“Just water, please.”
He wrinkled his nose at me. Instead of just pouring out some water from the filter, he insisted on adding three star-shaped ice cubes and one very well-sliced strawberry.
“Have you broken something? Is that why you’re being so sweet?”
Vaughn tutted at me, stealing another kiss before he handed the water over. “I’m being sweet because you are perfect, but… if you really feel like there has to be a reason, I’m open to accepting a back massage.”
“Bad posture at the computer today again, old man?”
“It’s quite hard positioning yourself at a desk with a wriggling baby on your lap,” he said. “For some reason, she didn’t seem all that interested in my calculations. Wouldn’t stop fidgeting.”
///
By the time Lizzie finally fell asleep, I had a far greater insight into what he meant. It turned out that all her excess energy during the day had, far from tiring her out, instead carried over until bedtime. Several stories later, Vaughn and I finally shuffled into our room at 8:45.
It felt like three in the morning.
“I was going to suggest Game of Thrones,” said Vaughn, “but I think I’d rather sink into oblivion at this point.”
“I know the feeling.”
He kissed the back of my neck, lifting my pajama shirt up over my head for me with gentle hands. It had become something of a ritual for him to undress me now, even when there was nothing sexual on the cards. It was just another form of intimacy — a last skin to shed before we could be entirely by ourselves in bed together.
“Y’know,” he said, slightly muffled as I pulled his shirt over his head. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about, actually.”
“Oh?” I smiled, amused by our timing. Mates were supposed to be in sync, but how many could honestly say that their partner had stolen their line like this? “Do tell.”
“Don’t fall asleep,” he said, sliding into bed behind me now that we were both undressed. “It’s important.”
Now I was really curious. I hummed, shuffling back against the warmth of his body, and smiled as he hummed against the nape of my neck.
“I won’t,” I promised. “Go on.”
“So. Today was… draining,” he said. “To say the least.”
“I’ll say,” I said, suppressing a yawn. “Trying to work and keep her happy and safe at the same time, and then… when she just doesn’t run out of steam? Man. I thought I was in good shape, but it turns out my one-year-old daughter has me beat.”
I laughed quietly, covering his hand with mine as it circled my waist.
“But the thing is, this is the happiest I’ve ever been.”
My stomach flipped, and I looked over my shoulder to take a look at his face. I already believed him, because I felt the same — but that didn’t stop me from wanting to see it written all over his handsome face.
“I mean… really, Fin. I know you fell for a sarcastic alpha and you’ve ended up with some kind of overemotional clod, but… I didn’t know it could be like this. And I think you feel the same…?”
“I do,” I confirmed.
His fingertips traced my skin where he’d marked me, fond and gentle.
“So. I know it’s not as easy as just deciding. Especially not for us. But I’ve been wondering. If we’re this happy right now, can you imagine if, uh… If we had another one?”
I felt him swallow against my shoulder, and turned to face him.
“I mean. Like I said. I know it’s not that simple. But maybe if you wanted it too…”
I took both his hands in mine, squeezing them tight. My eyes tracked over his face — this handsome, kind, playful, complicated man who I’d fallen so deeply in love with. Who had somehow fallen in love with me.
“I do want it,” I said, throat already feeling tight. “But… um. Actually. Now that you mention it, uh. I have something to tell you, too.”
It took a good ten seconds for him to understand. Then his smile spread to match mine, and those tired, honey-brown eyes of his filled with a sheen of tears.
“Finley. Are you serious? You’re… You’re really pregnant?”
I nodded, shifting to meet him in the middle as he leaned to kiss me. I sighed into the depth of his embrace, lost in the waking dream of our celebration. The fact that he had started longing for another baby just as I’d discovered my pregnancy only solidified how we were meant for one another. Being with Vaughn truly felt like falling in love forever, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Get ready for Blackwater Pack book 3, Claiming My Co-Worker.
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Chapter 1 Preview – Claiming My Co-Worker
Sutton
“Who’s round is it?” Vaughn called out from somewhere down at the other end of the table. His glasses were a little steamed up from the heat of the place and his light brown hair, which was normally perfectly styled on top of his head was looking more than a little bit unkempt. There was a lazy grin on his face. He was definitely having a good time.
Ward’s was probably the busiest I had ever seen it. The bar was packed, bodies at least three people deep just trying to get served and the music was ripping through the air, people having to shout over it just to be heard. There was a heady mixture of stale beer, sweat and aftershave hanging in the air that smelled like…well…it didn’t smell great.
It had been a good week at ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN FIRM NAME. Actually it was hard to think of a time when there wasn’t a good week since Vaughn returned to Blackwater and took over. The projects had been coming in thick and fast, many of us having to work longer hours just to get things done so we didn’t really have time to take a break like this but Vaughn had insisted.
