Chapter 1
1
Nash
A bead of sweat slipped down the side of my face, soaking into my helmet’s chin strap.
Blinking once, I took a steadying breath and refocused on the target through my gun’s scope.
I watched our perp yank the hostage back a step while he screamed at my teammates fanned out in front of him.
He was getting jumpy, and that made me nervous.
Micah motioned for the rest of our team to take a step back, but he stayed where he was.
He stood only a few feet in front of the perp and hostage, one hand still holding his M-4 assault rifle against his shoulder and the other held out in front of him placatingly.
I switched my comms channel over, letting Micah’s voice, along with all the other noise happening at street level in the diner across from where I was perched, flood into my ear.
“Easy,” Micah was saying.
“I just want to talk. I didn’t want to rush in here, but I got worried when you didn’t answer the phone, Steve. I can’t get you what you want if you won’t talk to me.”
I tuned out whatever the perp said back.
Micah was calm.
Somehow in his element in the middle of the chaos.
The wind picked up, and even though it was impossible, I swore I caught a tendril of his scent—lemon and vanilla and an earthy spice that wasn’t quite cinnamon but all Micah.
And it was as delicious as the first time I’d scented him at the academy all those years ago.
“Vulture.” The captain’s voice filled my ear.
“Go ahead, Captain,” I responded immediately, clicking the button on my throat mic.
“If you have the shot, take it. He’s deteriorating.”
“Copy.”
At that moment, the perp started to lift the hand holding the gun in Micah’s direction.
I didn’t think.
I did what I’d been trained to do.
The trigger was smooth as butter under my finger.
Micah had the hostage tucked against him, moving out of the diner within a second of the body hitting the floor.
As they passed through the diner’s door, he lifted his head and sent a single nod my way.
Micah
I was hoping the leftover adrenaline from earlier was what was causing the warmth under my skin.
Wrong .
From the building heat at the base of my spine to the way Nash’s dark gaze had been following me from the moment I stepped out of the shower, I knew I was in heat.
Omegas like me usually had a heat every six weeks or so.
The military-grade suppressants I was on because of my job on S.
W.
A.
T.
meant mine were usually a little further apart.
Roughly every three months, I’d have several days where I felt like shit while simultaneously being a horny—sometimes emotional—mess.
Good times.
I walked toward my locker, noticing that everyone else seemed to have cleared out.
Everyone except Nash, of course.
He was sitting astride the bench in the aisle between the two rows of lockers that our team used.
His locker was directly across from mine.
Which didn’t always make it easy to keep my eyes to myself.
“That was a great shot today, man,” I said as I pulled open my locker door and grabbed my boxer briefs.
I stepped into them, sliding them up my legs beneath the towel wrapped around my waist.
I wasn’t going to let him see my dick chubbing out if I could help it.
Not that he didn’t already know.
Nash and I had slept together enough times that I was sure he knew all my scents.
The same way I knew his.
Right now, his scent was telling me how much he didn’t care about the shot that had probably saved my life today.
He was much more invested in the slick working its way down to my hole.
“Nash,” I said when he didn’t respond.
He shook his head.
“Sorry. I’m glad we got those hostages out without injury.”
“Me too.”
His gaze dropped down my torso, nostrils flaring as my heat continued to build.
Keeping my voice low, I said, “We said last time was the last time.”
He tore his gaze away from my bare chest and cleared his throat.
With a shake of his head, he got to his feet and took a step away from me.
“I know. Sorry.”
I grabbed a shirt and pulled it on, turning my back on him before I dropped my towel and put on my pants.
“It’s alright. Believe me, saying no isn’t what I want to do.”
It wasn’t that we weren’t compatible or even that we were both S.
W.
A.
T.
It’s that we were on the same squad— the best squad —and as much as we liked fucking each other senseless every now and again, it was against the rules.
So far, it hadn’t been an issue because it was just sex, and it didn’t affect our working relationship.
But if it continued, we’d both be jeopardizing our positions on the squad we’d been dreaming of being part of since our bright-faced academy days.
But the aching emptiness building low in my body was battering at my better judgment.
What would one more time really hurt?
I watched Nash take one more step back before I spoke.
“My place or yours?”
Nash
My pulse was throbbing in my dick before I even got out of my truck in front of Micah’s apartment building.
When he’d dropped his towel in the locker room, the scent of his slick had nearly bowled me over.
It had taken every last ounce of my willpower to take one more step away from him before he said the words I’d been dying to hear.
Now, I was here and couldn’t wait to get Micah behind a closed door.
Couldn’t wait to get my hands on his skin, to get my lips against his.
When we were on the job, it was easier to pretend that co-workers and friends were all we were, but in the privacy of one of our homes, it was impossible for me to maintain that pretense.
I wanted Micah.
All the time.
Wherever we were.
“Are you coming?” Micah called from the door of his building.
I hurried in his direction, a ridiculous smile stretching my face.
He took one look at me when I was only a few steps away and broke out into a matching grin.
”Shut up.
”
“I didn’t say anything!” I laughed, grabbing the door he was holding open for me before following him up the stairs to his second-floor apartment.
“Your face did.” He stopped in front of his door, getting the key in the lock.
I crowded up behind him, pressing an open-mouthed kiss to the side of his neck and sliding my palms under the front of his t-shirt, teasing across the hard ridges of his abdomen.
“Fuck,” he said, low and fervent, the keys shaking in his hand as he tried to get the knob open.
“You’re making this difficult.”
I nibbled at the shell of his ear and whispered, “Where’s that legendary control, Sergeant?”
He huffed, finally getting the key twisted.
The lock clicked, and he stepped forward, pushing the door open.
I stepped with him, and as soon as we cleared the threshold, he spun, pressing me back against the door until it closed with a loud click.
