16. Chapter 16
16
Time melted into moments between orgasms. If the light dimmed and returned, we didn’t notice. Oliver had Esta twice before she left him enough for his knot to slip out. They dozed off, and I rustled up a plate of dried fruit and flatbread. I brought fresh water and wet Esta’s lips with it. Her entire body blistered like the midday sun.
Her cream and peaches saturated the room. The scent made my cock harder than steel. I couldn’t help but stroke it, my stomach twisting at the illicit moment. I’d imagined Esta so many times, doing exactly this. Pretending under the cloak of darkness that I wasn’t crossing any lines.
I’d been damned the moment I looked into her eyes and handed her a bouquet. Another thing Hale forgot.
The boundaries were obliterated now. Hale begged us to take his rightful place, and Esta agreed. Her lips were plump from my desperate kisses, my stubble rubbed the skin of her jaw red. Her mouth was parted now, docile and soft. Sated. I ached with the need to give her that, fill her with my knot, and have my name cried out. My cock was drenched with sticky cum as Esta’s eyes flickered open. Her nostrils flared with a delicate, drowsy interest before her gaze landed on my cock.
“Sorry,” I apologized, frozen.
“How do I do that?” she moved closer.
My eyebrows arched high, and I paused for a moment before beckoning her closer. She reached out a tentative palm, laughing softly at her reticence.
“You don’t have to do this.” I reminded her, my throat bobbing.
She wrapped her small hand around my cock and jerked it up and down with a frown of defiance. Oliver stirred on the bed, rolling over to watch with heavy-lidded eyes. I still couldn’t believe how okay he’d been about this.
I guess I wasn’t the only one secretly in love with Esta.
“I want to make you feel good,” she whispered. Her cheeks flooded red, and she faltered as if embarrassed by the admission. I cupped her cheek and pressed my lips to hers, desperate to leech any negative emotion away. My brain balanced on the edge of a rut, driven primal by her heat-plumped scent.
Designed to whip me into a frenzy of need.
With my free hand, I wrapped my grip over hers and showed her how to touch me. “Squeeze me hard, careful with the head.” Her breath turned to soft pants, and her thighs became shiny with slick. She freed her hand and brought it to her mouth, tasting the mess I’d made over her palm.
“I want…” she started, and I didn’t wait for her to finish.
She wanted me.
Esta wanted me .
I didn’t care if it was heat, haze, or lust. At that moment, she was mine, and I was going to treat her like my wife.
Tender, passionate, and devoted. How I could love her if she were mine.
I pulled Esta to straddle me and notched my head at her entrance. Slick ran down her lips, readying us both. Her hands landed on my shoulders, and she tucked her head into the crook of my neck. But I couldn’t let her hide as this was happening. The first time I took her, I wanted her gaze on me. Jealousy flared sharply in my stomach.
I didn’t want her to think of anyone but me.
“Look at me.”
Esta sank down on my steel length with a sigh, lifting her head and letting our gazes melt. I drowned in the ice-cap blue of her eyes. Shards of the palest blue, almost white. My eyes fluttered as her perfect heat encased me, but I refused to miss this moment. The way her mouth hung open and the tip of her pink tongue ran along her lips. Her nails dug into my shoulders, and she wriggled her hips, trying to impale herself on me. My knot swelled immediately. Her walls rippled, and I flicked a disbelieving look at Oliver. His lips twisted in a knowing smile.
Bastard . How had he lasted?
“I’ve seen nothing more beautiful than you are right now.” I swallowed the knot in my throat.
I’d lived a life under the hazy beat of the sun. Chased it across the sky and deep into the wildlands. I’d always been searching for something more than what I had. My skin turned tanned leather as I tried to find something to soothe my restless soul. I thought it was adventure I craved—endless movement and journeys, somewhere new every day. My roots were the wind, and I needed to fly for happiness. I never thought I’d find that feeling in a person. But Esta was everything I’d always longed for.