“You’ve been working so hard,” he barked across the office at around five o’clock. “You’ve all earned this time off, please, just come for one.”
One drink turned into two, which turned into five or six and it wasn’t showing any signs of stopping, especially as Vaughn had been coerced into ordering another round of drinks for the whole team. The boss was paying, so nobody had any intention of leaving.
“Sutton, I think I’m drunk,” Angie swayed a little in her seat next to me, her curly red hair falling in her face and making her laugh. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take before I end up in the floor.”
“Do you mean on the floor?”
“On the floor, in the floor,” she shrugged. “You say potato, I say vodka!”
Almost like she’d summoned it, a shot appeared in front of her. Her face split into a manic grin, like she truly believed that she had conjured this drink. She was on one, living her absolute best life, beyond sure that she was magic at this point. She turned to me.
“The floor it is!” she cheered, gesturing to the shot glass that was in front of me too. “Come on, Sutton,” she cackled. “To the floor.”
“Oh God,” I groaned, but grabbing the shot glass nevertheless. “To the floor.”
I drank the shot, which burned on the way down, and slammed the glass back onto the table. I dreaded to think the mess we would all be in come tomorrow morning. Not a single person here was likely to be getting out of bed that much was for certain.
But Vaughn said we’d earned it. We’d worked damn hard to get the shopping mall in town looking as amazing as we did. Tourist season was right around the corner and it was almost guaranteed to bring in a hell of a lot of business. There wasn’t a unit in that place that hadn’t been rented out and decked out to look absolutely gorgeous. This was just the team letting off a little steam. Besides, we never did anything like this usually. This was just a little bit of fun. It was nice to see the team enjoying themselves instead of breaking their backs to get the work done.
“Jace doesn’t look like he’s having fun,” Angie slurred. I’d had to ask her to repeat it, but just about got what she’d said. “He looks pretty grumpy actually. Should we ask him if he wants to drink to the floor with u
s?”
“I don’t know how into that idea he would be, actually.”
I looked down the table at Jace. I mean, if I was totally honest with myself, I knew exactly how Jace was looking right now because I’d been trying to catch his eye all evening, all week, all my fucking life. Well, the last two years of it anyhow.
Jace was what I would describe as completely fucking perfect and I would do absolutely anything to even have a little moment with him. There were so many awkward moments around the water cooler or when we crossed paths in the kitchen that made me want to crawl up into a ball and die but later on I’d just find myself thinking about the time I’d got to spend with him. It was an awkward moment, we’d hardly exchanged more than a few pleasantries, but wow what pleasantries they were.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey.”
“How are you?’
“Good, yeah. Busy.”
“Me too.”
“Cool, see you later.” And he’d walk out of the kitchen.
“Yeah, see you later.” After which I’d swoon and have to hold onto the kitchen counter just to stop myself from falling to the floor. Yeah, I was a mess.
He was tall, dark, brooding and handsome, which sounds like a fucking cliché and a disaster waiting to happen but I swear this is the first person I’d ever met that this really made sense as a descriptor. He had short hair at the sides that was longer and lighter on top and swept over, a sleeve of tattoos on both arms with biceps that could crush my head.
Either the room had gotten warmer or I needed to calm the fuck down. It was probably the latter. Did I mention that I was a bit of a mess?
“You should go and talk to him,” Angie said. “We’re supposed to be having fun, are you having fun? Jace should be having fun. Get him to have fun with us.”
“Okay, Angie, okay,” I said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “Fun, yes, I get it, okay.”
She eyed me carefully, squinting at me, pointing into my face. I wondered how many of me she was seeing right now.
“If he’s going to talk to anyone, he’s going to talk to you,” she said, nodding triumphantly and downing another shot that had appeared in front of her. Maybe she was conjuring them like some sort of alcoholic witch.
Her words hung in the air in front of me. I didn’t know exactly what she meant by it. Jace and I were definitely more work colleagues than we were friends. I wanted to be friends but I just couldn’t seem to break through 1) his hardy exterior and 2) my own ridiculous self-consciousness to get there.
Angie slid a shot over to me. “Dutch courage, my friend,” she said with a wink.
“Dutch courage.” I replied, taking the shot and knocking it back before I stood up. I wobbled a little but quickly righted myself and started over towards him.
He was slumped over at the other end of the table, his pint in his hand, his head dipped low, not really engaging with anybody at all. I was sure he had friends at the office, he had a whole team of people that he worked with and spoke to on a daily basis, so something was definitely up. No one was even sitting with him from the office, all of them having their own conversations, their own fun that he just wasn’t engaging with. I had no right to have these kind of feelings, but god it sucked to see him looking so sad.
I wandered over and slid into the seat next to him. I waited a beat, wondering if he would look up, if he would strike up conversation, but he kept his head down. I was going to have to try a little harder.
