52. Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Two
Knox
This close, I can smell her properly. Warm skin with notes of lavender and lightning, and a hint of Omega sweetness. The faint trace of my own scent still clings to her from yesterday, and my cock throbs as I swallow thickly.
Halley notices.
Her hand comes down on my shoulder, then slides slowly over the front of my jacket. "You listened to me in there. Let me say my piece without interrupting."
"I generally make a habit of listening when you are being competent."
She laughs under her breath. "That was almost nice, Prime A...lpha."
She drags out the pause just long enough to make it obvious what she almost called me.
Prime Asshole.
Her old insult hangs between us, filthy now in a way it never used to be.
It should annoy me, and once, it did, but now all I can think about is how wet it makes her when I stop pretending I'm the gentle sort of Alpha and let myself be strict with her.
If my little Omega wants her Prime Asshole, I can be that for her.
Especially if it leaves her flushed, needy, and climbing into my lap to ask for more.
I slide a hand up the back of her neck and squeeze, not enough to hurt, rather to make it clear I am done pretending she is still the one in control.
"Go on," I say quietly. "Finish it."
Her lashes flutter. "Finish what?"
"That mouthy little insult." My thumb presses under her jaw until she gives me her full attention. "You worked very hard to make sure I heard it. I expect you to have the courage to say it properly."
A pulse jumps in her throat.
"Prime Asshole," she murmurs tentatively, eyes narrowed with suspicion.
I hum and tap her cheek with my finger. "There you are."
Her pupils widen, and the musk of slick hits my nose. She's perfuming unconsciously, and the scent never fails to make my head fuzzy.
"You're not mad?" she asks, her eyes darting between mine, desperately trying to read my expression.
I like that she's a little afraid.
"It pleases me that it gets you wet." I lean back in the chair and let my eyes move over her face, her throat, and the quicker rise and fall of her chest. "And I like that you still haven’t learned when to keep that smart mouth shut, because it means I get to remind you of your manners."
She bites her lip. "When did I forget my manners, Alpha?"
Her breath catches when I slide my hand from her neck to her waist and tug her closer until she has to brace harder on the armrests to keep from falling into my lap.
"You distracted me before the meeting and I couldn't concentrate," I say. "You whispered filth in my ear, then stood at my side looking pleased with yourself while I tried to run a command briefing with a hard-on."
Her cheeks flush deeper, but she still smirks. "You managed."
"I did." I let my gaze drop to her mouth again. "That does not mean you’re not going to pay for it."
The smirk wipes off her face, and the bond lights up with a rush of hot arousal that drags a low growl from my chest.
Halley shifts between my knees, rubbing her thighs together, slow and deliberate. "That sounds promising, sir."
My hand tightens on her waist. "Do not push your luck, Omega Specialist."
"Or what?"
I stand so fast the chair rolls back a few inches, and she lets out a startled gasp. The movement leaves her trapped between my body and the desk, my hands braced on either side of her hips. For a heartbeat, I do nothing except crowd her space and watch the realization move over her face.
This is what she wanted. She wanted me to lose control. To give her a taste of being with the asshole Prime Alpha she lusted after back in training camp.
"You want to know what I was thinking about instead of running that very important meeting?"
Her lips part, and her breath is coming quicker now. "Yes," she breathes.
I take the opening before she can make another smart remark and kiss her hard. Halley makes a small sound and grabs at my jacket. One hand slides from her hip to the back of her thigh, and I hitch it up onto my hip, hauling her against me until she feels exactly what she has done to me.
I'm hard, absolutely throbbing in my trousers. There is a dull ache where my cock is pressing against the zipper, begging to be released into something hot and warm and wet.
She breaks the kiss first, breathing erratically now, her eyes bright and unfocused, and it goes straight to my cock. Halley aroused is a sight to behold.
"I was thinking," I say with a dark grin, "about putting you over this desk and fucking that bratty attitude out of you."
Her whole body jolts.
That reaction gives me a vicious pulse of satisfaction.
"Is that what you wanted when you came to my office with this naughty attitude today?" I ask. "To stand there looking pretty and competent during the meeting while I pictured how fast I could make you come if I knotted you the second the room cleared?"
