Page 39 of Gold Rush
It’s quiet for a moment. I pull my hand away from my shorts, taking a half step back as Seth’s head rises, catching my eyes again in the mirror. His lips are swollen, his eyes dark as he stares at me. There’s cum dripping down his chest. He lookswrecked, devastatingly hot with a flush to his already dark cheeks and a rawness in his gaze.
Bennett’s voice is low, but soft as he kisses Seth’s throat and the bite mark he left. “You both did so well for me.” His lips move, pressing kisses to Seth’s skin, and I can’t breathe as his head rises, his gaze finding mine. “You’re so pretty when you come for me.”
I flush, head to toe, and then I turn and run. Shoving open the door to the guest room, I slam it shut behind me, adrenaline racing through my now-satiated body. My head feels clearer than it has in days, but the smell coating my skin makes me want to turn back around and crawl between them.
My thighs are sticky as I walk to the adjoined bathroom and clean myself up. When I crawl back into the bed with a fresh pair of underwear on, I pull a pillow to my chest, closing my eyes as I sink back against another one, willing myself not to pretend they’re orange and fudge-scented bodies instead.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
JUNE
Bennett’s handruns over the back of my neck, pushing my head down further, taking Seth deeper into my throat, making my body hum with the movement, the lack of control. I don’t have to worry, he has it, they both haveme.
I gasp, shifting against the covers as I stir again. It’s been like this forhours. I finally fall asleep only to have dreams of Seth, of Bennett, of them together, pressing against me, kissing me, soothing the scorching feeling under my skin, like my body is trying to burn me alive from the inside out.
Whining, I turn, pressing my head into the pillow, letting out the soft, reedy sound as I rub my thighs together. The underwear I changed last night is slick, there’s nothing stopping the empty feeling from taking over, the urge to be pressed down, to befull.
This is what the articles talked about. This feels like I want nothing touching me but another body, preferably one of the men across the hall — or both of them.
I sit up, dragging fistfuls of the soft comforter closer to my chest, fighting the internal urge to pull it entirely off the bed. The room isn’t right. It needs to be smaller, it needs to be darker and cooler, something more comforting for the flash of heat on my skin. The insistent urge paces in the back of my mind, to besomewhere safe, somewhere quiet, to let someone else touch me and make it better.
In nearly thirty years, I’ve never felt an instinctual need tofindsomething, to findsomeone, but the desire is coiled in my chest, making my eyes dart to the door.
There are three alphas in this house.
Instead of getting up, I reach for my phone, breathing through a wince and cramp at the movement. I unlock the screen, squinting and turning the brightness all the way down as my head aches. The last tab I had up was about heat centers here in London — but the information pages all say the same thing. There are rigid rules, interviews that should be given and forms to be signed before the heat sets in, so the omega can set clear boundaries on what they do and don’t want.
Ideally, I’d even have met with the alphas who would help me through my heat, but it’s becoming increasingly more obvious that isn’t an option anymore.
The cost alone is pricey enough I considered a bank transfer to drain my emergency fund. Thisdefinitelyconstitutes an emergency, but I don’t even think I can get myself to a taxi and to the nearest location without worrying that every alpha in a fifty mile radius would be chasing the car down.
There’s a reason omegas in heat don’t leave the safe places allotted for them.
For some reason, my mind goes to college, to the only omega I knew briefly in one of my creative writing courses. She was sweet and quiet, and always sat at the front — where I did too. I remember the day she walked in, grimacing a little and sat near me, rubbing her back. Thesecondthe professor walked in — a female alpha — she turned in a jolt toward the omega and quietly stepped back and told her to leave the class.
The omega had given me a teary eyed look, clutching her laptop to her chest and whispered, “I thought it was far enough away. Will you give me the notes? Please?”
I’d dutifully taken notes on every single thing the professor said for two weeks straight and emailed them to her after every class — but she never came back. I learned she dropped out from a friend of a friend, and I’ve never been able to get the look in her eyes out of my mind. It wasn’t herfault, she just wanted to take a stupid college class without everyone making her biology their business.
Closing my eyes, I sit cross-legged in the bed, breathing in through my nose, and out through my mouth, trying to process the searing pain as repetitive cramps spasm through my abdomen.
I can’t even think straight right now. I can’t fathom staying here — or trying to handle this alone. I’m sotiredof making decisions for myself. The room isn’t right — it’s gorgeous, but it’s not what Iwant, what Ineed, and tears prick at my eyes as I press my hands against my head, my pulse rapidly fluttering in my throat.
There’s no promise that a heat center could take me in this last minute, and it wouldsmell. At least this room smells likemeand the sheets smell like water and rain and the hallway smells like chocolate oranges and the townhouse itself smells likemintand —
A light knock on the door startles me out of my baser thoughts.
After a moment, Seth’s voice carries through the wood. “It’s just me, June.”
Beta.
I blink at the door as a small voice in the back of my mind whines.
Safe.
I don’t think, I just lift my head, croaking out a soft, “Come in.”
Seth pushes the door open, stopping short, blinking rapidly as his eyes find mine. They soften as he takes me in, and then he pushes the door shut behind him —good— and he steps over, reaching for my hands, uncurling my nails from my palms as he pulls me into his chest.
