Chapter 12
TWELVE
LEON
He couldn’t stop smelling her.
It hadn’t taken her long to nod off, despite the trembling tension pulling every muscle of her small body taut. It’d taken only a little more time for Leon to quit the bed, donning clothes in a hurried rush to be free of the frustrating Omega.
Now, locked away in his office with a whiskey beside him, he thought to drown himself in work until he became too exhausted to be so damned eager for her. Yet he smelled her on every breath, ruining his best efforts to rid his mind of her soft curves and luscious lips.
Gods, but she was a vision, even as battered and bruised as she was.
Another thing that angered him. He should be deep inside his new mate, willing or no.
Forcing her to cry out his name, clinging to him in her passion, yet he couldn’t touch Elena for fear of hurting her.
She’d never once let on how damaged she was, hiding her winces and cringes behind all that thick hair so Leon had no idea.
Growling, he slammed back the last of the whiskey, raking his hand through his mussed hair as he poured another.
Gods, it would be weeks before she was even healed enough to properly claim her.
Leon wasn’t certain he could last another day, let alone the length of time it would take her to be in any sort of condition to withstand a heat. Which led him to a whole new host of problems.
He still had to find the male who did this to her in the first place.
Leon had put out calls to Silas and other connections, hoping to find some trace of the individual who terrorized his little Omega. Nothing had come of it. Yet.
Silas reminded him to be patient in his last call a mere hour ago, but with her scent growing stronger on his skin by the moment, Leon wanted nothing more than to bathe in the blood of the bastard who dared harm her.
And she thought him a monster.
Another wealth of problems there.
He hadn’t given her much reason to think anything else since he’d burst in on her in the hotel.
Leon didn’t need or want her love and adoration, but by the Gods, she’d respect him and bow to his demands.
With no plans on taking a mate anytime soon, he found himself at war with his own wants and needs.
An Omega at his disposal would be quite nice indeed, but not if she hated him with every fiber of her being.
He didn’t want to bed and breed a woman who would rather gut him than smile at him.
Taking a steadying breath didn’t calm his fraying temper, the heavy scent of jasmine and spun sugar coating the back of his throat until he let it out on a pleased rumble.
Why deny himself? She was prepared for it, had proven so every time she locked up when he drew too close. She knew what was expected of a mated Omega, and she wouldn’t dare try and deny him.
He wasn’t a complete asshole, that was why. He would no sooner bed a wounded female as he would cut off his own hand.
So he sat there like an idiot, holding his shirt to his nose to drag in deep draughts of her scent until there was a soft knock at the door.
“What is it,” Leon barked, jerking his collar straight as the door opened.
“Do you need anything else tonight, sir,” Mrs. Jacobs asked, poking her round face into the office with her ever present smile.
“No, Mrs. Jacobs. You may go on.”
“Will you breakfast with Miss Elena tomorrow?”
“No,” Leon said, turning his attention to the computer screen’s glow.
“As you wish, sir. Good night.”
“Good night.”
Two hours of work did nothing to calm his hunger for her.
Leon found himself climbing the stairs two at a time, remembering her dangerous lurch forward where nothing but his hold upon her kept her from tumbling down the steep staircase.
It slowed him as he approached the bedroom door, easing it open so as not to wake her.
Elena still slept, but not as he left her. Quiet whines and whimpers escaped her quivering lips, muscles twitching as she fought off some nightmare.
“Stop,” she mumbled into the pillow, arm jerking against her chest. “Please stop.”
Her assailant.
Leon growled low in his throat as he climbed onto the bed, covering her body with his.
Pressing her deep into the mattress to still her helpless movements as he turned the vicious sound into a purr for her ears alone.
He gave her his warmth and the solid strength of his body, and with a final sigh she settled back into a deep sleep.
He didn’t know how long he lay there, near crushing the tiny woman beneath him. Long enough to grow painfully hard, his hips moving of their own accord to rub against the soft roundness of her hip. Leaving a trail of slick excitement before he slid off to the side to curl around her back once more.
There he remained, his hardness tucked tight between her cheeks as he continued to purr for her. Keeping her docile and quiet in sleep as he explored her small body. Twining the softness of her hair around his fingers, rubbing it against the coarse stubble of his cheek.
He’d make her want him, by the Gods.