I took one last glance around the kitchen before the party started. Dallas shot me a knowing grin when he caught me watching as he carefully lined bruschetta bites in perfect rows on a tray.

“Everything is perfect and tonight is going to be great. Trust me, Kyle. You’ve totally got this, hon.”

I started to reach up to card my fingers nervously through my hair, but stopped short when I remembered that I was working in a kitchen right now. Instead, I settled for huffing out a breath and double-checking the cheesy mushroom puffs.

“Breathe, hon,” Dallas said softly. “Your classes have been a stellar success and I’ve had nothing but compliments about you. Beau would never have asked you to cater a second dinner for his foundation if you hadn’t impressed him the first time. You’ve got this; just trust yourself.”

Looking over my shoulder, I flashed him a thankful grin. Dallas was right, things had been going great lately. I’d even been feeling good about myself, for the most part. Old Kyle would have said that it was all due to Dallas’ friendship and attention, but New Kyle knew better.

Whether it was getting away from Fred, working out regularly and eating healthier, spending so much time with Dallas, Beau hiring me for this catering gig, or my classes having turned out to be such a resounding success, I couldn’t tell you. Heck, maybe it was all of the above. But I was slowly starting to realize that maybe I was good enough.

“Okay, boss,” Dallas called out playfully. “That task is finished. Do you have something else for me to do or should I start taking out the trash?”

I threw my head back with a laugh. It was pretty hard to be uptight around Dallas; the guy always made me laugh. “Sorry, it’s just so funny to be your boss for a change. Even if you’re working as unpaid labor, it’s still a fun switch.”

“Right? That means that it’s your turn to do the harassing, I hope you know that. It’s a tough responsibility, but I feel confident that you can make it happen. Just think your perviest thoughts and shoot from the hip.”

“That’s what he said.” I winked. Glancing around the kitchen, I put my mind back on work, but couldn’t think of anything urgent that needed doing. “Go ahead and start taking the trash out, if you don’t mind. That will get us a head start on cleanup. I’ll signal for the waiters to start circulating with the appetizers.”

Dallas was all business as he got busy with the garbage while I went to open the pass-through window and signaled the waitstaff. The evening went by in a blur, and things were winding down when Gideon dragged me out and made me circulate while he discreetly passed out my business cards and talked me up.

Beau introduced me to a large circle of his old army buddies, while Lukas was caught up in conversation with Austin. I noticed Houston being pretty flirty with a soldier named Cody who was apparently shipping out for active duty the next day with the other soldiers who were present. I wondered briefly if he was pouring on the charm because he knew it was safe with a guy who was leaving the country in less than twelve hours.

With Houston, it was hard to say. He was flirty by nature, but I’d long ago realized that he had a tendency to keep things to himself. He noticed me watching and waved me over. “Hey, kitchen stud. Have you met Cody? He and my big brother go way back. Cody, you’ve got to meet my friend Kyle who did all the cooking tonight.”

Cody was an All-American boy-next-door type with a wide grin and closely shaved blond hair. He gave me a firm handshake. “It’s a pleasure to meet ya, Kyle. I gotta tell ya, those Eye-talian toast thingamajigs you made were the bomb.”

I smiled at his thick accent. “The bruschetta? Thank you, it’s one of my more popular appetizers. Forgive me if I’m being rude, but you’ve just got to tell me where you’re from, Cody. I can’t place your accent, but I know you’re not from around here.”

When Cody grinned, a deep dimple flashed. I held back a knowing grin when I noticed Houston eyeballing the dimple. “Naw, I sure ain’t from around these parts. I’m from the deepest part of Georgia. Believe it or not, my accent ain’t near as thick as they come back in my neck of the woods.”

Houston looked like he was about to come in his pants with every word that Cody spoke. He reluctantly tore his gaze from the soldier to glance over at me with a hungry smile. “Yeah, he’s a true Georgia peach. I keep begging him to let me get a bite so I can see if he’s half as juicy.”

