The Circle Ch. 03

"Nice to meet you, man," Kyle said, extending his hand. I shook it. "You're looking at renting the top floor, yeah?"

"For now, until I find something more permanent," I replied, trying to regain my composure.

"Well, fair warning." He held his hands up, smirking. "We can get a little rowdy sometimes." He gave Silvie a suggestive look, and both she and Fiona rolled their eyes. He cupped Silvie's cheek quickly, looking like they were saying something across their mindlink, and then turned back to me. "Hope to see you around." With that, he went back into the back room, humming all the way.

I had landed in the middle of a bunch of happy couples - or, in this case, throuples. And the most eligible woman I'd met so far was not only my coworker, but my soon-to-be Alpha.

I mean, I know I fucked up, but I didn't think I deserved this much karmic retribution.

After telling Silvie we'd be back down shortly to get coffee, Fiona led me to another back room, where there was one door, an elevator and a flight of narrow stairs. "This leads out to the backside of the building," she explained, tapping the door as she moved towards the stairs. "The door to the shop is usually open during the day, but at night you'd have to come in through the back." I followed her up the stairs, a few steps behind, not totally by accident, as I got to watch her long legs and toned butt as she climbed. We passed a door on the second floor with a gold #1 affixed to the front. There was a pot of succulents on the floor, next to a doormat that read "Come back when you have tacos & booze." Ok, maybe this place wouldn't be so bad. At the top of the stairs, Fiona dug a set of keys out of her purse and sifted through them, seemingly finding the right one. "I have masters for all of our rentals, we keep them at the Alpha house just in case." She unlocked the door with the #2 on it, and I followed her in.

As a lawyer, I was disappointed in myself at how little I had controlled my facial expressions up to that point. And this only made it worse.

The apartment was large - one big room, with high exposed brick walls and thick black pipes lining the ceilings. But that was where the charm ended. Stronger than the scent of coffee from two floors below, the entire room smelled like must. The small kitchen was open, but the counters were a graying linoleum coated in a thick layer of dust like the rest of the room, and the sink dripped consistently, the sound echoing. The windows, which were probably only accessible with a ladder, even to me, were covered in grime, and a couple were propped open. I felt myself shudder as a breeze blew in, and Fiona pulled her oversized zip up closer to her chest.

"I didn't know it was this bad," she said quietly, biting her lips into a thin line. "Here." She moved to the kitchen, where she grabbed a broom that had clearly been left by the previous tenants. She walked towards one of the windows. "This place has been vacant since summer, they must have left these open and turned off the heating/cooling system." Fiona stretched on her feet, extending her arm to swat at one of the open windows with the broom handle.

"Jesus, let me do that." I ran forward. "It's fine, seriously." I tried to take the broom out of her hand, but she jerked it back, continuing to fling wildly.

"I've got it, Lightwell," she argued, still missing the wedge keeping the door open.

"Really, Fiona, I-

But I didn't get to finish my sentence, because just then, she lost her footing, her face slamming forward into me, her forehead colliding with my chin. We both tumbled down to the ground, away from the wall, where I laid for a second, dazed. As I'd imagined, she had an incredibly hard head. I realized, suddenly, that she was half on top of me, and instinctually, I rolled away. She fell to the floor with a thud, and then rolled over, groaning.

"Ouch," she hissed, grabbing at her chest with both hands, and then letting out a laugh. It wasn't what I had been expecting. Anger, frustration maybe, but not a laugh.

"You ok?" I turned my head towards her, my back still on the filthy ground, and she sprawled out next to me, flopping her arms above her head. Suddenly, her arms and legs were moving in and out towards the center of her body. "Are you making snow angels?" I asked incredulously, and she laughed again.

"Dust angels, technically." She did it a few more times, and then stopped, sighing. "Welp, it's not much, but if you want it, it's yours." She gestured around the room. "I'll get a cleaner in here tomorrow and we-

"No," I said, sitting up on my elbows and looking around the room. I mean, it was bad, don't get me wrong. But it had character. "I can do it, don't worry. I'm a big boy, remember?" I turned my head towards her as she sat up at her waist, shooting me an eye roll. Her back was completely covered in gray dust. "How about we make a deal?" She turned at her waist to face me, her hair falling behind her back. Instinctively, I reached forward, brushing some of the dust off her back and out of her silky hair. "I'll move in here, get it fixed up for you for the next sucker who decides to live above a self-proclaimed loudass throuple and a coffee shop that opens at 6 a.m."

"But," she started to argue, unable to fight the smile on her face, and I cut her off again.

"But nothing. My guess is you're going to charge me way below market rate for this place, because you'll do anything to help out the people you're responsible for. Am I right?" She pursed her lips.

"You've known me for a day, Lightwell, don't think you've got me figured out." I laughed, shaking my head.

"I don't think I'm close to figuring you out, but I'd like to try." Fiona was quiet for a minute before nodding.

"Deal. Now help me off this disgusting floor." I smiled, pulling myself up off the ground and offering her my hand.

"I think it'll be great," I chimed as she slipped her hand into mine. It was cold from being in that frigid room. "I can even get Beth to help, this sounds like a project she'd enjoy." As I hoisted her from the floor, she looked me over, surprised.

"Yeah, it is," she agreed quietly. Several seconds passed, maybe a minute, I'm not sure. I was watching her steely eyes flit around the room, and then she looked down at our still joined hands between us. "Uh, Lightwell?"

I didn't answer her. Instead, I think all reason and executive function just wafted away, as my hand pulled her closer, so she thudded against my chest, dust falling around us. My other hand moved to the side of her neck, and her eyes met mine. There was a flash of something, maybe fear, before they lit up like a fucking Christmas tree and darted down to my lips.

She wanted this too.

Before I could stop myself, I dipped my head down, my lips pushing against hers, gently at first, and then after a moment, hungrily. I let go of her hand and laced mine around her waist, tugging her against my chest harder, feeling her heartbeat as I let out a soft growl against her mouth. She moaned quietly, and then, as if snapped into reason, she pulled back quickly.

Her lips looked just as swollen and perfect as I'd imagined.

"I," she stammered, taking a step back from me. What did I do? "I can't."

"Why not?" I growled. "We're both consenting adults, you clearly wanted that or-

She interrupted me, and said just about the last thing I was expecting.

"I can't, I can't do this." She ran her hand through her hair. "I slept with your brother."