Page 53 of The Packaged Deal
“What’s the point of that?” I ask.
“The point is just because,” she says with a shrug and yanks open my drawers. “I swear, I saw it around, uh-huh. Here it is.” Jade holds up a stack of post-it notes and two pens.
I’m given half a stack and a pen. “What am I writing?”
“Hmm, stuff like, ‘Sven, your ass is hot. I want to lick you. I like your smile. You make me melt.’ But the more outrageous it is, the funnier it will be.”
I gaze down at the stack of bright pink squares. Why is my stomach fizzing? Why is my mouth dry? Why do I want to laugh until I cry?
“Start with Kandi. It will be easier,” Jade suggests.
“All right, I can do this.” I take a seat on the couch and start writing. She’s right, it does get easier.
So, we go a little stupid and cover the house in post-it notes with handwritten messages.
“Now, let’s get something to eat, and then phase two begins,” Jade says cheerfully.
“Phase two?”
“You have a rose garden and lots of candles, right?”
I blink dumbly at her. “You tricked me.”
She doesn’t even try to hide the smirk that plays on her lips. “Isn’t seduction the best game? It's the most exciting. It's the most fun. You can’t tell me this isn’t getting your blood racing.”
I groan and put my head in my hands. “You’re diabolical.”
“I know. But you’re smiling, Adrian. You’re happy.”
As soon as she points it out, I realise it’s true. How different and new for me.
“All right. Let’s go.”
She races for the garden, but I call out to her.
“We’re eating first.”
She pauses and pouts but follows me back to the kitchen. I make us sandwiches, and we sit side by side at the counter and eat. Every time my elbow rubs against hers, it sends this lightning strike of awareness into me.
But it’s comfortable. I’m not comfortable with people. Adrian Schultz is feared, reviled, or admired. I am never at peace with another person. Even Sven, there is so much angst and emotion between us that sometimes what we have feels toxic.
“Something happened last night, didn’t it?” Jade asks gently.
“Would you be offended if I kept it to myself for now? Not because I don’t want to tell you, but because I don’t even know what to tell you.”
She mulls that over and drops her chin. “That’s fine. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay, Adrian. You looked lost and scared when you were zoned out in the kitchen.”
“I think perhaps I was.” Admitting my feelings is easy to do with this pint-sized woman.
“Are you going to be okay?” Her voice is so concerned that it makes my heart clench.
I forget people care about me sometimes. There are so few of them. My baby brother, of course, Simon. Sven. Onyx, and strangely, since Hazel’s near run in with the serial killer, she has become a bit of a fixture in my world.
But not one of them cares to the depth of this woman beside me. Sven assumes I’m okay and can take care of myself. I love that. But, Jade, I’m looking in her eyes, and, I swear, she can see straight through me, into the core of me that’s been put together with paper mache and glue.
“I’m going to be okay,” I promise my omega, and a tiny bit of resistance I was clinging to crumbles away.
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