Page 62 of Ember

The music studio wasn’t a nest, but I wanted my way with these men here, on the floor, on the piano bench, against the wall, whatever. I shoved the curl of desire down and followed everyone upstairs.

Rian showed Alejandro where most of the kitchen stuff was, offering to help chop.

“I can chop things too,” I added.

“I’ll be here for moral support,” Ben said, leaning against the doorway. “I can cook, but I suck at it.”

“Same.” I brushed against him. “I can’t promise anything I chop will be even, but Alejandro doesn’t seem to mind.”

“That’s because everything you do is perfect, reina.” Alejandro kissed my temple as he passed by.

“Music?” Rian gestured at a little white box built into the wall. “We have speakers in every room of the house, set up for our music library.”

“Hell yes,” I said.

“Oh no, now you’ve done it.” West shook his head, pulling vegetables out of a bag. “She’ll never let you control the music again.”

I stuck my tongue out. “That’s not true.”

“Here.” Rian brushed close to me, showing me the display screen. “You can be DJ. We obviously love anything already in our library, but you can download new songs if you want.”

Rian went to help with the vegetables, and I was glad the kitchen was big enough for all of us. A kitchen island dominated the center of the room, with a massive stove, refrigerator, and another section of cabinets and countertops.

“Have you always been a chef?” Rian asked Alejandro, pulling some cutting boards out.

“Pretty much, yeah.” Alejandro grinned, his dimples showing. Both West and Rian gave him a look filled with lust, their scents getting stronger. I smirked.

Alejandro told them about his career in cooking, filling them in on working with Logan in Hawaii and now here in California. The conversation shifted to West’s interest in computers.

“Have you been doing programming for long?” Rian asked, chopping a bell pepper. “Also, what are we making?”

“Shhh,” I said. I stood close to Ben, almost touching his side. I’d managed to avoid being given a job, so I figured I would milk it as long as I could. “Alejandro makes us guess. We’re just his little sous chefs until he starts pulling out seasonings. And even then, he sometimes pulls out extra to throw us off the scent.”

Rian looked amused. “That’s adorable.”

Alejandro gave the other omega an innocent look, slicing chicken breasts. “Surprise is the spice of life.”

“Mine has too much seasoning sometimes.” I rolled my eyes. “West, tell them about your love of computers but don’t rat us out. The statute of limitations still hasn’t expired for some of those websites.”

“I know,” West said. “I won’t get us caught. Ember and I have both been doing computer programming since we were teenagers. Along with her younger brother, Terran, we tried to break websites for fun.”

“Since you were teenagers?” Alejandro looked delighted. “How long have you two known each other?”

We’d spoken about personal things with the alpha, but we hadn’t talked about anything super deep. Or painful. It wasn’t a secret, exactly, but it would kill the happy mood quickly.

West nudged Alejandro. “Since we were teenagers, weren’t you listening? Stop picturing me naked and pay attention.”

“I can do both,” Alejandro purred.

West’s scent spiked, but he pretended to be annoyed and stepped back.

Instead of seeming irritated, Alejandro’s scent just got stronger. He liked the hunt too.

“How did you two meet? In school?” Rian glanced at me and my stomach dropped.

In physical therapywas a loaded answer. Because the natural follow-up waswhat were you in physical therapy for,and the assumption was we were there together for the same reason, even though we weren’t, and the conversation spiraled out of control from there.

I didn’t want to kill the mood by talking about the plane crash, my parents’ death, the months of physical therapy. And that wasn’t even touching the reason why West had been at the medical center.

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