Chapter Two
Brent
#whathappensinNOLA
New Orleans. I was in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Kiss that one, Chad. No one could accuse me of being boring anymore.
Sure, it was my mom’s fiancé’s idea and his birthday gift to me. He wanted me to get to know his son while “living it up.” Which made sense, the son part, since technically we were going to be step siblings soon.
My only regret was missing my cousin’s surprise wedding. Not a surprise to him, but to his mate, Reid. I knew they would both understand, and given that the only guests were my mom and her soon-to-be hubby, I figured maybe it was just how it should be. Or at least that was my rationalization to my guilt-ridden self.
It turned out that Henry’s son, Jaxon, was in town only long enough to give me the keys to his place. He had an “emergency” come up, one I was pretty sure was less of an emergency and more of weekend with a hottie he met on the Internet, but who was I to judge?
I was here celebrating my twenty-fifth birthday with a bunch of strangers who, from what I could tell, only liked my future stepbrother for his money. In hindsight, maybe that was why he left town. He didn’t seem to have an issue with them using his place, but they were pretty freaking annoying. Or, more accurately, drunk and high, which tended to annoy me more than a bad personality.
“Come on, you know you wanna.” Larry, one of the “friends” in question held out a little white pill—again. He’d been hitting on me since he walked in with his band of cohorts. I immediately snapped a pic and sent it to Jaxon to make sure they were legit, and he sent back a thumbs-up with the hashtag #mydoorisalwaysopen. Did he have no love of his belongings?
“I’m good. I think I will throw some beads.” Which was the last thing I wanted to do, but every time I thought about heading out to find anywhere else to be, he was close on my trail, offering to give me a tour. I decided it was best to stay put just in case he was following for bad reasons. He seemed harmless enough, but the last thing I needed was an angry drunk high person when the non-angry version was annoying enough.
The balcony was packed, and half the people were smoking, which had me wanting to hightail it back inside when I heard, “Throw me something, mister,” and saw him. There was something about him. He wasn’t part of the drunk hoard and almost looked out of place on the street below, calling for beads.
Before I could even think through my actions, I found myself hollering back, “Show me something.” It was beyond unlike me, but so was all of this: the beads, the party, the being in NOLA.
“Come on down here and I’ll show you whatever you want,” he replied, and he didn’t have to ask twice. I wasn’t even sure if he meant it. I didn’t care. I needed to see him up close, to chat up this out-of-place bead beggar.
“Where you going? Want company?” Larry called as I all but flew out the door.
I stopped dead in my tracks. I’d almost forgotten about him.
“Naw. I just saw a friend. I’m heading down to meet him. Nice meeting you.” He nodded in understanding and immediately made his way to another omega, grabbing his ass. Thank freaking goodness I’d been replaced.
I ran down the stairs, not wanting to have my mystery man disappear before I got there. It made no sense to be so attracted to someone, maybe even an alpha, who I’d yet to meet, much less scented. I flung the door open and stumbled out of it like a complete drunk
“Hey.” A hand came out to help me right myself, the scent of amber and lavender filling my senses. “I’ve got you.”
“Ummm, thanks.” I stood up, finding myself face-to-face with the man from below. “I was—I tripped. Hi.” I was so freaking eloquent.
“Jay.” He chuckled, his rich voice intoxicating, which fit the atmosphere.
“Thanks, Jay.” I brushed off my pants, not that there was anything on them, but I needed something to occupy my hands so I didn’t reach out like a freak and touch him.
“And your name?” His smile nearly brought me to my knees.
“Oh yeah, right. I’m Brent.” I held my hand out, which he held in his instead of shaking it.
I was okay with that. I knew it was just flirting or foreplay or whatever they called it in this town. Things seemed to move at a much faster clip here. But I still allowed myself to enjoy it.
“So I figured I would show you something.” He tilted his head in the direction of that tall church, whatever it was called.
“I was hoping.” I snapped my mouth shut. Why was I being so forward and weird. But then he intertwined his fingers with mine, and my mouth popped back open again. “I thought maybe you’d be gone when I got down. I wasn’t sure how all this insanity worked.”
“And yet you managed a balcony?” He glanced up to where I came from, the crew throwing beads and pulling out body bits left and right.
“My almost stepbrother owns the place. I just met him on this trip, and he kind of left right away.” I officially sounded as pathetically boring as I was.
“He invited you and then left?” Interestingly enough, he sounded more mad than disbelieving, and while I tried not to make too much of that, the omega in me wanted to draw the conclusion that his alpha instincts were shining through and not that he was just making idle chitchat.
“Yeah, and he didn’t explain, but like I said, I just met him so—?” I shrugged. I had no excuse for him. I didn’t need one. This was a vacation, nothing more.
And that made me a little sad because as much as I knew Mardi Gras hookups were just that, the thought of this man showing up at my door with flowers, ready to take me on a real date, gave me the best kind of butterflies in my stomach.
“So what do you have to show me?” I tried to infuse sexy into my voice, but it fell flat. I very much sucked at this.
“And now that I know it is your first time in NOLA, that something has morphed into a plethora of somethings.”
And that was when he led me by the hand down the street on a night that would change my life forever.