I find myself petting Joker like Bird did, and he relaxes. “I’m not good at talking. I have lived an isolated, rigidly scheduled existence. I imagine not that far removed from your own. I can’t say pretty lies to make this easier. It’s only when I saw how much others hated me that I learned to love myself because Iwillexist. I will accept myself because they can’t. So, they disrespect me? I’ll respect myself. And I will fight to stop others killing mypeople just for being born. For you, that means accepting your Omega side.”
Joker’s brow furrows. “How?”
“By accepting that it’s a part of you, and it doesn’t make you weaker.”
Joker’s eyelashes tremble with tears, and the sight pulls at something deep inside me. “I’m not scared of anything. But I’m scared of this.”
I reward Joker by kissing him because I know how hard saying that was.
His lips are plush and hot. He moans, pushing up into the kiss.
I suck on Joker’s lower lip, and he hurriedly opens to my questing tongue. For a moment, he doesn’t submit, but then he allows me to dominate the kiss.
I pull back, biting Joker’s lower lip to enjoy his startled yip.
I lick over the bite, loving the way that I have finally marked him.
“This isn’t a trick, is it?” I lick over the bite again.
“I deserve that.” Joker raises his hands to rest them on my shoulders. “Why should you trust me?”
“How about trusting me? While your Alpha isn’t here, let me be your Alpha.”
Please…
He hesitates.
Why is he hesitating?
I try to draw back, but Joker holds me in place with a surprisingly strong grip.
“My Alpha.”
My stomach leaps at his use ofmy Alpha.
“Temporary,” I force myself to correct.
Joker pouts, tapping his fingers on my back. “Just two hot enemies having hate sex.”
“I don’t hate you. A hot Alpha seeing her brat enemy Omega through his heat. But how will your Alpha react when he returns and smells another Alpha all over you?”
“He’ll be happy that my needs were met. He only wants what’s best for me. And this won’t come as a surprise, but we’ve been watching you for weeks.”
I knew it.
“Weeks, huh?”
Joker lets go of my shoulders and squirms underneath me. “In his own way, Phantom is as obsessed with you as I am.”
I startle.
Obsessed with us?
Joker’s breathing has become ragged like his heat is hitting hard already.
He holds up his hooked pinkie finger. “Pinkie promise not to slash my throat and slash off any other more…intimate parts…while I’m in heat.”
Amused, I hook my finger around his. “This is my first pinkie promise.”
