Page 42 of Born to be Broken

Fabric tore under his hands, her dress split down the middle.

“The paints,” Claire gasped, worried they were being ruined, trying to wriggle off her things.

“Are nothing compared to this.” The man fumbled with his zipper, groaning as he nosed her breast.

Lips were at her nipple, his tongue flicking the bud before he moved lower and pressed his mouth to her mound. He attacked her there, tasting a place he had not enjoyed since he’d collected her from the Omegas. Claire tried to push him off, squealed as her legs kicked, but Shepherd held firm.

Leaning up on her elbows, Claire’s jaw dropped, her hips jerking to escape something so intimate. He watched her every expression, all the while thrashing his tongue in her pussy and releasing his cock from his pants.

When her legs began to twitch, her breaths nothing but stifled gasps of air, he drank her up, seeming to know just where to move that tongue until Claire’s face grew pained and she began to come. A shriek, short and stuttering, passed her lips as the tight winding coil the man had fostered snapped apart. In answer, Shepherd grunted into her, wove his tongue deep, stroking himself madly under the table.

Her groans grew rabid, his fist tightly gripping his burgeoning knot until seed splattered the floor. Air ripe with the smell of semen, he rode the high, tenderly kissing Claire’s inner thighs and mumbling that she tasted delicious.

Falling back against the table, Claire stared blankly at the memorized grey ceiling, trying to ignore that her thighs were on his shoulders, that he was licking her clean, and that he had, once again, expertly commanded her body’s response… as Svana had claimed the two of them had done to other Omegas.

That thought brought blistering heat to her chest, the painful knowledge inspiring instant anguish.

“What is wrong, little one?” Shepherd pulled his tongue from her slit. “I did not mount you. That should not have caused you pain.”

Claire answered robotically. “It didn’t hurt.”

More soft kisses to her inner thigh and a strong purr preceded the promise, “I will replace your paints. You need not feel distressed.”

To win the war, she would have to wage a battle. Closing her eyes tight, she told herself that she could do this. “It’s not the paints. I was thinking of the Omegas.”

“They are safe, as per our agreement. My men watch over them from a distance.” Again he tasted her center, enjoying how she bowed from even a simple kiss over her pert nub.

Gasping, Claire answered, “Not those Omegas. The ones you shared with Svana.”

The man froze, hesitating before he spoke. “Why would you think of them?”

Claire forced her eyes open, lifted her head, and found Shepherd watching her very carefully. “I wonder if they were frightened or ashamed.”

Each word was growled. “They were all willing.”

“Somehow I think you misunderstand the meaning of that word. Estrous bends the mind.” She knew that better than anyone. “Did you speak to them before or after?”

“No.”

Then they were probably dead. “That makes me sad.”

Large hands accompanied an almost unsteady purr, Shepherd stroking her from her knee to hip. “Do not be sad, little one.”

Claire lay back, eyes once again on the ceiling. “I do not remember how to be happy.”

Leslie was on his couch, working on a COMscreen when Corday returned.

Her mouth was set and she was clearly displeased. “Another rendezvous with your Claire?”

“No.” Corday stripped his coat, his back to the Alpha female.

“Yet you smell of her.” Leslie scooted a little closer, her tone instantly light. “How is the Omega faring?”

Tired eyes, his face lined in disappointment, Corday could not muster any enthusiasm for Leslie. “Claire has—”

A knock sounded at the door, not Claire’s timid scratches but an arrogant bang. Gun already in hand, Corday motioned for Leslie to move out of sight.

“I hear you breathing on the other side of that thing, Enforcer.” The tiny view through the peephole showed an unwelcome woman. “Open up or I will simply turn the knob of the door I’ve already unlocked.” Maryanne smirked. “I am trying to be civil.”