His gaze met mine, and a thrill of excitement zipped up my spine. The heat was slowly rising in me again, the pain returning, and I knew I couldn't deny what it was anymore. This wasn't just some illness or a stomachache. My body was preparing itself, getting ready for the breeding process. To take a knot.
Even the thought made me shudder in his arms, both out of fear and anticipation. It didn't matter that I had no intentions of sleeping with Noah, because my heat-riddled body had other plans.
Desperate to fill the silence, I blurted out, "You don't have to be sorry!" Then, reconsidering, I added, "Well, yes, you do. But not for what your father did. Or because the land is changing."
He laughed, and in that moment, he looked so much like the Noah that I had fallen for as a teenager that my heart skipped a beat. "If all I need to do to get you alone is apologize, I'll do it as much as possible."
It was meant to be a lighthearted jest, but his words still rattled me. "You can if you want to, but it won't change things nearly as much as you want it to."
"I know," he said quietly, "But I have to. For both our sakes."
Clutching him to me, it was almost comical to think that I hadn't forgiven him. But it was true. The wounds between us ran deep, even if I didn't add the fact that he'd kidnapped meand forced me into a marriage I hadn't agreed to. Despite all of that, he was the cure for the pain coursing through me, and he was kinder than I ever expected an Alpha to be. I couldn't bring myself to say that I forgave him, because it just wasn't true, at least not yet. Letting him hold me, though...that I could do.
Even if Noah wasn't going through the same sort of pain I was, I knew the closeness between us was healing something in him, too.
Still curled around Noah, my body was all but begging for the comfort only my Alpha could provide, even as my mind resisted.
My mouth was watering, but not out of hunger. It was him, and the way his scent was making me ache to be filled, and the way my body was growing warmer and wetter by the minute. My heat was rising, and if the way Noah kept tensing up was any indication, he could tell.
"Sage," he whispered. His breath was hot against my skin, his lips so close. If either of us moved, even just an inch, we would be kissing. My stomach flip-flopped, and my body went still, waiting to see what would happen. Neither of us had spoken the truth out loud, but time was running out. I needed to get what comfort I could from Noah and send him away before all my walls came down.
Then Noah shifted, and his fingers brushed against the bare skin of my lower back, and I was suddenly electrified. I gasped, the sound escaping me before I could stop it, the skin-on-skin contact a million times more affecting than his hands on me over my clothes. My body arched against his, the gasp turning into a moan, and I knew I'd lost the battle.
There was no going back.
"Sage," Noah's voice was tight, "You're not sick, are you?"
Not wanting to say it out loud, I simply shook my head. "Just tell me, mate. Just say it."
Noah's words were low and seductive. He didn't need me to tell him anything; his nose was undoubtedly painting the picture for him just fine. Any other time, it would have made me angry, but I knew he wanted to hear it from my own lips.
He wanted to tell him that I was in heat. His mate, his wife, was in heat. And he was the only one who could help me in my time of need.
"My...heat..." I managed to say. "I'm in heat. It...it hurts, Noah. Please."
Noah's eyes widened, pure hunger in their stormy depths. The realization hit me like a brick wall just as all my resistances crumbled to dust.
Noah had been wanting this as badly as I had.
Chapter 13 - Noah
The greatest temptation of my life thus far had been the night the mating bond with Sage had snapped into place years ago. I'd given in and kissed her, even though I wanted to do so much more, before cruelly pushing her away. I'd thought my inexperience and the newness of the bond were what made me feel so crazy at the time, so out of control.
But when I heard her ask me for help with her heat, the scent of her filling my lungs and her body flush to mine, I finally knew the truth. It had nothing to do with how young I had been or the emotional sucker punch of the mating bond.
No. All along, it had been Sage herself. She was the biggest temptation on the planet for me, and now she was all but begging me for help. Begging me to touch her. To ease the pain of her heat.
She was looking up at me with those big brown eyes, her cheeks flushed and her body so warm. Her lips parted, and it would have taken nothing for me to claim her mouth and show her how good we could be together.
But I wanted her to be more than willing. I wanted her to choose me as more than just the man to get her through her heat. To accept me as her husband and partner in all ways.
"Sage." It came out as a growl. I knew I was a breath away from losing control, but I was clinging to it by the skin of my teeth. "Tell me what you want, and I'll do it. Just ask."
"Just...make it stop hurting. Please. Anything."
"I will, but if you want things to go further, you have to be honest with me, okay?"
She shuddered against me, and I could smell the slick leaking out of her. Even her panties would be soaked by now, and that knowledge alone made my cock ache.
