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“If you come back, I’ll call the police,” Tyler says. “Say goodbye, Alden.”
“Bye, Niall. I hope you find happiness.”
Niall looks like he wants to say a lot of things, most of them about Tyler being an asshole, but Tyler stomps right back down the steps and yanks the car door open again.
“Niall,” he calls, overly loud in the misty twilight. “I am happy to escort you to the car if you can’t find your way to it.”
Niall huffs a growl and leaves. Tyler slams the door shut behind him in a very fuck off and die sort of way. Then he taps the hood of the car, and it drives away. Tyler looks up at me sheepishly and rubs the back of his neck, but only for a fleeting second before he races up the steps and pulls me into a tight hug, burying his face in my neck.
Goosebumps light across my skin. His scent caresses my senses, and his chest is so warm and firm against mine. My stomach hurts, and my heart aches, but there’s a new lightness in my chest. A heaviness has lifted, one I didn’t even realize I’d been holding onto.
He releases me and scans my face, his motives a mystery behind his troubled gaze. He looks at my mouth. I look at his. Then a switch flips. We snap together like magnets, lips crashing against each other, and it’s so much better than the first kiss we had back when we were kids, and every kiss in my fantasies since.
His lips leave mine, but only so he can kiss the line of my jaw and nuzzle his nose against my scent gland. Fuck. It feels like another erogenous zone. His tongue ventures out, tasting me, then his teeth graze my skin.
I freeze. So does he.
Horror dashes his features. “Oh my god. I’m sorry.” He staggers back, wiping me from his lips like I’m contagious. “You just smelled so good, but I’m going into rut. Biology got the better of me.”
10 ELLIOTT
Present day
My eyes open on a white ceiling. Sunlight filters through sheer curtains. An ocean view sneaks in through a gap in the curtains. An air conditioner hums, filling the room with blessedly chill air.
“Alpha?”
With one orgasm under my belt, and refuge from the sun, I feel a little more lucid. Not entirely. That softness around the edges of my consciousness is still there, the simmering ache for another knot. I’ll need Tyler soon.
“You’re awake,” says a familiar voice, but it’s not Tyler’s. I follow it to a handsome blond man appearing from an attached kitchen. “Hi Elliott. I’m Alden.”
“Alden?” I sit up, and a sheet slides down my chest to cover my lap. I grip the armrest and scan the room. “Where’s—”
“Tyler is my roommate,” Alden says, crossing the room. “He brought you here, but he had to leave.”
“Leave?”
“Yes.” He sighs. “He didn’t want to leave, but he had to.”
Why? What changed? What happened? He took such good care of me. He saved me. He chased away my pain with one of the best orgasms I’ve ever had, sucked my dick when no one else has, and he left?
His rejection burns, like my blood has turned to acid, and the empty feeling in my womb becomes a black hole.
Alden watches me with kind eyes, like he sees the storm inside me. I blush and look at my lap. I feel like I’ve betrayed him with my feelings.
“Tyler said your heat spikes started early?” he asks.
“Yeah.” I trace the hem of the sheet with my fingers. “I’m on suppressants, but they don’t always work for me.”
“That must be frustrating.”
“Terrifying.”
He clicks his tongue. “I’m sure. Well, I’m so glad you’re here and safe.” He pauses. “And I’m glad that Tyler kept you safe and helped you through your heat spike.”
“He told you?”
He nods once, succinctly.