“Hey,” I shouted over the music. Classic opener.
His gaze flicked up, the corner of his mouth twitched in an almost smile and then he looked back at his drink.
“I heard you were responsible for the layout of the mall,” I said, knowing full well it had pretty much been Jace’s project, that he’d played a huge part in it being as successful as it was. “It’s a gorgeous building, so…organic looking, the way it moves with the area around it. It looks like it appeared out of the earth rather than a manmade thing, you know?”
The words were falling off my tongue before I really had a chance to fix them and make them sound eloquent. I was pretty sure I just sounded sycophantic and a little bit…weird.
“Thanks, man,” Jace replied, not looking up from his drink. I didn’t think he was really listening to me, there was clearly something else on his mind.
“I mean it,” I continued. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it. So…congratulations.”
“It was a team effort,” he said with a light smile. He lifted his drink I in a ‘cheers’ motion at me. “But thank you very much.” He returned to his drink.
I had two options here, and I could see them floating in front of me like some sort of ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ scenario. I could either leave him alone or go back to enjoying my night, not bothering him again because clearly he doesn’t want to be bothered. Or I could try and do talk to him one more time. There was clearly something up with Jace and it seemed a shame to me that he wasn’t out here enjoying himself with everybody else.
“I’m so exhausted,” I said, taking a sip of my drink. Jace made a noncommittal noise. “I was babysitting for Vaughn and Finley so that they could have some alone time last weekend and I’m honestly surprised I survived.”
“Really?” he said. “Kids nearly took it out of you?”
“You try chasing a 1 year old and a 3 month old around a house for two hours and then we’ll see how well put together you are, huh? That hair would be out of place before you know it.” I somehow found the boldness to reach forward and push a lock of his hair that was out of place. He didn’t recoil, he just let me put it back in place. There was a smile inching its way across his face.
“So you’re not one for having children then, huh?”
I let go of a breath. “Not for right now,” I said. “Maybe one day in the distant future, but right now I just want to have fun. And, look, I love Fin and Vaughn so much but if I were with somebody I’d just want to be with them. Not having to get someone else to step in just so I could go out and see my other half.”
Jace laughed. “Gosh, you’ve really thought about this, huh?”
“Well, they got to sleep towards the end and it, after the cursing and a very large glass of wine, I came to that conclusion,” I grinned. “What about you?”
“Well, my sister has kids so I totally get where you’re coming from,” he said. “When they’re young they’re a handful because you’re running around trying to stop them killing themselves on furniture and then, when they’re older, you have to let them run around and you end up picking up after them when they get hurt anyway.” He stopped himself suddenly and had a quick drink, like he’d accidentally said a little too much. “Sorry, just my sister talks to me about her kids a lot so sometimes it feels like they’re mine. I know far too much.”
“It’s okay,” I replied. This was the most words we had ever exchanged one after another. It was a conversation and I was thrilled. But more than that, I could see he had perked up a little. Just a little bit of chat and suddenly he was like a changed man. He was smiling, for a start, which made my insides go a little bit fuzzy, and there was a little twinkle in his eye when he looked at me, though that could’ve been the lights in the bar, or a whole lot of wishful thinking on my part.
“So, you come over here just to cheer me up?”
“Something like that,” I said. “You looked grumpy and everyone else is having so much fun, it just made you look even more grumpy than usual.”
“You think I’m grumpy?” He was still smiling but I could feel myself panicking at saying the wrong thing.
“No.”
“You just said more than usual.”
“You’re not grumpy,” I said. “You’re private. You just keep yourself to yourself.”
“Wow,” Jace said, still smiling, apparently enjoying how sweaty I was getting from him pretty much having me on the ropes. “Well, I hope calling me grumpy wasn’t part of your master plan to cheer me up
because if it is, you suck.”
“It totally wasn’t, it just slipped out,” I blabbered. “It’s the alcohol. Loose lips sink ships, in this case a potential friendship.”
“Fuck me, you really are as happy-go-lucky as you seem, huh?”
“What?”
“Come on,” he groaned. “Who says things like that? You’re so weird.”
I let it land, trying to quickly assess how exactly I felt about Jace calling me weird. He also called me happy-go-lucky but that didn’t seem like anything. Weird felt different.
“Thanks for coming over to talk to me,” he said. “I really appreciate it. Even if you did just insult me.”
I pulled myself out of my own head and turned my focus back to Jace.
“Not a problem.”
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Claiming My Omega
Blackwater Pack: Book 2
Liam Kingsley
© 2019
Disclaimer
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are all fictitious for the reader’s pleasure. Any similarities to real people, places, events, living or dead are all coincidental.
Claiming My Omega: Blackwater Pack: Book 2 Page 20
