“I don’t think you know what you’re saying,” Leighton murmured.
“I mean—I…”
The orgasm hit me at that moment, cutting off rational thought. Slick squirted over Ambrose’s stubbled cheeks and he drank it up. All the pain finally receded, leaving me panting through the aftershocks with an alpha between my legs and another behind me.
Dash was still so stunned he hadn’t moved from the couch across the room. Mercury was gone, but I didn’t think he’d been gone long. He’d watched the show. Cinnamon and old books was too potent for him to have vanished right when all this started.
Leighton tried to move away from me, but I caught her hand. Turning in the armchair, I peered up at her.
“I knew what I was saying, and I meant it.”
Her expression morphed to match Dash’s, stunned and unsure. It was impossible to tell what was going through her head, not even through the bond. She’d closed it off, for once. She was a quicker study than I was. I couldn’t keep my feelings to myself if I wanted to—and right now, I didn’t. I wanted her to feel just how truthful I was being.
“Let’s not force her to respond, princess,” Ambrose said softly.
He reached up and pulled my dress down to cover my bare pussy.
Leighton’s lack of response made me nervous, even though I knew I was the crazy one. I was obsessive, possessive, and had basically forced myself on her at the end of the day. No one with a heart like Leighton’s would have been able to say no to an omega in distress.
I wanted her to love me back, though, despite all that.
Ambrose helped me stand and I let him. My dress fell back down to cover everything, hiding the evidence of what had just happened. All that remained was the slight sheen to my thighs and my discarded panties.
“How about we go for a walk?” he asked. “Upstairs. There’s a rooftop pool.”
I didn’t want to, but being stuck in this apartment together wasn’t going to do anything good for any of us. Space. They needed space. I didn’t, but I was the omega. The anomaly. All I wanted was a chest to curl up on—Dash’s or Leighton’s, ideally, seeing as I was currently bonded to both of them.
Ambrose taking me upstairs would suffice. He’d forgiven me for stabbing him, and I felt nothing but safe and secure in his large presence.
“She claimed me,” Dash said numbly.
It was the first time he’d spoken. Our bond flared to life, my aura working to calm him now that my own pain was soothed. He was panicked, but it didn’t last long with my presence in and around him.
“She did,” Ambrose agreed. “We’ll be back in an hour. Then, you have to talk. Actually talk, with everyone sitting in different chairs and with no touching involved.”
“Be careful,” Leighton said, clearing her throat. “You shouldn’t be seen with her. Don’t leave the building.”
Ambrose nodded.
He gently led me from the living room, letting me stop in the bedroom only long enough to grab a pair of panties. Then we left the condo, my stomach roiling—this time, not with discomfort but with nervousness.
THIRTY
DASH
I’d never…feltanyone like this before.
Sure, there was the pack. We had a bond. It was different, though. Kiara’s presence in my head—in my body—was weak, but potent. She calmed me. Soothed parts of my psyche I hadn’t realized had need of soothing.
I tried to bask in the comfort of it, but couldn’t.
Now that I’d had this, I wasn’t going to be able to let it go. If I had to, if I was forced to let this bond fade and never get another one, I would go insane.
Being rejected by my scent match had almost done me in. I’d never thought I would be claimed by another omega, but if I had a taste and then had it ripped away…
I brought my legs up to my chest and rocked, pushing down the uncomfortable feelings.
A joke. I needed a joke.