Heat, sun, sky, and wind. She was what I looked for in every sunset, every storm.
A wild beauty and heart I was desperate to possess.
Esta sought my mouth, and I gave her everything, said all the things I wanted to say but couldn’t.
I love you.
I want to keep you.
Make me yours.
We’re meant to be together. All of us, even Hale.
Esta’s eyes turned shimmery, and my hands stilled on her delectable body. My knot teased her entrance, and she bore down on me as a tear slipped down her cheek. I could feel her in my chest already, like the tug of a phantom bond, and my eyes pricked in response.
“Why do you cry?”
Please gods, don’t let her regret this. Oliver often left blessings for the gods, especially the Warrior. I only put my faith in the stars and the earth. Things tangible and real. But I’d make a prayer if only I could keep her a little longer.
I didn’t want to know if she was regretting this. Her sadness was a rusted knife carving my heart out of my chest. She shook her head, dashing away the brief flood of tears that followed. She gasped at the ceiling, trying to steady herself.
“Being here with you and Oliver feels perfect, fated. I hurt so badly when Hale left me. I gave him so many chances to leave, but he stayed. But then he left when I needed him most. Now you’re both here, and you feel so good, you smell so flawless, and I can’t help feeling like I’m proving Hale right. A greedy omega, taking alphas that aren’t hers.” Her broken words rushed out. My stomach swooped, distraught and desperate to prove her wrong. I wrapped my arms around her trembling back, pressing our bodies together.
“You feel my heart?” I tipped my head down to where we were plastered. My heartbeat crashed like a charge of mustangs. Thundered like a thousand hooves, churning up dust. “It’s yours. I gave it to you long ago, before I even knew you were an omega. And this moment might feel like a betrayal to you, but Hale begged us to help you. And I will never look at this as anything other than a miracle.”
My cock twitched inside of her, and it broke the tense moment. My knot pushed into her welcoming pussy and her walls sucked me deep enough to scatter my gaze with a shimmer of sparks.
“Let me take care of you. Give yourself over to me and forget about the outside world for your heat. Can you promise me?” I begged in a strained voice. She nodded, already moving on top of me. There were no more words. Only sounds of desperation. She met my grunts with breathy moans, and I filed each of them away in a secret part of my brain. I filled my hands with the flesh of her plump cheeks, forcing her to grind on me. She fell apart so beautifully, shuddering and shaking like a newborn colt.
It was perfect. But not enough.
“That’s it, but we’re not done yet.” I muttered against the throbbing pulse of her throat. I kissed where I wanted to bite, using every frayed strand of control not to claim her. My knot swelled as she rode me, her thighs clamped around my hips. I ran my fingers over her gnarled scars, hoping to smooth away the horrible memories with new, happier ones.
“Ruck, ugh.” Esta tossed her head back as my fingers played with her clit. The noises she made drove me crazy enough to slam my lips on hers. Her scent flooded my bloodstream, making my veins flare with fire. My cock throbbed in her tight hold, and she squirmed on top of me.
She was a goddess.
One I didn’t deserve but needed to keep now. Her tongue tangled with mine, wanting, taking, desperate for more. I worked my fingers around her slick nub until she shattered around me once more, and I couldn’t hold back this time. My release exploded out of me, coating the furnace of her walls with hot ropes. She melted into my ready hold. I reached around and pressed a finger at the tight, puckered hole between her ass cheeks.
“One day, I’ll have you here,” I promised, smiling lasciviously against her neck. Esta stiffened, and I cleared my throat. “Sorry, that’s not my place.”
I whipped my hand away while my stomach sank like a stone. Not my place. My careless words tarnished the moment.
I didn’t want Hale to touch her. I wanted to be the one to care for her. But Hale made Esta his wife, and what place did I have to speak out against it? I would take this heat, make it special for Esta, and everything else would wait.
And when it was over?
Gods, I didn’t want it to end.