Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
________
JACK
It had started to rain while we were in the venue. Now just a light sprinkle that I didn’t mind. Darkness had fallen and all the roads sparkled, reflecting the city lights. It made the night feel magical, because it was.
A wave of delicious rose swept over me. My hands twitched with the need to grab this woman and hold her close. Tease her, touch her, taste her. Drag my hands over that purple temptation of a dress and feel everything she hid beneath it.
Soon.
If someone had told me life could change that fast, would I have believed them?
Eva still held Tyler’s hand, and I tamped down the jealous feeling. There would be more than enough touching soon enough. The way she turned pink when I told her we’d get to the fucking was going to live in my head forever.
She gasped, that same hand tearing away from Tyler and flying to her stomach. “Fuck.”
“Are you okay?”
Eva winced. “Yeah. But I might have accidentally pulled you guys in deeper than you might want right away.”
Liam growled softly, stepping closer. I saw it raise the hair on her arms. But her scent said arousal and not fear. She stood in the center of us, and if that wasn’t fucking perfect... “I think we’re already in deep,” he said.
“While I’m filming I take suppressants.” Her voice was quiet to make sure no one other than the four of us could hear. Not even her security. “Keeps the schedule on track, you know? And when I come home, I stop taking them so I can deal with a heat privately.”
“That makes sense,” Dylan said.
She looked at him and bit her lip. “I stopped taking them yesterday because I’m free from filming for the next three months. This was my last event. I was expecting it tomorrow or maybe the next day. Then I crashed into you, and…”
“You’re going into heat?” I asked.
She nodded.
I couldn’t keep my hands to myself anymore.
Pulling her against my body where I could feel every soft curve, I kissed her.
Eva’s lips opened beneath mine. She tasted like that first sip of coffee when it was the only thing you craved.
Like soft sweetness and perfection. And just like she said, underneath it all, she tasted like heat.
The way she softened had me crushing her even closer. Until I needed breath and we were both gasping as the car pulled up beside us. We piled in together, Eva ending up sprawled over my lap. “What do you need?”
“I don’t know,” she said, “and I don’t really care. I just know that it’s you.”
Fuck. I was already hard from simply touching her and scenting her. Now my dick might as well have been made of diamond.
“How much time do you have?” Tyler asked.
Wherever I touched her skin felt warm. And I couldn’t stop touching her. Stroking down her arms and spine. Smoothing my palms over her thighs and skimming beneath her skirt. My fingers touched metal, and we both froze. I raised an eyebrow and she smirked, eyes sparkling as she answered Tyler.
“I don’t know.” She was breathless. “I’ve never had a heat with Alphas. It’s speeding up because of our scents. So I honestly have no idea.”
I looked at my packmates. “The big bedroom. Grab every pillow and blanket you can find. Hoodies too. Anything soft.” I looked at her, her eyes wide in the light from the passing street lamps. “Any requests?”
She shook her head.
Liam leaned over and stroked a hand down her back. “We’re about to get a big shove into knowing each other really well. So while we’re all… keeping ourselves together—”
Tyler snorted. “Is that what we’re doing? I’m one move away from pouncing.”
“Is there anything you don’t want, Eva?”
Her face was red from the coming heat and his questions.
Her perfume wafted through the car, stronger as she sank closer to heat, and I cursed under my breath.
“That smells so fucking good.” My hands squeezed her tighter.
“Tyler’s right. We’re all one breath away from pouncing.
It’s only the knowledge that none of us will want to stop that’s keeping us in our clothes. ”
“You say that as if I’m not in the same place.” Her voice was unsteady. She twisted to look at Liam. “Anything I don’t want during sex?”
“Yes.”
She slid off my lap, and I buckled her in between Tyler and me, kissing her neck while I did it.
“Nothing permanent,” she said. “No marking. Yet.”
Yet.
Holy hell, I would sink my teeth into this woman in a heartbeat. Whenever and wherever she said yes, I was game.
“Not a big fan of pain. But other than that?” She lifted one shoulder in a shrug.
“The only pain I want you to feel is when you’re coming too many times,” I murmured the words into her ear and savored her shiver.
“How far away is your place?”
“Not far. We’re almost there.”
Tyler lifted Eva’s other hand and kissed the inside of her wrist. “Does this help or make it worse?”
She whined, the sound calling to my instinct to pin her down this fucking second. “Is it possible to say both?”
We all laughed and drifted into silence laced with longing and waiting. It felt like the four of us all exhaled in relief when we saw our building.
I opened the car door before it had fully stopped. “I’m taking them up to clear the apartment,” I said. We needed her security to move fast. I could tell Eva was doing everything in her power to hold herself in check. The longer she had to wait, the more painful it would be. For all of us.
A tall Alpha stood in the lobby and nodded to Neil.
“This is Wes, the other team member I mentioned.”
We shook hands on the way to the elevator. “We live on the top two floors of the building. It requires a code to allow the elevator to get there.” I didn’t hide the code as I entered it.
“There’s not much for you to check right now. We only moved in a couple of weeks ago, and we’ve been finishing up the tour, so most of our things are still in boxes except for furniture and bedding.”
Neil chuckled. “That does make it easier.”
“Thank you for being flexible.” I palmed the back of my neck. “Safe to say none of us knew this was coming.”
Wes laughed. “It happens, and I’ve been there. My pack and I met our Omega, Christy, in a grocery store. It went pretty much like this. We were lucky to make it out of the freezer aisle. Our instincts don’t give a shit about timing.”
“Tell me about it.”
And yet, if it hadn’t happened at the DCAs, would it have happened at all? People like Eva and people like us rarely had reason to cross paths because of our different industries. Suddenly, all I felt was fucking grateful.
The elevator opened into the short hallway before the door, and I let them in. “Do what you need to do. I’ll stay here.”
We had nothing to hide, and I didn’t want to make them think otherwise by following them around like a lost puppy. Besides, my Omega would be here in a matter of minutes.
My Omega.
Those words rolled through my mind and off my tongue like butter. So natural it couldn’t be questioned. I couldn’t stop smiling.
“This is going to make me jealous, isn’t it?” I heard Eva say as the doors to the elevator slipped open. She took one look at me standing in the open door and what was behind me. “Yup. Jealous.”
Dylan leaned down over her shoulder. “Don’t be jealous. Just think of this as potentially yours.”
Our Omega froze like she’d short-circuited.
Her instincts were too high, and she hadn’t even considered beyond the sex we were about to have.
Like how we were already ready to turn everything in our lives inside out just for her.
This place was amazing. If she loved it, we’d keep it.
If she didn’t, we’d move. Not exactly hard since we were still in boxes.
As long as we were with her. I begged the universe for her to want forever with us after the heat.
“Everything looks good,” Neil said. “Thank you.”
“No problem.”
“Do you have somewhere one of the guards can rest while the other is on duty?”
Tyler raised his hand. “Yeah, we’ve got that. Follow me.”
Dylan guided Eva into my arms before he and Liam strode towards their bedrooms. She whined in my arms, clinging tighter. “Where are they going?”
I lowered my head to hers, lifting my hands to cradle her face. “We’re going to get everything you need to make yourself a nest. We don’t have one yet, and I don’t think you have time to wait, do you?”
“No.”
“They’ll be back soon,” I whispered against her lips. “Let’s meet them upstairs.”
She smiled. “Okay.”
“Okay.”
I pulled her up off the ground and into my arms. She gasped before laughing, and I saw a future where this was common for us. Was meant to be. I wanted that.
And we’d figure that out after her heat. First, we had to fuck our Omega.