Before I could even begin to touch that one, a couple of the other soldiers edged in closer. I was more than a little shocked to see them checking me out with approval in their eyes. One stuck out his hand. “I’m Daniel. Can you tell me what a guy has to do to get a private dinner with the chef?”

I bit back a laugh when I heard Dallas answer for me, although I hadn’t heard him join us. His hand rested possessively on the small of my back as he shook the other alpha’s hand that was still held out. “It’s not really a secret, so much as a matter of patience. A private dinner with this chef has a two-year waiting time.”

Part of me wanted to recoil in horror at him all but pissing at my feet to mark his territory, but the rest of me was secretly thrilled. Dallas wasn’t Fred, and I knew that.

I couldn’t help but wonder, as he and Daniel started joking together, whether maybe I’d been too hasty in the past when I’d thought he wasn’t serious about me or had been making passes out of pity.

Maybe if I’d trusted him more back then, or had more confidence in myself, I never would’ve dated Fred in the first place and Dallas and I could be a settled couple by now. As Dallas casually rested an arm around my waist while he chatted, my mind flashed back on the nights we’d shared while I was in heat. I couldn’t help but wonder what it would take to get another go around that wasn’t hormonally induced.

Long after the party ended and I was home in bed, I finally found my courage. Dropping my pajama pants and kicking them aside, I strode quietly through my room and slipped across the hall to Dallas’.

I eased his door open and stepped in, wondering if I’d lost my mind and how exactly one went about seducing an alpha they’d already had sex with in the past.

“Is everything okay?” Dallas asked softly in the moonlit room, his voice too clear for him to have been asleep. Shit. Busted. “Kyle, did you need something?”

Swallowing the lump of nervousness in my throat, I took a step deeper into the room. “Yes, everything is fine. And yes, I do need something. I need you—if you’re still interested.”

Dallas sat up, his broad shoulders outlined by the light coming in through the sheer curtains beside the bed. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying, Kyle?”

I shuffled anxiously from one foot to the other. “Please don’t make this awkward, Dallas. Finding the courage to come in here was hard enough for me. I kinda need you to take it from here, if that’s okay.”

Dallas whipped his covers back with one hand and patted the mattress beside him with the other. “Get your buns over here, then. It’s way past time for you to share my bed.”

Eagerly, I rushed over and climbed onto the bed while Dallas pulled the covers up over us. He pulled me into his arms, snuggling me against him chest to chest as he kissed my neck and along my jawline, pausing to nip at my earlobe.

“Thank you for coming in here, Kyle. It means more than you’ll ever know that you made this first step.”

I carefully looped my arm with the bad hand around his neck as I trailed the fingertips of my good one down his side. “It’s about time that I did though, right?”

Dallas pushed closer, his bare cock sliding against my stiff dick. Fuck, I loved a man who slept naked. It made things so much easier when there weren’t any pesky layers of clothing to remove.

“It’s past time, I’d say. It’s kind of hard to be decent fuck buddies if we don’t do any actual fucking.”

“What if I don’t just want to be fuck buddies though?” I asked softly as I ran my hand down his back to squeeze a perfectly rounded butt cheek. “What if I want to think about having more?”

Dallas practically growled as he pushed me over onto my back and began tugging at my earlobe with his teeth. “I’d say that it’s about damn time for that too.”

This time, we made love. At least, that’s what it felt like. Every touch felt like a silent promise of things to come. Each kiss brought hints of what those promises might entail. By the time that Dallas’ cock was lubed up and slowly pushing into me, it felt like more than mere hints and promises—this felt like the start of something new and solid. Something more than anything I’d ever had before.

With each thrust of his hips, Dallas pushed his way deeper into my heart. When he kissed me while we both came, I felt tears leaking from the corners of my eyes and knew that whatever happened next—Dallas now owned my heart.

As we drifted off to sleep, with our limbs intertwined and our bodies locked together by his knot, I felt completely at peace and knew that I’d made the right choice tonight.

When I woke up the next morning, I didn’t have time to be disoriented when I found myself in Dallas’ bed. Instead I was jerking free of his embrace while I made my morning rush to worship the porcelain god.

