Page 5 of Therefore
No! None of those thoughts!
A bead of sweat trickled down my spine as heat rose up my neck. My skin itched against my clothes. If I could move my arms, I’d tear my shirt off just to get some air on my skin. Why the hell was Emerson juststaringat me?
Before I could ask, he hauled me up and over his shoulder, then carried me out of the room with a hand over my thighs.
“What thefuck?” I yelled.
“Thought you’d be happy not to be dropped back in the tub, thief.”
I lost track of where he was taking me upside down. All I could focus on was the bump of his shoulder against my gut and his mind-blowing scent until he dropped me on something large and soft. A bed?Hisbed?
“Since you insist on not telling me anything useful,” Emerson dragged me up the sheets, sitting me at the headboard as he fastened my wrist cuffs to it behind my back. “You can wait here until I’m done with work.”
I strained against the cuffs, desperate to find some wiggle room, but they held firmly.
His hand gripped my chin, his skin cool against mine as he forced me to face him. The world seemed to blur around his intimidating frame, and I couldn’t look away from his eyes, more pupil than iris. “Now, be honest with me. Are you going to be quiet for a few hours?”
“Are you asking if I’m a screamer,sir?” I laughed, practically high on the cocktail of adrenaline and his pheromones.
Emerson released me with a scowl, and I twisted against the bonds again until I ended up lying on my side. The awkward angle pressed my face into the bed, smothered in his scent. The pillows, the sheets, they were all covered in him, and I was practically salivating. My eyes couldn’t focus on anything as his musk surrounded me. Everywhere I tried to focus, dizziness and need overtook my mind again. I couldn’t breathe properly. The room was too hot for the air to refresh me.
As a hand grabbed my hair and forced my head back, something was shoved into my mouth behind my teeth. Leather dug into my cheeks and realisation surged through the fog in my mind.
A fucking ball gag?!
“Hm. Suits you,” Emerson noted as he fastened it behind my head. “I’ll be back soon, so you should think about opening up to me. Tell me what I want to know, and I’m sure we can come to an understanding.”
Fuck you!I yelled through the gag. I couldn’t form the words, but I’m sure he understood the sentiment.
“Let me be clear,omega.” He leaned down and gripped my jaw again, our faces mere inches apart. “You’ll tell me what I want to know. And judging by the state of you, you’ll enjoy telling me.”
He left the room with the slam of the door, and a lock clicked into place. My heart jack-hammered against my ribs.
He knows I’m an omega.
With him out of the room, my lungs could finally take in air, but I still couldn’t cool down. The heat in the room was overwhelming and inescapable. It was coming from me. The bed surrounded me in Emerson’s delicious scent, and no matter how much I wriggled and twisted, the damn cuffs didn’t have any give. All I could do was writhe on the sheets and scream into the gag as my first heat in almost a year slammed into me like a speeding truck.
How the hell could I escape like this?
Chapter Four
Emerson
“Thanks,Norah.”Ismiledtowards the laptop camera as I scribbled some notes. “Unfortunately, I won’t have time to look over Fisher’s diary again tonight, but I can review it tomorrow. I’ll put in some time for us to catch up again before Detective Rhodes gives us the latest the following day.”
Every time I thought I had a handle on this case, something new popped up to make me question everything. But after months of investigating and appeals, the trial date was fast approaching, and we were so close to gathering all the evidence we needed to throw Miranda Fisher behind bars. I couldn’t stop now.
Norah leaned into the screen, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “Oh? Got plans tonight?”
Sure, if questioning the thief who broke into my home office counts as “plans”.
Rolling my eyes, I waved away the question. “Shocking, I know.”
“I’ll say. First time you don’t work late in weeks, and it’s on some random Tuesday? What are you up to?”
Getting a delicious-smelling omega to give me his name, along with anything else I can get out of him.
“Nothing crazy. I’ll speak to you tomorrow.”
