Page 9 of Knot Broken

“I will on Monday,” I said. “But I…” She held up the phone to my face, unlocking the screen, then went to tap on the message. “No, no, no⁠—”

“Hi, Nadia.” Brendan’s warm voice came through the speakers. “Just wanted to check in and see what happened today.”

“Bang,” Helena whispered. “Bang, bang, bangity, bang⁠—”

“When you didn’t come to our session today, I was concerned that maybe you’ve had a change of heart.”

Record scratch.

Helena singing the song from How I Met Your Mother didn’t register, couldn’t, while I listened to the rest of the message.

“It’s OK if you have. If the service isn’t a good fit, I can process a partial refund, as outlined in the contract…” My heart beat loud and hard in my ears, making it almost impossible to hear what came next. “I know some patients have turned up to our new offices at Crowe Corp, but as it said in the email…”

An email I skimmed. Reading through all of the details was just too overwhelming at the time. I looked up when the appointment was, then as I added it into my calendar, glanced at the email signature, grabbing the address there.

“We’re still in the process of moving our offices, so just in case you want to reschedule, we have availability next week at⁠—”

“Fuck…” Helena’s expression was a perfect mirror of my own. “If you didn’t have hot sex with your therapist and his colleagues today, who the hell were those three guys?”

My throat worked as I replayed the details, everyone, everything moving far faster now. Tex, Ethan, I remembered that much, but… Those sawdust covered work boots had me letting out a little squeak.

“We can wait until the office fit out is complete,” Brendan continued, oblivious, “and use the new facilities, if you prefer.”

“I… I…” A big swallow of wine did nothing to the lump in my throat, so I looked up at Helena. “I think I just had sex with the guys who were installing the office furniture,” I said.

Chapter 5

Ethan

“Who the hell was that?” Tex snapped, and that tracked. Only he could have sex with a complete stranger on a job site and then get belligerent when called on that. “My mate, that’s who.”

Shit. I blinked, then replayed everything that happened, seeing it in a new light.

A freaking hot one.

I could almost feel those soft lips, that velvety throat as it flexed around my cock, but right as I was about to get lost in the afterglow, Grey stepped up to Tex. I knew how this was going to go. Moving closer was my automatic response, ready to intervene.

“She is…?” It took a lot to throw Grey off balance, but that’s what happened now. Not for long though. He rallied fast, frowning at Tex. “So you found your omega, the other half of your heart, and you decided to celebrate by boning her on a shitty old workbench?” Grey asked.

“She came onto me,” Tex stared, staring into the other man’s eyes. “Strolled into the office and started patting my shirt, then made clear what she wanted.” With a slow shake of his head, his eyes narrowed. “Not sure what you’d do if you had a hot, horny omega approach you… Actually shit, I do.”

That flex of his jaw was all the sign I needed. Both of them squared off, creating a slightly larger space between them.

“You ordered her around, ‘inspected’ her, then told her exactly what to do.” Tex’s grin did nothing to ease the tension inside me. “Helped her take my knot like a champ. And you stood there, too scared to touch her.”

“You—”

“Hey.” I stepped between the two of them, throwing my hands up when Grey bared his fangs at Tex. “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but your fated mate has left the room.”

“Shit…”

Tex looked around wildly, as if this was news to him. Goddess, give me strength.

“What’s her name?” Grey asked, a deadly intensity in his tone. “Do you have her number?”

“What? No.” Tex turned to face us. “I didn’t have time for any of that.”

“Because you were thinking with your dick,” Grey snapped, then his focus shifted to me. “Ethan, head to the lobby and see if she’s still there. I’ll go down to the car park.”