After I’d finally finished emptying the contents of my stomach, I felt a cool cloth on the back of my neck again as Dallas’ sleep-thickened voice rumbled from behind me.

“Enough is enough, hon. You’ve been puking for weeks, something isn’t right.”

I shrugged helplessly. “But what could it be? It only seems to happen when I have an empty stomach. Or sometimes when I smell or taste something funky. I mean, if it happened all the time without any rhyme or reason, I’d be more nervous about it. I don’t know, it’s just weird.”

Dallas stepped back when I began to rise. I took the cloth and set it on the edge of the sink while I rinsed my mouth. Dallas met my eyes in the mirror. He looked hesitant and strangely unsure of himself before he finally spoke.

“Look, what if Fred damaged something internally when he beat you up? Maybe it’s that simple.”

I looked back at him skeptically. “That was at least six weeks ago, Dallas. Actually, it’s been exactly six weeks because my appointment to get the cast off is this afternoon, remember?”

He shook his head. “I forgot about your appointment, but as for Fred, who knows how that shit works? I’m not a doctor and neither are you. I don’t know what to think, hon. But you’re getting sick all the time and I’m worried about you. I hate to pull the alpha card, but I think I want to insist that you ask the doctor to check you out today.”

It took me a minute to run over his words. I couldn’t find any fault with them, not when he put it that way. After a moment, I nodded my head and gave my agreement.

“That’s not a big thing to ask, Dallas. I’m seeing him this afternoon anyway, like I said. I’ll call the office and let them know that I’ll need an examination at the same time, okay?” I turned around to give him a hug.

The tension eased from his shoulders as he hugged me back and kissed my neck. “What made you decide not to argue?” he asked lightly as he kissed along my jawline.

I chuckled. “It just occurred to me that resistance is futile against a big, bad alpha who’s worrying like a mother hen.”

Dallas laughed and gave my earlobe a nip. “A Star Trek reference before we’ve even had coffee? Talk nerdy to me, baby. You know what turns me on.”

I pushed back on his chest and eased around him to get out of the bathroom, looking back over my shoulder with a laugh. “Yeah, those figurines and posters in your office kinda gave away your secret geek side.”

“Seriously? That’s what it took? I’m related to Austin, it’s not like there was any doubt that I’d have a nerdy side.” He stopped and looked at me as I stood there helplessly, trying to figure out how to politely excuse myself. “You look befuddled, for lack of a better word. What’s up?”

I felt my cheeks flushing as I admitted the truth. “It just dawned on me that I actually had the balls to come to your room buck naked last night and now I’m here all bare-assed in the light of day while my clothes are across the hall.”

Dallas’ trademark grin spread across his face as he stepped forward to palm my sac. “Oh, yeah. You’ve got balls, all right.”

That fucking omega giggle bubbled up again out of nowhere as I batted his hand away and took off running for my room while his laughter echoed behind me. After I’d showered and dressed, I found Dallas in the kitchen setting fresh cups of coffee and smoothies on the table.

“You know, that shower would’ve been a lot more fun if you’d asked me to come wash your back.” He winked, then motioned to the table. “So listen, I thought maybe a smoothie would be easier on your stomach. In fact, if that helps we’ll just switch to smoothies every day.” He glanced away shyly as he spoke, as if uncertain about making claims on our future breakfasts just yet.

Lightening the moment, I walked over and kissed his cheek before sitting down at the table and taking a drink of the smoothie. I discreetly pushed the coffee aside though. He must not have noticed that I hadn’t been drinking it lately. I didn’t know what it was, but something about the smell just made my stomach churn now.

“You know,” Dallas said conversationally after he’d taken a big drink of coffee, “if you’d like a little company when you go to the doctor later, I could take my lunch around that time and drive you.”

I shrugged. “Sure, if you don’t mind. I’m pretty sure that we aren’t going to be getting any big surprises though. Really, I bet it’s probably just stress related, now that I think about it.”