Halley’s hands fist in my jacket. Her pupils are blown wide, black swallowing the purple, eyelashes fluttering. "Maybe."
I grip the back of her thigh harder and lift until she has no choice but to wrap a leg around my hip for balance. I want her to be an active participant in her own undoing.
"Use your words, Omega."
"Yes," she sighs.
I lean in until my mouth brushes her ear and growl, "Yes, what?"
"Yes, sir," she breathes, her voice shaky and eyes wide.
I lean down and whisper against her lips, "Shall I show you what happens when my subordinate is disrespectful and behaves like a little slut?"
A small moan slips from her, unbidden and from the back of her throat while pink flushes her cheeks.
I shove a memory down the bond, transporting us back to the training camp and the first day we met.
I picture myself standing over her in her ill-fitting uniform, demanding she call me sir.
Suddenly, we're those two people again, strangers but somehow enemies from the second we met.
I let her see our first meeting from my perspective.
I let her see just how fixated I was on the petulant little pout of her full lips, and how achingly hard I was at the first hint of her scent.
I also let her feel just how angry I was that a single moment in her presence made me want to break protocol and fuck my subordinate.
Years of carefully curated control, shattered by her pretty eyes and sinful body.
Halley's body goes lax, her mouth falling open as she experiences my recollection.
"There you go." I bite lightly at the hinge of her jaw, then suck at the skin beneath it until she shivers against me. "That's much better. My pretty, submissive Omega."
She turns her face toward mine, chasing another kiss, but I catch her chin before she can take what she wants.
"You don’t get anything else yet," I say.
She whines and tries to push closer to me.
"Ah, ah. I know I'm being mean," I hold her gaze and let her see there will be no apology for it. "But you've always seemed to like that a little more than you wanted to, didn't you?"
She averts her eyes and a pink dusting appears high on the apples of her cheeks.
She might call me Prime Asshole, but when she does, there is always a hint of arousal in her scent. Her mouth might lie, but her body can't.
She told our Pack how she used to watch me at Barkrood Base whenever I stepped in as a drill instructor, long before we met and before she knew who I was.
The role encouraged me to be the biggest asshole, and apparently, that version of me got her off.
I always sensed someone watching, but I never guessed it was a horny little Omega with a filthy mind who would one day belong to me, and now I want to play with every fantasy she had.
I hook a hand under her thighs and effortlessly lift her onto the desk in one clean movement. Paper reports and datapads get shoved aside with my free hand, sacrificed to a better use of the space. Halley lands with a soft gasp as I step in between her knees.
I force the memory again, picturing myself standing in front of her in my tent, my voice cold as I warned her not to put her hands on anything. Back then, it was about establishing control and drawing a line between us to remind myself of our roles as much as I intended to remind her.
"Don’t touch anything," I tell her, echoing my voice from the memory, cold and harsh.
Her breath catches.
I drag her thighs wider and hold them there.
Halley’s fingers twitch against the desk. "You want to rewrite our first meeting?"
"Yes. I'm finally going to fuck you exactly the way I fantasized that day." I crowd closer until she has no room left to mistake who is in charge. "Now put your hands flat on the desk, Omega Sparks."
She hesitates just long enough to make my jaw tighten, her defiant streak still present to this day.
"Uh-uh, you don’t get to paw at me whenever you feel like it, princess," I murmur. "You sit there, hold still, and let me decide what you’re allowed to touch."
A shiver runs through her.
She leans back on her palms planted behind her on the wood.
I hum in approval but don't give her praise.
Old me never would have.
The bond is hot and bright between us, and I shove another pulse of memory through it. I recall her wide, gorgeous eyes and the defiant set of her mouth. The scent of her fear and arousal mixing until I could barely think straight.
"You had a problem with orders from the first day," I say, looking down at her spread open on my desk. "And here you are, still being naughty."
I let my gaze drop over her uniform. Her jacket, trousers, and combat boots.
Something dark and possessive tightens in my chest.
"In those first days, your uniform pissed me off almost as much as your mouth did," I say.
Halley blinks, surprised enough that her scent sweetens again. "My uniform?"