“Now you sound like me,” she says with a dark chuckle. “But I almost suffocated you back there.”
My back arches into her.
“Oh, you arebad,” she says.
“I can’t help it,” I breathe. “I love…everythingyou do to me.”
Morgan is quiet as she applies a styptic. It stings worse than the alcohol, but it quickly resolves the bleeding.
She cradles my head in her hand and leans me back over the basin of the tub, supporting my full weight as she runs warm water through my hair with a gold wand, washing the rest of the blood away. She’s careful to keep the collar as dry as possible as she rinses the blood from underneath.
“No harm, no foul,” I say.
“The expression is ‘noblood,no foul,’ and youdidbleed.”
“Eh.”
I could lie like this forever, Morgan’s nails gently circling my scalp, but she stops the water and squeezes my hair in a fluffytowel.
As she pulls me back upright, I find her eyes.
“Let me do this for you,” I say. I try to not sound like I’m begging. I try to sound professional, confident. I’m mostly successful.
“Alphas can’t just go grabbing any omega that—”
“I’mnotjust any omega,” I cut in.
Morgan sighs. “That’s what Gia said too.”
“Who’s Gia?”
“My psychiatrist. Friend. My psychiatrist friend. She agrees with your assessment, by the way. Of the data.”
“I wish you’d told me it was yours.” I drop my eyes to her collarbones, brushing her skin with my fingertips. She’s so beautiful. And dangerous.
“The irony is fantastic. My life’s work, and to make it happen, I apparently gave up it being able to work on me.”
“It still works. Enough.”
Morgan gives a small shake of her head. “There’s no room for flattery in science—”
I grab her hand, pull it to my cheek, and find her eyes again. The touch stops her words.
“Things don’t have to beperfectto beenough, Mor.” It’s the most forcefully I’ve ever said anything in my life.
Morgan stills, and I see the mask waver. See the uncertainty there.
“It was enough for me to get to know you,” I continue. “Enough time. Enough just… being ourselves.”
“Jamie…” There’s an edge of sternness in her voice. “It’s beentwo weeks. That’s no time at all.”
It feels like years. Shit. But I’m not dissuaded. “It’s like summer camp time.”
“And what does that mean?”
I can’t help but snort. “Of course you didn’t go to summercamp. It’s just… camp may only be a week or two, but you bond like crazy. Leave with lifelong friends. On day three, it’s like you’ve known each other for years.”
“Sounds like there’s something in the water,” Morgan mutters.
