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"Jake —"
"I don't want to talk about it." His voice stabbed into her as hard and cold as an icicle. He tipped his chin at the blanket. "That's all the bedding I've got. If you don't want to stay, I'll" — he cleared his throat so hard it made her wince — "I'll take you back."
Leave? Why would she want to leave? Because she'd seen hisback? Zorah pulled the rolled blanket toward her and wrapped her arms around it, anxious to acknowledge the gift and forestall any discussion of departure. True, she had approximately three hundred questions about what he'd inadvertently revealed, but the most obvious ones answered themselves. He'd told her about his imprisonment; surely, those evil people had inflicted these scars. As if being torn apart from his lover and unborn child wasn't bad enough, his body bore evidence of physical and psychological torture that went well beyond what he'd described. Zorah wanted to know all of it. Every lash and stripe, every tear he'd shed, she wanted all of it dragged into the open so she could bear witness to what he'd endured andsurvived.
Zorah's eyes drifted to the beaten, but far from broken, Alpha, startling at the intensity of his regard. His green eyes met her own and then slowly dipped down the front of her body. Her heart raced. As if in answer, his naked chest heaved, the slabs of his pale hair-dusted pecs lifting and lowering seductively, and Zorah decided she didn't care. She didn't care about the scars or the story behind them or the fact he might never tell her. Right now, in this moment, none of that mattered. She wanted his body pressed to hers and she wanted itnow.
"No!" She levered up to her knees, craning her neck to hold his gaze. "I don't want to leave. I want to" — she paused to wipe a bead of sweat from her upper lip — "build my nest and share it with you."
His chin tucked closer to his chest. "You mean that?" he asked with a wary, vulnerable note barely audible in his roughened question.
Overcome, she bobbed a vigorous nod, her nerves skittering. Tension rolled off Jake's shoulders, his breathing relaxed, and the heat returned to his expression. Zorah's spirits soared. Nothing was solved, nothing decided, and nothing made much sense, but right now, she needed this nest, and she was going to make the best damn one she'd ever had.
CHAPTER 23
Zorah
Unrolled, the sleeping bag exploded in a rich concentration of Jake's intoxicating scent. Zorah breathed it in, swearing she could feel it enter her lungs and pour into her bloodstream. Her sex gave a greedy pulse, and the first drips of moisture slicked her inner thighs. Her fingers gripped the cool, slippery fabric. She needed to hurry.
After having conspicuously slipped on a flannel shirt to cover his upper body, Jake had resumed his position at the doorway with one leg sprawled and the other bent. At his grunted direction, she unzipped the entire thing, doubling it in size and exposing the cozy interior meant to cradle a body in snug comfort. A satisfied sigh slipped out of her. At first touch, the waterproof exterior hadn't thrilled, but this fuzzy, fleecy side would do nicely.
After securing the lighter blanket as an improvised covering over her body, she set to work, bunching the sleeping bag in a circular shape to roughly cordon off an area inside the bed's perimeter. As she worked, her touches lingered more and more on the texture of it against her sensitized skin. The thick fabric, clearly designed for warmth, likely always possessed a pleasant downiness, but it also bore the weathered softness of years of noble use, the kind of wear and tear that added to the value of a thing, rather than detracted. With each reverent rub of it between her fingers, wistfulness spread through her for the nights it had spent enclosing and protecting her Alpha from the cold, from wind and rain, maybe even from danger. How many nights had the simple comfort embraced his broken, yet whole and perfect, body?
Her Alpha.
The phrase snuck in in an unguarded moment. Its use so easy, so natural and unobjectionable, it flowed through her mind. Her Alpha. Again, she allowed it and unquestioningly rode the wave of exhilaration it inspired.
Suddenly, quite ready to finish this nest, she reached for a pillow and brought it to her nose, disliking the older odors she detected. The other pillow was little better, making her want to toss them both out for being subpar. Yet a proper nest needed at leastonepillow, didn't it?
Sitting back on her heels, she gnawed on a knuckle and then cut a glance at the silent Alpha, watching her with his sparkling green eyes like she was the best thing he'd ever laid eyes on.
"Can I have that shirt?"
Embarrassment flashed over his features, and he plucked at the shirt he wore. "It's not terribly clean."
She eyed it with undisguised avarice. It was worn in all the right places, and her fingers tingled with the need to paw at it.
"May I have it? Please?" She forced herself to approximate politeness despite her desperation to possess it, and also, to have him half-naked once again.
It only seemed fair, after all, since this blanket barely covered her in any meaningful way. But, more than that, she balked at him covering up his scars. Those scars were part of him, and she wanted none of him hidden from her view.
Jake hesitated, scrubbing a palm through his wild curls and grumbling, "Never seem to be able to say no to you, don't see why this would be any different." Once his hair fluffed up to twice its prior volume, he stopped and yanked the shirt over his head.
Zorah grinned and held out her hands, fingers wiggling in a "gimme, gimme" gesture, which cracked a smile onto his face. He bundled it up and pitched it to her waiting clutches, and she wasted no time in hauling it to her face for a deeply satisfying breath. Still warm from his skin, his scent clung to it, so fresh and so decadent, it both stoked her lust and made her crave it from the source. In a minute, this nest — redolent as it was with him — would cease to satisfy and she would need the real thing.
With redoubled haste, she placed the pillows where she wanted them and then snugged the plaid flannel overtop as a makeshift pillowcase. She bent forward for a quick sniff, letting the fabric caress her cheek and sighing into it. Oh yes,muchbetter. Greedy for more, she lay down in the improvised nest, satisfied by the reassuring textures and smells that billowed around her. It wasn't fancy or luxurious, but it was hers, and she loved it more than any nest she'd ever made. Zorah rolled from side to side, giggling and unconcerned when the blanket she'd tied around her came loose and fell away from her otherwise nude body.
Her skin lit up like a bonfire. Sensations prickled and clashed with the rain-cooled air in the cabin in a dizzying cacophony. The soft, worn fleece against her legs, the soft scratch of the blanket against her back, the flannel against her cheeks, it all worked together to blast her with untempered happiness.
Smiling and giddy, the Heat symptoms began pounding their way up the boiling caldera in her core. Warmth and desire buzzed through her abdomen, over her shoulders, and down her arms. It flared in her chest and neck and burnished her cheeks. Her Omega nature preened and reveled in it, and, for the first time, Zorah's bleary mind considered whether Heat might be a good thing. A positive thing for an Omega to experience. Maybe with an Alpha, with a proper nest, with rest, and safety, and the absence of shame, she could enjoy this for what it was.
Rolling to her side, she rested her head on an elbow and faced Jake with all her bold nakedness. Fully committed to seduction, Zorah raised her hand and caressed her lower lip with a fingertip, enjoying the blush of pleasure at the slight touch. Jake's eyes tracked the movement, smoldering so hot they felt like a physical touch.
Emboldened, she let her fingers trail down her chin and drop to her right breast, caressing the sensitive tip with a swipe of her thumb. A shiver broke out across her skin as her nipple tightened. Jake made a rough grunt and positioned his knees under him, as if readying to pounce.
"I think it's time for more," Zorah purred.
So many things she wanted to do, things she'd wanted for years, things she'd promised herself would be hers once she mated. Except, as the years passed, her mate took shape in the form of Nelson, and suddenly all those desires soured like milk left in the sun.
