Chapter 24
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
Reece
Her eyes blaze as she stares at me, and ripping myself away from her kiss nearly kills me.
Color burns high in her cheeks. Her lips are swollen from kissing, and every instinct I possess is screaming at me to close the distance between us again. To forget common sense. To forget consequences. To forget every reason I’ve spent years keeping my feelings locked away.
Even if her scent wasn’t wrapping itself around me, making it difficult to think, I’d still want her.
Mari takes a step toward me. Then another.
The tiny cellar suddenly feels far too small.
She’s burning up when she places her hands on my chest like she’s memorizing my heartbeat. Her lips twist in a smile as she drags her fingers down my abdomen.
“Don’t, Mari,” I manage.
Her brow furrows. “Don’t what?”
“Don’t look at me like that,” I say. “Don’t touch me this way. You’re in heat. You aren’t in the right state of mind.”
A flash of hurt crosses her face before stubbornness replaces it. “I’m fine.”
I shift back another step. “This is dangerous. You need to go home. Have someone there help you with this.”
“I don’t want to go home,” she insists.
My pulse pounds. She isn’t teasing or flirting. She’s serious.
Rain beats ferociously against the small window high above the table. Even if there was time to get her to the Gardeners before the worst of her heat hits, the storm outside is too dangerous to travel in. I don’t even know how she got here in the first place. Did someone drive her?
Finally, Mari sits down again on the edge of the cot and sighs, scrubbing her hands up and down her arms.
“I’m scared, Reece,” she says. The vulnerability in her voice guts me. “I-I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. But…I don’t want to go home. I don’t want to leave you.”
I sit beside her, leaving more space between us than I would wish. “Okay, okay,” I whisper to try and soothe her. “But if you’re going to stay here and ride it out, there are some things we’re going to need. Like a nest.”
This is a terrible idea. One of the worst I’ve ever had. If anyone gets wind of this, if they find out she’s here with me—
Mari glances behind her, at my skinny cot and folded blankets.
I let out a short laugh. “This isn’t even close to a nest. Pen had us make up one of the guest rooms upstairs. You can go rest in there. I’ll bring you water, food, extra blankets—whatever you need. You just have to tell me.”
“Reece.” She blinks up at me with those long lashes. “I need you with me. Nothing else.”
“Oh.” I’m not sure I heard her right. “But—”
“I really don’t want to be alone right now.”
“Do you want me to call Mr. Moreau?” It hurts me to bring up his name, but if it’s for Mari…
She looks at me like I’ve slapped her. “Fuck no.”
A laugh escapes. It’s one of the few times I’ve heard her curse, and her rejecting Luca so openly is music to my ears. She needs an Alpha…but not him.
“Then tell me what I can do to help.”
Before she can answer, her entire body folds in on itself. A sharp gasp tears from her throat.
Panic grips me. “Mari?”
Doubling over and clutching her middle, the color drains from her face. “It hurts,” she says with a half choking sound.
My stomach drops. Everyone knows generally about Omegas’ heats and how debilitating they can be. I’ve read that biology book from front to back multiple times and a few others from the Gardeners’ library, but none of it prepared me for seeing Mari in this much pain. Nothing could.
“What hurts?” I ask as I scoot closer.
“Everything.” She squeezes her eyes shut. “I feel like my insides are twisting into pretzels. I’m achy and want to rip off my skin.” Another moan of pain from her, and fear claws up my throat. I need to do something.
Anything.
There’s a small, nagging voice in the back of my head saying, “See, this is why you can’t be with her. You won’t be able to give her what she needs. You can’t rut her or give her a knot.”
Then another thought hits me, silencing the first.
My invention.
I hold it up to my face. It’s not ready. It hasn’t been tested to see if my theory is even possible. It may do nothing. The chances of it actually disrupting the receptors in the brain are near impossible.
Yet Mr. Stockton seemed interested in my idea. He made it sound like it could work under the right conditions…
But right now, Mari like this in Pen’s wine cellar is far from the right conditions.
What if it makes things worse?
What if it helps?
“Mari,” I say gently, showing her the box. “We can try this. I’m not sure if it’ll do much to help but…we can try. If you’re up for it.”
Her eyes fly open. “Yes. Yes.”
“It probably won’t change anything,” I admit, like a forewarning of disappointment.
“Reece.” She reaches her shaky hand to mine. “I trust you.”
My chest aches. Even after everything, after I hurt her deeply, she still trusts me.
That settles it.
