Page 5 of Caging Fire
When I reeled back, I saw the red shade creep from her chest, up her neck, to her face. She was embarrassed, and any defiance she had shown earlier was completely gone.
“Sorry, sir. I know alphas are sensitive to smells, but my boyfriend just really loves this lotion,” she apologized.
Did she really have a boyfriend?
Was he in the car?
There was no reason to lie because even if she did, I didn’t care. Most of the beta bunnies I fucked had boyfriends. Still, a sliver of jealousy coursed through me at the thought of another man touching her. That was certainly unusual for me.
She stood there nervously, shifting her weight from side to side, unable to keep still.
“Is there a problem with my ID? Or is it a scanner issue like Billy said?” she questioned, glancing back at Billy, as if he was going to save her from me.
I liked the way she called me “sir.” The title sounded so serious. People called Cade “sir.” I would like to hear her call me that again while she begged for my cock. Her pouty lips would be perfect sliding up and down my shaft.
God, my dick was so hard right now. It was painfully erect, pushing at the confines of my zipper, begging to spring out and slip into her warmth.
I adjusted myself through my tented fatigues, and the motion caught her attention. She lifted her eyes briefly, noticing the bulge in my pants. Her mouth let out a soft little gasp, and her hands began fidgeting furiously with her shirt’s frayed string.
“Is everything okay with my ID?” she asked again, impatiently, with her eyes now downcast.
When I didn’t respond, her tongue darted out and swiped over her bottom lip, before teeth pulled that pouty lip into her mouth to chew on. She was so nervous.
Finally, I let out a deep laugh.
“Relax, Kitten! Rowan, Isabel, Miles.” I said, accenting each part of her name as I held the ID out for her to take back.
She grabbed it quickly, but I didn’t let go, smiling at her and holding it in place. We stood there for a moment until she pulled it, and I loosened my grip. She slipped the lanyard back onto her neck.
“The scanner’s fucked up. It needs a reboot, but that’s going to take a while. Billy says you’re in a band that plays at a bar in the city, and he’s scanned this ID plenty of times before without any problems. That true?”
“Yes, sir, that’s right.”
I liked the way she called me “sir” even more the second time she said it.
As attractive as she was, I wished she smelled as good as she looked. Scent mattered to alphas; it always had. Herswas overpowering, harsh, overly floral, and almost chemical. It repelled me, no matter how tempting her appearance was.
I tried to catch a trace of her natural scent beneath that awful lotion, but oddly, I couldn’t sense anything at all. Sure, there were other scents on her skin, but I sifted through them, looking for a source, the scent that was uniquely hers. Not even a hint. Even betas carried a scent. Mosty subtle, but still present. Some of them even smelled surprisingly good. But with her, there was just... nothing. And that unsettled me.
Why didn’t she have a natural smell?
Rowan’s body reminded me of an omega’s. She was small and delicate, yet undeniably alluring. She barely reached five feet tall, even on tiptoes, but her frame was plush in all the right ways. There was a gentle roundness to her, a soft belly, no sharp angles or hard lines. She reminded me of the women captured in Renaissance paintings. Strawberry blonde hair framed her face, highlighting her wide blue eyes and lips the color of ripe cherries, always caught in a subtle pout.
She was softness made flesh, all curves and quiet invitation.
“Are you going there tonight?” I asked.
“Going where, sir?”
Damn it. She needed to fucking stop calling me “sir,” but also, I never wanted her to stop. The word sounded too good in her mouth. I could think of other things that would be good in her mouth too.
“Rosie’s Bar?” I laughed, deadpanning my face. “The beta bar where you play with your band? Billy tells me you are on your way there now. You just told me that’s where you're going as well; were you lying?”
She wouldn’t look at me, but I wanted to see every flicker of emotion that crossed her face, so I gripped her jaw with my gloved hand and tilted her chin up. She made that little gasping noise again, and if it was even possible, her skin deepened to a darker shade of red.
Then I saw it.
Just for a second.
