Chapter 26
Chapter twenty-six
Camelia woke up with the early morning light streaming in from the bedroom window, and her body temperature comfortable for the first time since her heat struck.
She was buried under the puffy comforter again, her head resting on several pillows as she slowly came out of sleep.
When she stretched, she marveled at the lack of sensitivity of her skin.
No sweat, no desperation, no tingling between her legs that said that she was empty that was fucking wrong.
Her heat was over.
Thank God.
It took several moments before Camelia gathered the courage to fully open her eyes, and when she did, she was thrown directly into a bedroom in complete disaster. Clothes were strewn this way and that, and she flushed at the sight of her lacy panties dangling from the doorknob of the closet.
How James or Evan hadn’t noticed that and moved them...fuck, she didn’t want to think about either of them handling her underwear.
Fuck.
Camelia swallowed, throwing the comforter off her body and slowly standing on barely steady legs so that she could go over to the full-body mirror hanging on the back of the bedroom door.
She flushed even hotter as she looked at herself, her hands curling into fists as humiliation washed over her.
Her entire body covered in marks. Hickeys and bruises from the crushing grip of four hands, littered across her body in a damning tell-all of what she had been doing for the past few days.
An aggressive-looking scratch mark on her hip made her gently trace her fingers across the slightly swollen skin, and she winced at the soft throb of pain the touch elicited.
What the fuck...had they done?
Their combined scent was still heavy in the room as she turned away from the mirror, an even more damning piece of evidence.
It was thick and heady and spicy and smoky and.
..sweet. So fucking sweet. Camelia bit her lip; it had been a while since she’d smelled her own pheromones, but it wasn’t a scent that she’d forgotten.
"Fuck." Camelia rubbed her hand across her face, biting her lip at the pleasant throb between her legs. She didn't burn anymore, and the aching need that had suffused her had dissipated, but that didn't mean...
Fuck. That didn't mean that she didn't remember.
Parts of it, anyway. A lot of it was a blur, but some things were blindingly clear.
Evan's mouth on hers, whispering sweet words as he slowly lowered on top of her, his cock filling her so pleasantly.
James washing her hair in the shower sometime in the middle despite Camelia's protest, his mouth hot on the back of her neck as he'd slowly fucked her against the wall after she'd begged.
Their cocks stretching her together again, at least two more times after that first.
That was probably why she was so sore. Camelia flushed. She'd never...she'd never thought...
"Fuck, you're an idiot." She groaned softly, then forced her shaky legs underneath her as she walked back to the bed.
She didn't bother to straighten the sheets on the mattress or toss the other pillows back that were scattered around the room. Instead, she found her shirt and her jeans and pulled them on, the rub of denim against her sensitive folds making her flush all over again. Her bra was nowhere to be found, and she was too desperate to get out of this house to go on an exhaustive search. She did grab her underwear, though, shoving them in her back pocket with a burning blush, and silently prayed that they weren’t sticking out enough to be seen.
She hoped that James and Evan were...fuck. Somewhere else.
She looked around for her phone, realizing that her backpack had to be somewhere else. She hoped that Evan had grabbed it when they had left the quad. She didn't want to have to go to the student center and hope that some good Samaritan had decided to turn in her wallet and phone.
If she didn't think about everything that she had done the last week, everything that she had begged for...
If she didn't think about it...she wouldn't have to think about it.
Camelia chewed her bottom lip as she slowly trekked down the stairs, her hopes of sneaking out unnoticed immediately plummeting at the sound of male voices coming from the kitchen.
A cursory glance around the living room didn't reveal her backpack to her, and she ran her hand through her tangled hair with a sigh before she turned and marched into the kitchen. Her shoes were probably in there, anyway.
"Morning." She forced her voice to steady as she spoke, slowing after she entered the space. Whatever conversation that James and Evan had been having abruptly cut off with her presence, and Camelia squirmed a little as both of their intense gazes fell on her.
She didn't know...how to do this. Were things different now? Or were they going to go back to the mildly sweet and antagonistic back and forth that they'd exchanged before...everything?
Camelia didn't think that you could spend several days in an intense fuck-fest with someone and not have at least a mild change of heart towards them, but what did she know?
"Good morning." James lifted his coffee cup, his gray eyes not leaving her for a second.
He wore a faded black band t-shirt over his pajama pants, and his blonde hair was mussed on one side as if he'd crashed on the pillow the night before and not moved again until morning. "There's coffee, if you want some."
Coffee sounded divine, but Camelia bit back the words as she swallowed. Her backpack was sitting innocently on the dining table, and she walked over to grab it, slinging it across her shoulder with a practiced move as she shook her head. "Ah, no. Thank you."
"I'm making breakfast. You should eat." Evan's voice was steady as he looked at her, and he flipped an omelet in the pan without looking at it.
It was fairly impressive, but didn't explain the way Camelia's pussy clenched as she watched muscles of his forearm bunch with the motion.
