Page 61 of Two For the Show
I gently take his forearm in my hands, and as delicately as possible, I raise it to my mouth and bite down. A rush of gratitude fills me from Matteo, and then Quinton is there.
Through our bond, I feel so much love and devotion that it takes my breath away.
Chapter 25
It’shours before I’m able to tear myself away from Matteo and Quinton. We only untangle ourselves briefly to move to the bed, where we fall asleep with our hands and mouths roaming over each other.
The next morning, when my phone goes off with an alert that someone needs their wrist splinted, it feels physically painful to leave their arms.
But I manage, because this is not just my pack, this is my job, and I have a duty to this circus to take care of its people.
Dario meets me outside the big top, where he and Dexter sit with Tony, the stagehand who drives the caravan my trailer is a part of.
“Hey, Doc,” Tony says tightly. “Don’t ask me how I did it. I don’t even know.”
Dexter snorts a small laugh, shaking his head. “You know exactly how you did it.”
“Yeah, but the doc doesn’t need to know that,” Tony grumbles back.
Dario leans to the side, holding his hand on the side ofhis mouth. In the loudest whisper I’ve ever heard, he says, “He doesn’t want you to know because it’s dirty.”
“It’s not!” Tony is quick to say. “I tripped over a crate ‘cus I wasn’t looking where I was going, and landed wrong, okay?”
I pat him reassuringly on the shoulder. “Happens to the best of us, Tony. Let me get you fixed up.”
After getting his wrist tightly wrapped and with instructions to take some ibuprofen, Tony thanks me and heads back to do whatever it is he does when he’s not driving the tractor-trailer that pulls our homes.
“So,” Dario says, pulling me into his lap. “Quinton, huh?”
“You felt that?”
“Felt what?” Dexter asks curiously.
“She bonded him last night. I could feel him ‘come online’ for lack of a better term.” Dario nuzzles into my neck. “It’s pretty cool to know all the guys are there.”
Speaking of all the guys, I miss Jude. I poke at him down the bond and get a flash of amusement. I know he’s busy doing showrunner things and I’ve spent the last two nights nurturing new bonds, but that doesn’t mean I want to leave him out of things, either.
“Oh. You’ve bonded everyone, then?” Dexter’s voice isn’t quite dejected, but it is vulnerable. “I mean, except me.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean there is any rush for us,” I remind him.
“I know,” he says softly. “Well, that’s cool. Good for all of you.”
Before I can press him for more information on his feelings, Jude comes around the corner.
“You rang, Omega?” he says teasingly. “You know, youcould just come talk to me instead of using the bond to poke me.”
“Ah, but what fun is that?” I hop to my feet, and for a moment it feels a little awkward, standing toe to toe with the big Alpha. He doesn’t let me bask in it, though, and wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me close, pressing a kiss to my lips.
We lose ourselves for a moment before someone clears his throat, causing us to pull apart.
“As hot as this is, I actually had an idea for how we could keep Alex safe from the assholes whose names I will not dignify with repeating,” Dario says with a wide grin. “Well, I had the basis of an idea, but Dexter fleshed it out, so if it’s bad, we can blame him.”
“I think I’ve got a track record of good ideas, as judged by the fact that Alex is standing in front of us,” Dexter gloats. “And this was decidedly a joint effort.”
“Should we get Matteo and Quinton?” Jude asks, his hand resting on my hip. Casual touches from someone who held me at arm’s length for so long are going to take a bit of time to get used to, but I won’t complain about it.
Jude makes me feel safe. Protected. Even when things with Rich were good, he didn’t invoke this feeling. I know, without a doubt, that Jude would never let someone hurt me.
