Playing You (Omega's Luck #3) - Claire Cullen Page 0,10

with each addition, but his worry fell away when Brendan ordered his usual, which was chock full of everything.

“That sounds like quite the sandwich,” the omega commented.

Brendan grinned at him. “It’s the best. Which is why I don’t let myself come here more than once a week.”

He couldn’t fail to notice the subtle up and down of Riley’s eyes, seeking evidence of Brendan’s overindulgence.

“You don’t look like you need to watch what you eat.”

“I run most mornings before work,” Brendan confessed. “Plus, when this job is active, it’s really active. I can go all day without eating for weeks on end. Mrs. O’Brien is great for that. She always leaves a plate of supper for me to heat up.”

“What would you be doing those days?” Riley leaned forward, his eyes intent on Brendan.

“Usually following people, watching them, learning their routines. I have to track the average cheating spouse for at least a full day to get the evidence. When it’s something worse, like fraud or identity theft, it can be more like a week.”

“It sounds exciting,” Riley said, “but I’m guessing it’s actually boring.”

“Boring as hell, most of the time. The only excitement is when something unexpected happens. Once there was this guy, and he knew his wife was cheating on him. He had a whole list of possible people, and he was sure the person was on that list. Ended up being his own father. That was a hard one to explain. And then there was the guy who wasn’t cheating, it just looked like he was. Turned out that he really wanted a puppy, but my client was deathly allergic to dogs and terrified of them as a result. So his fiancé was volunteering at a dog shelter once a week. But because of how careful he was being—changing clothes, showering, doing your basic decontamination so as not to risk my client—his behavior had all the hallmarks of a cheating spouse.”

He had Riley’s rapt attention, the troubles of the morning forgotten.

“What did the client do when he learned the truth?”

“Went to see some world-class allergy expert who solved the problem. Last I saw, they were the proud owners of the most adorable golden retriever.”

Riley grinned at that, seeming genuinely pleased by the story. Brendan had to admit, it was one of the nicer ones.

Their food arrived, and he watched the omega’s eyes grow big at the sandwich set down in front of him.

“Looks pretty good, huh?”

“This is for me? I’ll never eat all this.”

“They’ll bag it up for you if you need them to. You can finish it later. In fact, you should do that anyway. Dessert is not to be missed.”

“I don’t think I’ll need dessert.”

“With the day you’ve had? Of course you need dessert.”

Riley raised an eyebrow. “Are you one of those people who eats their feelings?”

Brendan laughed. “Half the planet does that. But okay, yeah, maybe I’m trying to make you feel better. I can’t do much about what happened this morning except to take your mind off it and try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“You know I’m not your responsibility, right? I’m your employee, not your charge.”

“Employee. Got it,” Brendan said easily, reading the reignited suspicion in Riley. “Don’t stress, okay? I’m not expecting any quid pro quo for this. I’m just trying to do a nice thing. No strings attached.”

He was getting the impression that Riley was used to kindness coming with conditions.

The omega eyed him for a long moment, and then neatly wrapped half his sandwich in a napkin. “If you’re sure. Those chocolate tarts look amazing.”

Brendan grinned and reached for his own sandwich, happy to see that Riley was a man after his own heart. They were going to get on like a house on fire.

Chapter Six

Riley sat in the passenger seat of Brendan’s car, strumming his fingers on his knees. He wasn’t nervous, exactly. Just a little disbelieving that things could be working out so well for him. There was always a catch; he just hadn’t found it yet.

Brendan had the radio on and was humming along to some song Riley didn’t know that seemed to be everywhere this week. There was a time when he’d have been able to sing every lyric, but that felt like long ago now. There was no space in his mind for trivial things like that when he had to worry about feeding and clothing himself, not to mention putting a roof over his head. And then there was the very real