Leaning forward, she turns her head to give me better access to the spot behind her right ear. I carefully slide the device beneath her headband, adjusting the strap of it until the contact point rests where I need it.
Here goes nothing.
A faint vibration hums to life, and I swallow hard. “How does that feel?”
“Strange,” she says tightly. “It sounds like a swarm of angry bees inside my head.”
I hold back a smile, then press the button to adjust the settings. The vibration deepens. “Now?”
She waits, saying nothing. Her eyes drift closed.
My heart pounds harder with each passing moment.
“Well?”
Slowly, her eyes open and her brows knit together in curiosity.
“The cramping’s still there. But…it’s manageable. So far.”
Hope sparks.
Mari presses a hand against her abdomen. “It feels like a dull ache now.”
Relief crashes through me. “Really?”
She nods. “Really.”
Oh. Oh. I did it?
I did it!
This is it! This will change everything for me. Stockton will—
Mari’s gaze lifts to mine, and something changes in her expression that makes me stop cold.
The pain has lessened inside her—it’s obvious—but the hunger I’d felt before in her kiss is now clearly visible across her face.
Her eyes sparkle, and I don’t know how it’s possible but her skin has a glittering haze over it.
A glow. She’s ethereal, sitting there with her hair wet and her face flushed, and I’m speechless.
“Reece.” The way she says my name sends a shock straight to my cock.
“Y-yes?”
“I want you.”
The words land between us like a lit match.
My breath catches. “Not me. It’s not me you want.”
The invention may have dulled the pain, but it clearly hasn’t solved everything. She’s still feeling the hyperactive sexual need Omegas feel during their heats.
“Yes,” she says suddenly. “You. It’s always been you.”
I start to rise, trying to put a little distance between us before I do something stupid, but Mari pushes me until I’m flat on my back.
The next thing I know, she’s on top of me, straddling my waist, and staring down at me like I’m a steak and she’s a starving wild animal. My hands fall automatically on her hips to keep her there. To keep her from moving.
My blood is hot, pounding, and she’s so warm and soft and pliant, her scent everywhere. I can’t think straight. But I don’t want to think anymore. It’s only gotten me into trouble when it comes to Mari, so instead I grab her arms and pull her down onto me until she’s hovering over me.
Her breath fans across my lips. “I don’t want to be friends anymore, Reece,” she says. “I want to be more. I’ve wanted it for a long time, and I held myself back, worried about what my family might say. Not anymore. I don’t want to pretend I only want to be your friend anymore.”
Those are dangerous words, but my heart leaps behind my ribs.
I know I should stop her. I know I should stop this, but I don’t. I can’t. I want her too much. “You know I can’t give you a knot.” It’s the least of what I can’t give her.
Yet here we are and neither of us pulls away.
The air thickens, both of us breathless. Waiting. Wanting.
Mari moves in, lips parting like she’s going to kiss me, only I coil my hand in her soft hair and gently grip against her skull and pull her head back. The sudden urge to find some rope and tie her up like in my fantasy is strong.
“I don’t care,” she says with a sigh. “I don’t want a knot. I just want you.”
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve dreamt of her saying that very thing to me. And now that she has, I’m completely lost in it. With her I’m alive like I’ve never been.
I pull her hair again, still gentle because I don’t want to get rough with her, and she arches her neck, exposing her throat.
I bring my lips to her throat, kissing, licking, and I want to suck, sink my teeth into her, mark her.
Not a mating mark, since Deltas aren’t capable, but just to mark her as temporarily mine.
Because in this moment, she finally is mine.
“Kiss me,” she orders.
A thrill thrums through me, and my cock is so hard it’s straining against the tightness of my pants.
“Anything for you,” I tell her.
Then I find her mouth, teasing it open with my lips, and she’s so damn soft, that sweet taste of her made darker from the rain and forbidden fire of her heat.
We kiss, long and deep, her tongue dancing with mine, and I’m fueled by her as I use my hand in her hair to keep her where I want her.
She mewls, rubbing her pussy on my trousers, and oh fuck, she is wet and burning hot.
I can smell her juices, how they mingle with her flowery scent and make it rich and carnal.
It’s short-circuiting what’s left of my brain.
I break the kiss and gaze at her. Lips swollen, color high in her flushed cheeks…
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so damn beautiful.
I want to go down on her. I want to bring her to the edge of pleasure over and over again until I lose myself completely in her.
If I was an Alpha, there’d be no hesitation.
I’d be rutting her, knotting her, and letting the pleasure of that cascade down through us both. And still it would never be enough.
I could never get enough of Mari.