to be more open to the pack. She was terrified of alphas, but she was trying. My own girlfriend, Carolyn, didn’t even like sitting at the same table as my pack during events. But I didn’t really know Lola, and the problem was that I wanted to.

“I worry that any interest I might have will make her uncomfortable,” I said. “I shouldn’t even be wondering about this. Carolyn…”

“Carolyn has never wanted a place with us, just you,” Wes finished for me. “I suppose you’re right. Lola’s a long way from being ready to look at this pack as a whole. I don’t know what that will mean in the long run. Speaking of Carolyn, how did she take you canceling your dinner plans?”

I shouldn’t have been surprised. Wes kept track of us, it was as much his job as it was his role in the pack. “Reasonably,” I said, and Wes huffed.

Carolyn took everything reasonably. It was why our relationship had worked as well as it did for as long as it had. She was comfortable in her independence, preferred our relationship outside of the bounds of my pack, and seemed to have no concerns about what that meant for us long term. Hell, it had been long term now, three years and counting. In the absence of a partner who wanted to be a part of my pack, having one who was happy to continue in a perpetual state of dating and living separately was a blessing.

“Do you think you’ll find him?” I asked, staring at the face on the screen again.

“Honestly? Probably only if he continues to harass her. The bolder he gets, the easier he should be to find. But…”

But none of us wanted that for her.

“I’ll find him,” Wes said, voice darkening and eyes narrowing at the screen.

I nodded. Wes was usually too modest for his own good. If he was determined to find this little shithead, then he would.

“I’ll leave you to it. But don’t forget to sleep,” I said.

Wes leaned forward in his seat and ignored me as I got up from my own. He knew his own limits, but he’d probably push them anyway. I couldn’t blame him. I’d come running to the house at Caleb’s message, knowing perfectly well there wasn’t really anything I could do.

You’re starting to sound like a mid-life crisis, I warned myself as I headed for the stairs.





I followed the siren call of sizzling bacon down the stairs to the kitchen the next morning. My steps slowed at the first notes of feminine murmurs and I debated retreating, offering Lola space. And then a second, clearer, female voice sounded, and my heart stuttered.

Shit. Carolyn.

I hurried down the stairs and into the kitchen, pausing at the sight of Carolyn’s back to me. Her red hair was plaited in a thick braid, and she was dressed casually for a woman who didn’t own jeans and didn’t believe leggings were pants. Rake and Lola stood across the island from her, Lola’s head turned to watch Leo cooking with a trace of a smile on her lips and her light hair rumpled around her head. Rake was the first person to see me and he smirked, brow raising slightly.

I wiped the panic off my face just before Lola twisted and caught sight of me too. She was dressed in a combination of men’s clothing, slightly dwarfed in fabric, and she didn’t look startled to see me, although she leaned into Rake’s side as she glanced over me.

“Carolyn brought pastries,” Rake said in greeting.

Carolyn twisted in place, leaning against the giant steel island, and her smile reached her eyes as she took me in. “There you are. I didn’t realize you were such a late sleeper.”

I wasn’t usually up half the night tossing in my sheets.

“I wouldn’t have slept in if I’d known you were coming,” I said, crossing the open space to her side and leaning in for a brief kiss against her lips, aware of Rake’s amusement across from us.

“Coffee?” Rake asked.

“No.”

“Please,” I said at the same moment Carolyn refused.

“I thought I’d come and check on you since things sounded kind of dire last night when you canceled,” Carolyn explained.