Page 28 of Duke's Baby Deal
Duke looked down, then let go of my fingers to go fiddle with the kettle, filling it with water. “Just that I know that this isn’t a love match for us, that you had your eye on one of the younger alphas. I always figured you’d eventually settle on one of them. It probably would have been a better match, but we didn’t know who we could trust to keep the secret if they weren’t ready to mate.”
“And you were? Ready to mate?” Oh, Medeina, I’d stolen him from someone.
“Well, yeah. Getting to that age, you know. Getting past that age, really.” He set the kettle on the stove and turned it on. “I mean, Mac and Abel are mated, and the rest of the guys I hang around with are younger, so I guess I’m next. Was next,” he corrected himself.
“So you had someone you were interested in?”
“Yeah.”
I waited, but he didn’t say any more. “Who?” I asked, my heart thundering in my chest.
“Does it matter?” He set the mugs next to the stove. “What tea do you want?”
Well, fine. Don’t answer me. Doesn’t mean I’m going to give up.“The tea that makes you tell the truth. That’s the one I want.”
“What is it you want to hear, Bram?” He turned to watch me with eyes that—yes, that was fear in them. Why would he be afraid of me? Did I know the person he was in love with?
“I want to know who I need to apologize to.” I stood with my arms crossed over my chest and stared him down. Not very omega-like, but all of a sudden I needed to know. As if Ineededanother emotional switch to beat myself with, but there wasn’t anything logical about how I felt right now.
“Don’t worry about it,” Duke told me, and beat a hasty retreat to the living room.
“How can I not worry about it? You’re throwing yourself on a leghold trap, and I’m the trap.” I followed him, my hands clenched into fists. “Dammit, Duke. I’m not a child.”
“I know.” His voice had gone deep and gravelly, like sexytimes gravelly, and I had a sudden, horrible, exhilarating thought.
I crept slowly closer to him, my heart filled with hope, my brain filled with, essentially, “Oh, fuck”. “Duke, who was it? Was it…” The word wouldn’t come, it just wouldn’t. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around myself. “What it me?” I whispered, hoping I was right, hoping as well that I was wrong.
His breath shuddered out of him—I’d only ever read that in a novel, but I knew it as soon as I heard it. I opened my eyes and stared at him, frozen, but inside, I was rolling around gleefully at the news. “It was me! You’re in love with me!” I caroled and actually wiggled in delight.
“Now, Bram, I don’t expect—oomph!”
He never got to finish his sentence, because I jumped on him and wrapped my legs around his waist. “You do love me! I thought I was tricking myself. You bastard, Duke Mercy Hills, why did you never say anything when I was flirting so hard with you?”
He swayed and wrapped his arms around me. “Maybe because you were flirting with everyone else just as hard?”
“Well, I couldn’t let you think I was too easy a catch.” I hugged him hard, just buried my face into the side of his neck and breathed in as much of his scent as I could before I had to get down again. “Really? You wanted me, for real, honest?”
“Why does it matter, Bram?” He sounded tired.
I let myself down to stand in front of him. “Because I’ve been trying to get you to ask me out for ages.” I shoved him gently.
“You…wah?” He looked stunned, then pained.
“Yep,” I drawled, thoroughly enjoying this part. “I used to…” I stopped. Even mated, it probably wasn’t appropriate to tell your mate that you used to daydream about him to jerk off to. “Yeah, let’s not go there.” I reached for his hand and marveled at the idea that I could now. That he was mine. And no matter how we’d gotten here, we were mated.
Except there was that small problem of nothing below the waist taking any notice of him.
Well, that didn’t mean we couldn’t do anything. Like Holland had said, I could think of Justin. Except I didn’t want to think of Justin while I was with Duke.
I tugged on Duke’s hand. “Come on.”
“What?” he said, still with that stunned expression that I was finding absolutely adorable.
“I’m covered in body paint. It’s starting to itch.”
“There’s a shower—”
“That’s not how it’s supposed to come off,” I told him severely, and started walking toward the bedroom. Behind me, I heard, “Oh,” and then, louder, “Ohhhh.”