The asshole was shirtless as he cooked, of course, and Camelia couldn't stop her eyes from stroking down his bare torso with the hunger of someone who hadn't just spent the last.. .however long fucking his brains out.
Or having him fuck her brains out. Whatever. Either way, the man had no business being as attractive as he was.
Camelia spotted her shoes on the floor next to the sliding glass door to the backyard, and she brushed past James to scoop them up and dangle them from her fingers.
"I'm okay. Really, thank you, though. I.
.." She flushed, and Evan's eyes twinkled with knowledge as he leaned back against the counter.
"I appreciate what you did. For me. There's..." A lump rose in her throat, one she steadfastly swallowed before it could make tears prick in her eyes.
"There's not a lot of guys who would have done that. For..."
"An unclaimed Omega?" James cocked his head to the side, taking another casual sip from his cup. "I imagine there's a lot of men who would have paid good money to be with you for the last nine days, sweetheart."
Camelia's mouth was already open, ready to argue when the impact of his words hit. "Nine days?" she choked.
Evan nodded, flipping the omelet in the pan one more time before pulling it out and putting it on a plate. "Two of the days were the weekend, but yeah."
"Fuck." Camelia dug her phone out of her purse and turned it on, ignoring the low battery signal as she was hit with a barrage of messages and notifications.
More than a dozen from her father, a few from Aria.
One from her roommate, asking snidely if she was ever going to be coming back to their room, or if she would be remiss to put up a 'roommate wanted' sign.
Camelia's legs were suddenly weak underneath her, and she leaned heavily against the wall as she tucked her phone back in her purse.
James and Evan watched her carefully, and she knew that she wasn't imagining the hint of concern on both their faces.
"I've...my heats have...never..." she said weakly.
"How long has it been since you went through heat?" James asked gently. More gently than Camelia might have expected from him.
She shook her head. "I started taking suppressants..." She thought, counting back quickly and wincing. "A little over eight months ago. There was...an incident. And afterwards I didn't want to be caught vulnerable again."
Like when Evan found me in the quad.
Evan's expression had darkened, and he folded his arms across his chest. "What kind of incident?" he asked, the words clipped.
Camelia shook her head, the memories already threatening to push past the safe barriers that she had erected to protect her from them.
"Don't wanna talk about it. Anyway," she hurried, speaking quickly before one of them could interrupt her again.
"I...haven't had to go through heat since.
But my prescription was delayed, and I ran out.
I usually plan better than that, but this time I was caught off guard. .."
Suddenly James was in front of her, his hands soothingly stroking her arms. His gray gaze was intense as he looked down at her, and Camelia was struck by the sudden, irrational urge to reach up and brush away the lock of hair that fell over his eyes.
"It wasn't your fault," he said. His voice was soft but brooked no argument, and Camelia swallowed hard.
She wanted to look away, wanted to make a casual quip or do something, anything to break the tension, but she couldn't.
Not when he was looking at her like he was about three seconds away from locking her in the building with him and Evan and never letting her go.
"Right," she finally whispered. "I...I know that. But it means that I need to get my prescription filled." She winced. "And call my dad. I'm sure he's worried sick about me."
"I gave him updates," Evan said, drawing Camelia's attention.
He was watching her and James with a spark of.
..something in his eyes, but it was gone before Camelia could decide what it was.
"He took care of your absence from school.
Nurse should have a sick note on file excusing you from class until such time as you're able to go back. "
Camelia swallowed. "Oh. Okay. That's good.
Still. I should..." She slowly backed away, ducking around James and reaching the door to the kitchen despite a low tug in her gut screaming at her to stay.
"I should go. Make sure my roommate hasn't given away my bed, and all that.
" She bit her lip, not missing the way both men's eyes immediately dropped to her mouth, and she lifted one hand in a pathetic wave.
"I'll...see you on campus. Really. Thank you. "
She turned, and she was almost completely out of the kitchen before Evan spoke again. “You might want these, if you’re leaving.”
She turned and saw her car keys dangling from his finger, a casual smirk on his face. “I found them in your bag while you were sleeping, so I went and got your car. Figured you wouldn’t want a ticket for abandoning it on campus.”
Camelia flushed, and she steadfastly ignored James as he quickly crossed the kitchen to snatch her keys from Evan’s hand. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Before she could turn to try and leave again, though, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close.
His body was warm where hers brushed against it, and she couldn’t stop herself from whimpering a little as her pussy clenched at the contact.
His eyes were intense on her as he looked down at her, and his voice low when he spoke.
“Let us know when you get home. I put our numbers in your phone.”
That was all he said, and then he released her again, allowing her to stumble back.
Camelia swallowed, unable to look away from Evan for several steps as she backed away, and finally she tore her gaze away and turned to rush out of the house, barely brushing past James in her hurry to leave.
The brief contact made sparks erupt in her belly, and she ignored the voice in her head calling her a coward as she fled.