Settled back into my skin, I straightened up, made certain I was put together, and texted Kat to meet me near the library. I needed to speak to Avery’s parents, but first I needed my assistant to make sure I didn’t have their son’s scent all over me. It would be hard to take my claim seriously if they knew I’d had their son on his hands and knees next to their washing machine.
Katherine Olympia Holt was staring at me like I’d grown another head before she leaned in close and inhaled.
“Well?” I snapped at her.
She cleared her throat. “Yes,” she stated flatly, “you smell like cum.”
I threw up my hands.
“Should I lie?”
“No, but you could take more care with your words. You’re always so crass.”
Her squint made her look like she was in pain. I was annoying the hell out of her, that was certain.
I growled at her under my breath. “Go find his parents and ask them to meet me on the patio. At least if we’re outside, it won’t be as noticeable.”
“Yes, sir.”
“But first, call Izzy and have her find out Avery Rhine’s phone number and address, because my plan is to go there from here.” Avery had told me to talk to his mother. Ridiculous. As though I was some poor suitor without my own ample resources.
“Absolutely,” she agreed quickly. “I—oh.” She gasped, and when I turned to look at her, I saw Mrs. Huntington, our hostess, standing there, arms crossed, staring up at me.
“Mrs. Huntington,” I croaked out, floundering as I stared at the stunning woman, realizing, in that moment, where her son had come by the beautiful shade of his eyes, though his were lighter, nearly silver, and their effect on me was quite different from those of his mother. “I would like to speak to you and your––”
“Sir,” she said, lifting one of her eyebrows. “I saw you duck into the laundry room earlier with my son. Do you perhaps want to speak to me about his contract?”
Oh dear God. “I––yes,” I managed to get out, mortified by my behavior and illogically angry at Avery for being the cause.
She nodded sagely and stepped closer to me, and even though I was terrified she’d smell him on me, I had to stand my ground. “He’s a police officer, my son. Did he tell you?”
“I don’t know why what he does now would pertain to after our––”
“It’s in his contract,” she informed me. “He will remain on the police force for as long as he sees fit. It’s a stipulation that is nonnegotiable.”
I turned to Kat, unsure if I’d heard correctly.
She nodded, grimacing. “He told me about that, and I was going to inform you before you spoke to him, but you—” She coughed. “—went near him before I could mention it.”
I’d done far more than simply go near him.
“He’s not a ‘make a home for an alpha’ kind of omega,” Mrs. Huntington explained solemnly. “He’s built like a beta, to be an equal partner. He’ll be an exceptional father, because he’s been raised by one, and he has the nurturing of an omega built in, so children won’t be a problem, but if you’re looking for someone to welcome you home every night with a drink for you in their hand and food on the table, I think you should look elsewhere. Nine times out of ten, it will be you making dinner.”
“I have a cook and a housekeeper and a butler,” I defended automatically, the words out there before I could form a coherent thought.
“Perfect,” she commended me, brightening, “that’ll help.”
I’d stepped into some kind of weird alternate universe where nothing made sense. How in the world was she telling me what her son, an omega, would and would not do in the home of his alpha? What the hell was going on?
“Are you well, sir?”
I turned to Kat and could not miss her grimace.
“You’re kind of an odd shade of gray.”
I looked back at Mrs. Huntington, trying to put thought into word.
She was waiting expectantly, brows lifted, head tilted forward.
I was…having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact they had written Avery’s job into his contract. I’d never heard of such a thing. It was beyond all imagining.
“Ma’am, you understand that your son is an omega, do you not?”
“I do,” she assured me with a knowing, gentle smile. “But I didn’t raise an omega.”
Before I could get a word out, she lifted a hand to stop me.