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My skin prickles like I can feel his fingertips ghosting over my skin.

Why can’t this week hurry up and be over with?

I never thought that I wanted anyone to move in, but as much as it fills me with nerves, I also can’t wait to meet my scent match.

I swallow, before typing:

Night.

I don’t know if Rhett will reply.

Has he waited to see if I’ll listen? Whether I’ll obey or not?

I don’t have to.

There is no rule or arrangement between us.

His messages to me are to help me with my touch starvation, while we are apart.

He hasn’t sent me any written messages yet.

A knot in my chest loosens, when I see the return text:

Sleep well, darlin’. Try not to dream about me. I can’t promise the same.

I caress my thumb over the screen.

Then to my shock, I discover that for the first time in a year, I am smiling.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Cole House, Oak Hollow

Rhett

I clutch the handle of the door, which leads through to the Great Room. I wince, as the movement pulls on the burn.

I study my pink, puffy skin.

I grimace at the sting.

It’s only a flash burn, however, from where radiant heat must have hit through my glove cuff and coat sleeve earlier during the rescue.

I’m damn lucky that I didn’t suffer worse, especially when Angel has his heart set on this Omega thing.

If I injure my hands, then I won’t be able to help with the heat.

Why am I never able to resist Angel’s puppy dog eyes?

I’m committed now to the Omega, however, who has been admittedly fun to play with each night.

Yet what happened today should have taught me exactly why this is only temporary.

As much as Angel is trying to hide from me how desperate he is for an Omega to join our pack — softhearted dumbass — as if he wouldn’t be the worst undercover Alpha in history, I can’t take the risk.

How can I bond an Omega, when I could walk out the door to attend a fire and never return to them?

Abandon them?