Chapter 2
Rain looked up. Celestina’s smile softened again.
“Would that be all right?”
Her voice was quiet, almost tentative. Rain straightened stiffly, clutching the tissue in her hand.
Celestina’s gaze dipped, as though she had caught that flicker of uncertainty.
“But there is something I’d still like to know.”
Something dark flashed in her eyes. Her voice only grew gentler.
“Had you already planned what you were going to say to me tonight?”
She paused.
Alpha pheromones began to seep into the air, quickly filling the space between them. Rain could not smell them—she was a beta—but she felt the air grow suddenly heavy. Her breathing faltered.
The corner of Celestina’s mouth lifted. Her fingers trailed slowly along the back of Rain’s chair before she returned to her own seat.
The distance between them widened. Her pheromones did not recede.
They curled around Rain’s ankles, climbed the soft fullness of her honey-brown thighs, and slipped soundlessly between the knees she had pressed together in her unease.
Rain caught her lower lip between her teeth and let her legs ease slightly apart. She did not understand what was happening. The room had simply become stifling, and her legs felt strangely weak, almost aching.
She looked across the table at Celestina, unsure what to do.
“Rongrong’s been—”
“Or was it only after you saw me that you decided… we ought to be a little more careful about keeping things separate?”
Rain had finally found something to say, a way to steer the conversation back to the cat. Celestina cut her off before she could manage it.
Her voice was still warm, the pause perfectly placed. There was even a trace of earnestness on her flawless face.
The words caught in Rain’s throat. She swallowed what she had meant to say and tried again.
“…Celia, I just think there might be quite a gap between us. We can still be friends. It’s just…”
She hesitated, remembering their first meeting two months earlier.
It had been early morning in the park near campus, with hardly anyone around. Rain was cycling along the lake when she spotted a kitten struggling in the water. Almost no one else seemed to have noticed the little thing flailing there.
She stopped at once, threw off her jacket, and jumped in.
The chill of early spring still lingered, and the lake was bitterly cold. By the time she climbed out, she was shaking. The kitten in her arms was trembling even harder. Rain rubbed desperately at her back, trying to get her warm, and never noticed Celestina approaching.
Celestina came up behind her, bent slightly, and draped her coat around Rain’s shoulders.
A cool, lovely scent enveloped her. Rain lifted her head and found herself looking straight into a pair of brilliant blue eyes.
There was no denying how kind Celestina had been. How thoughtful a friend.
She had introduced herself as a beta, an executive at a technology company. She loved animals. She liked to exercise. When she learned about Rain’s difficulties, she offered to look after Rongrong. She even bought a secondhand bike so she could join Rain on her daily rides.
For a while, Rain had thought she had found someone who understood her in a way few people ever did.
Then, two weeks ago, her younger sister had come to New York to visit.
An omega, she had frowned almost as soon as she walked through the door. Rain smelled strongly of an alpha, she said.
“Are you seeing someone?”
At the time, Rain had thought the question ridiculous.
She was a beta. She could not smell pheromones. Celestina’s height, her sharp presence, that faint but unmistakable pressure she seemed to exert on a room—Rain had simply assumed those things came with being a senior executive, someone accustomed to authority and familiar with the world.
But after her sister left, she began to think back.
There was something about Celestina’s casual elegance. Even in an ordinary T-shirt and jeans, standing in a crowd, she looked as though everyone around her ought to make room.
More importantly, Rain knew almost nothing about her. Not her past, not her family. She did not even know which company Celestina worked for.
Meanwhile, somewhere between their bike rides, their conversations, and taking care of Rongrong, Rain had laid her own life open for her to see.
She had begun to feel the distance between them, and with it a growing unease. Perhaps they had never been on equal footing at all.
That was why she needed to use tonight’s dinner to make things clear. Acknowledge the difference. Put a little distance between them.
Rain was silently working up her courage when her phone vibrated.
She flinched and glanced at it, too startled to hide the alarm in her eyes.
A few days ago, an omega she did not know had contacted her on Instagram. He had been messaging her ever since.
He claimed he used to be one of Celestina’s “toys.”
Celestina lowered her eyes. Her fingertip went still against the rim of her glass.
A knock came at the door. The server entered and returned the check presenter. Celestina said nothing as she signed, her movements quick and precise. The black fountain pen moved steadily across the paper, though her gaze strayed briefly toward Rain’s phone.
The door closed again, leaving the room quiet.
Rain heard the soft click of the pen cap. Her lashes fluttered. The air seemed more stifling than before.
“What are you thinking about?”
Celestina smiled and settled back in her chair. Her posture was relaxed. Her eyes remained fixed on Rain.
“I’ve done something to make you uncomfortable.”
It was a statement. She spoke slowly.
“Was it the gifts? The restaurant? Or have I been around a little too often these past two months?”
Rain’s hand drifted toward her phone without her realizing it.
Celestina did not follow the movement with her eyes. She did not so much as blink.
“Rain.”
It was not the easy, smiling voice she usually used when Rain called her Celia. Nor did it sound anything like the flirtatious teasing from earlier in the evening.
Rain’s hand stopped. She looked up instinctively.
Celestina had leaned forward, her hands folded on the table. Her beautiful blonde hair fell over one shoulder. In the lavish light of the private dining room, she looked almost unreal.
“Has someone said something to you?”
Her gaze did not waver. Her voice was so soft it was almost affectionate.
Yet the gentler she became, the less room Rain felt she had to retreat.
“About me?”
For a moment, the room went utterly still.
Rain looked at Celestina. Nothing in that flawless face betrayed pleasure or anger.
Her heart sank.
“You don’t have to keep his secrets. Not if you still think of me as a friend.”
Celestina seemed to have read something in her silence.
Or perhaps it was her face. God only knew how wide-eyed and foolish she looked right now.
“You know who it is?” Rain asked quietly.
“I can make a fairly good guess.”
“So everything he said was true?”
“Which part?”
Celestina’s gaze rested on Rain’s flushed face. She asked the question softly, but somehow Rain felt there was nowhere to hide.
She lowered her eyes and began studying her plate.
“That you’re… not just anyone.”
She chose the words carefully.
“My family situation tends to give people the wrong idea.”
Celestina offered no immediate explanation. Instead, she picked up the decanter and slowly poured more wine into Rain’s glass. As the amber liquid rose, she looked over the rim at the anxious girl across from her.
“And I’d rather people got to know me before they got to know my surname. Valdieri isn’t exactly… a common name.”
“Did he tell you I’m not a beta?”
Celestina lifted her glass and leaned lightly against the edge of the table. The long black dress she had chosen especially for tonight traced her slender figure. She looked so utterly at ease that it was almost impossible to find a crack in her composure. Even the way her fingers held the stem of her glass suggested an assurance she had been born with.
“The only reason I didn’t tell you was that I wasn’t sure you could like an alpha.”