Page 6 of Cupid
Before I walked out, I flushed the toilet once just to refresh the water and then headed into the kitchen. Fortunately, I’d stocked up on groceries earlier in the week, so I had all the basics. And if he wanted anything special, he could get it himself.
Was I seriously doing this? Allowing a strange alpha to stay in my guest room?
I went outside and tried to fold up the ladder. But carrying it with one arm was impossible. It was too long, and I was afraid I’d break a window in the process, so I leaned it up against the side of the house and just left it there. Orion could deal with it when he came to pick me up.
Twenty minutes later, I got a text from Orion.Arrow just landed and he’s cool with you being there. Seems like a good guy, but keep your outdoor cameras on so I can see when he arrives and keep an eye on the place tonight.
Oh, now you’re worried about my survival? Thanks. Hope I live to see you on Sunday.
Call me after he gets there. Just to confirm you’re still alive. Ha ha.My cousin knew me well enough to know I would give in. He’d always been able to talk me into anything…
Usually, the stupid shit he wanted me to do got me in trouble, while he just stood back and laughed. There was a good chance this would be another bad decision on my part, but my curiosity was too strong.
There was a nice breeze outside, so I grabbed my book and went out onto the back deck to wait for my guest-slash-likely-serial-murderer to arrive. If the last thing I got to see on this earth was the sunset over the ocean, it wasn’t the worst way to go.
“Excuse me. Are you Jude?” My eyes popped open, and I saw a gorgeous man standing just a few feet away from me.
“Yeah.” I got up and gave his hand a little half shake with my left hand. “Are you my guest?”
“I am.” He smiled. A charming and dazzlingly white smile. “Are you expecting somebody else to show up on your porch during your nap?”
“Well, I wasn’t expecting anyone to be on my porch at all. Yet, here we are. I didn’t catch your name.” Orion had mentioned a name but in my half-sleepy state, I couldn’t remember it.
“Arrow Cupid, good to meet you.”
“Jude Smith.” I regained composure of myself and ran my hand through my hair in an attempt to tame it. “Sorry about the mixup with the accommodations. My cou…um, my property manager just informed me that you would be arriving today.” I held up my wrist. “And I would have headed out, but I just broke my arm and can’t actually drive anywhere, so…I guess we’re stuck with each other until Orion can pick me up on Sunday.”
He frowned when he looked at my casted arm. His arm lifted just a bit, as if he were going to reach for mine, but he quickly thought better of it and dropped his arm again. “No problem at all. But if this is too much of an inconvenience, I can try to find a hotel. I don’t want to put you out.”
Just knowing he was willing to leave made me feel a lot better. “No, it’s fine. If you don’t mind sharing the kitchen, I’ll mostly stay in my room and you can pretend I’m not here.”
“I don’t mind at all.”
“Great, then.” I gestured toward the door. “Let me show you around.”
FOUR
ARROW
I appreciated the brief tour as my host guided me around the cottage. But I wasn’t paying attention to a word he said. My eyes couldn’t seem to drift away from his cute ass, and even when I tried to pay attention to the things Jude was pointing out, they just wouldn’t cooperate.
It was like I hadn’t seen an omega in years, even though I just left home fifteen hours earlier and knew plenty of omegas.
But Jude wasn’t like the omegas back home.
It was obvious he wasn’t a shifter and certainly not an elf. He was human, and I hadn’t been around many of those. There were a few in Santa’s Village, but most kept to themselves, not generally interacting with unbonded alphas.
And I tended to hang with all the alphas.
Whether they were the other guys on the sleigh team or friends from childhood, alphas and omegas didn’t generally mingle after puberty unless it was for a specific purpose.
As I looked at Jude, watching his lips move while he pointed to buttons on a fancy coffee maker that I knew I would never touch, a distinct haze seemed to form around him. A purple glow that was similar to what I saw when I was matching up other people, but there was no one else around.
He and I were alone, and the shade of purple around him was completely new.
“Last but not least is your room.”
I followed Jude across the living room to a bedroom suite. It was nicely decorated, almost like a hotel, with a few pieces of art and a bed that was big enough for me to stretch out in. “Nice.”