“It’s leaking out of my ass. I don’t know how you make me so goddamn wet before you’ve even touched me.” His words ghosted over my lips before he slotted his mouth against mine.
A groan ripped out of me.
I clamped my hands onto his hips, pulling him closer while I ground forward, letting him feel how rock-hard I was for him.
“It’s not just you, sweetheart.”
Micah smiled into our next kiss, the only indication the endearment pleased him.
I was glad because I didn’t think I could hold them in.
When we were together like this was the only time I could let the filter drop, using my body and some of my words to show him how much I wanted him.
“Come on,” Micah said, moving to kiss along the line of my jaw.
“Bedroom.”
“I’m right behind you, baby.”
He kissed me one more time.
Then, smirk firmly in place, he pushed away from the door, grabbing my hand to lead me further into the apartment.
Not that I needed the guidance or that there was any chance in hell I wouldn’t follow him.
There was no walking away for me.
Only Micah and his mouth-watering scent.
“You with me, big guy?”
I huffed a laugh, picking up my pace and reaching forward with my free hand to pinch his ass.
“Always.”
Micah ducked his head with a shake, the dim light of the apartment barely letting me catch his grin.
We hadn’t bothered to turn on any lights so the intermittent glow from the security lights outside lit our way down the short hallway to his bedroom.
Once we were inside, Micah let go of my hand and stripped off his shirt on his way to the bed.
He clicked on the bedside lamp and tossed his shirt toward the hamper.
I stopped a few feet back just to stare.
Micah was magnificent.
Always had been.
Even fresh-faced in the academy and lacking the thirty or so pounds of muscle he’d packed on in the last few years.
He liked to call me the big one because I was taller than him, but really, he had me beat in the muscle department.
Broad shoulders narrowed to a tight waist before flaring out again with an ass and thighs that were proof he never skipped leg day.
All covered in miles of golden skin.
Beautiful.
There really wasn’t another word for him.
“You just gonna stare?”
”You know I could.
”
That sweet smile pulled at his lips again.
“Some other time, huh? I need your knot, Alpha.”
Fuck .
My nostrils flared.
We almost never referred to each other by our secondary genders because they honestly didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
“You’ve got me.” I stalked forward, watching him shuck off his pants.
He sat on the bed to remove his socks and shoes.
I did the same, trying to calm my heart rate.
I didn’t want to pop my knot the minute I got inside him, but fuck, it was going to be close.
He smelled so goddamn good.
Micah scooted backward on the bed, laying his head on the pillows and spreading his legs.
I got with the program and started getting rid of my own clothes, not really caring where they landed.
Once I was as naked as he was, I crawled up from the foot of the bed, keeping my gaze on his.
When I reached him, I skimmed my nose over his knee and up his thigh, sucking in greedy lungfuls of the heat scent pouring off him.
He was soaking wet now.
I could smell it and see the gleam of slick where it had leaked down onto his inner thighs.
“Nash, don’t make me wait.”
“Almost there, baby,” I whispered against his skin.
Despite my assurance, I moved slowly, licking a hot stripe up the inside of his thigh and groaning at the taste of him.
“Nash, I swear to god.”
With a chuckle, I dove in, muscling his legs further open with my shoulders and swiping my tongue over his fluttering hole.
“Jesus, fuck!” Micah arched up against me.
I banded an arm over his hips, holding him in place as he squirmed and cussed under my assault.
I couldn’t get enough of him—salty and sweet and all Micah.
Licking and sucking at his hole made him twitch and pant and I swore I could stay happily right there all night, my own hard cock be damned.
There was nothing like hearing his little whines while I tormented him.
“Nash, goddammit , get up here,” he finally grit out, hands finding my hair and giving me a stern yank.
I chuckled again, pulling away from my feast.
His cock was as hard as mine, purple and leaking against his abs.
“Are you ready for me, baby?” I asked, pressing a soft kiss to the swollen head of him.
“I’ve been ready, you asshole.” There was no heat in Micah’s voice, only need.
I moved the rest of the way up, catching his lips as I covered him with my body.
Staying braced on one hand, I used the other to guide myself to his messy entrance, pressing inside with almost no resistance.
One easy thrust, and I was buried inside the perfect heat of him.
“Fuck,” I said, voice strangled and leaving no doubt how effected I was.
“How is it better every time?”
“I don’t know,” Micah moaned.
“Now fucking move. Come on .”
And well, there was no denying him anymore.
I braced myself and pulled out enough to slam back in, setting a punishing rhythm right from the start.
Micah reached up and pressed a hand to the wall, keeping himself in place and meeting my every thrust.
Within minutes, I could feel my knot beginning to swell.
“Yes,” Micah hissed.
“I want it. Give it to me.”
“It’s yours.” I dropped further onto him, claiming his lips and grinding forward, locking my knot inside him.
His whole body locked up, body tight as a bow string until the tension snapped.
Pulling in a stuttering breath, he came in heavy, hot ropes all over his belly and mine without me even having to put a hand on him.
I kept moving through it, my knot pressed against his prostate and drawing out his ecstasy.
My own release slammed into me, sending quivers through my limbs and obliterating every thought in my head.
When I came back to myself, Micah was stroking a gentle hand through my hair.
At some point, I’d tucked my face against his neck.
My hips were still moving in gentle circles, my knot firmly gripped in the hot clutch of Micah’s body.
“I needed that,” he said, voice quiet and sated.
I hummed.
“Me too.”
His fingers stilled.
“Think it’ll be the last time?”
I wasn’t ready to let reality into our little bliss bubble just yet, at least not until my knot went down.
Snuggling further into him, I wrapped my arms up under his shoulders.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to pretend it isn’t.”
His laugh was soft.
“Okay, big guy.”