Page 31 of Small-Town Secrets
"Seriously? Come on. You can tell me."
"I'm serious. Nothing's happened. He came here so I can teach him self-defense."
Jake nudged me with his elbow. "But would you like something to happen? You've slept with the guy before. You can't blame me for thinking you might still be attracted to him."
"You know I only slept with him because he went into heat."
"Yeah?" Jake gave me a long look. "You know, I'm an alpha too, but I don't sleep with omegas in heat unless I was already attracted to them. Sure there's always apullwhen you smell an omega's heat but it doesn't rob you of your willpower unless you let it... or unless you're already crushing."
I swallowed because I couldn't deny that.
Damn it.
I should never have told another alpha about this.
"So you had a crush on Laurence back then," Jake concluded when I didn't say anything. "Do youstillhave a crush on him? 'Cause I think he could use a partner and you already told me he used to like you."
"Used to. That was a long time ago and a lot has happened since then." There was no way I could be sure Laurence still liked me. In fact, there was a good chance he didn't want anything to do with alphas at all after what he'd been through.
"But what about you, though? Are you or are you not interested in Laurence? It's not that hard a question."
I exhaled, watching the dogs chasing each other across the yard. If only my life was as easy as theirs. "Imightbe interested," I admitted.
Jake grinned and slapped my back. "Knew it. Now we only need to figure out a plan of action."
"I'm not going to pressure him into anything."
My friend cringed visibly. "I'm not telling you to. Trust me, I know that's not a good idea. But you could try taking him out for coffee or something. Test the waters. Or is he coming back for more self-defense lessons?"
"I don't know if he is. I said something to upset him last time, though I'm not sure what." Although, when I thought back to what I'd learned at the tattoo studio, what Mrs. Rosewood had said... If Laurence's ex wasn't the father of his children.... Maybe my words had somehow hit a raw spot. Maybe the man who'd actually fathered his children was someone who didn't want to have children and that had pushed him to marry Howard.
Taken in that context, his reaction made sense.
"I guess I could swing by his place later and see if he wants to have a chat."
And then I could ask him if there was anything to what Mrs. Rosewood had said.
13
Aaron
When I pulledup to Gregory Zimmerman's house—where I knew Laurence was staying with his kids—I heard the shouting before I even stepped out of the car.
What was going on?
Was it the kids fighting?
No, that sounded like adults. And now I heard Laurence's voice. Laurence wasscreaming.
The sound hit me like a knife to the heart. Rage rushed through me, red and hot and irrational. I didn't carewho'dmade Laurence scream like that, I wanted to take them apart—and if I got my hands on them, I would.
I jumped out of my car, sprinted to the front door and banged against it. "Laurence!" I yelled. "What's going on in there?" I tried the door handle, and I was so surprised when the door actually opened that I nearly fell into the house and on top of one of the twins, who stared at me with an expression of horror. Part of me wanted to comfort the boy—he'd probably seen way too much shit in his life—but I needed to find Laurence first. "Where's your daddy?"
Laurence's son didn't speak but he pointed to a door down the hall.
I wanted to press ahead, but stopped myself for a just a second longer. "Go up to your room, okay?" I told him because I wanted to make sure he was far away from the fighting. I had no ideawhyhe listened to me, but fortunately, he did.
And I barged into the room the boy had pointed out to me.
