Page 27 of Fight or Fly

I’d liked being seen. I’d liked being appreciated for my physical form. It was probably shallow of me... or maybe not. In a world that hated me because I was an omega, perhaps it was natural to crave that kind of acceptance from people who thought my hidden nature made me beautiful, rather than a freak.

Jax limped over to the tub and looked down at me, sending a frisson across my exposed skin.

“You really are stunning, Leona McCready,” he said. “I hope you realize that.”

I couldn’t help the shy smile that tugged at my lips. “Well, you know, you’re not so bad yourself.” I raised my eyebrows. “From what I remember, at least. Maybe you’d better give me another look, just to be sure, though.”

He snorted. “I’m a scarred reject from the breeding pens.”

“You’re a blond-haired, blue-eyed alpha Viking with bone structure that could cut glass,” I corrected. “Not to mention, one of only three people I trust to protect myodamaand my nest.”

Jax exhaled a breath like it had been startled out of him. “Good god, woman—stop talking like that.”

It did the trick, though. He started pulling off clothing, after setting the pair of holstered guns within easy reach. I ached in sympathy at the way he favored his left side, shrugging his shirt awkwardly over that shoulder.

And yet, it could have been so much worse. It still might be, once the Beta Liberation Front perfected their nerve agent into a targeted alphomic weapon. But they hadn’t succeeded yet. I had to focus on that. They’d used Jax as a lab rat, but he was still alive. He hadn’t died.

“Come here,” I said, extending my hand to the scarred classical statue standing over me.

He gave me a long look and took it, allowing me to steady him as he lowered himself to sit on the edge of the tub. He paused a moment, then eased into the water with a long sigh.

“Good?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

I waited until he was settled before sliding across to straddle his lap. He was half-hard under the water. I leaned against him, and his arms immediately came around me as I buried my nose in the crook of his neck and breathed in his clean forest scent.

My heat cycle was well and truly over, but alpha arousal pheromones were still an aphrodisiac for omegas. My body grew warm and heavy against his. I could happily have sunk down on his cock and ridden him into mutual oblivion, now that I was no longer fertile and pregnancy wasn’t a concern.

He made a noise of regret. “You’re getting ideas. And while I like those ideas a lot, I’m gonna have to draw the line at knotting you when I’m supposed to be guarding you.”

“I know,” I said, not moving from my comfortable sprawl. “Tell me something, though. I understand that it’s unpleasant popping a knot outside of actually mating. But I sucked you while Flynn was knotting me, and vice versa. Isn’t that frustrating? Having sex but not coming?”

File this under ‘things I never thought I’d be having a conversation about, especially while naked.’ But it wasn’t awkward—not with Jax. It probably wouldn’t have been with Flynn, either... though I was fairly sure trying to have this conversation with him would devolve into actual sex in an astonishingly short period of time.

“Not always,” Jax said. “In the heat-nest, it’s just a normal part of foreplay. We were taking turns with you, so it was a warm-up for the next round, if that makes sense.”

“It does,” I assured him.

“And it can be nice to get teased for a bit without it necessarily going further,” he went on. “It kind of depends on the mood. There’s nothing wrong with fooling around for fooling around’s sake.”

I pulled away enough to smile up at him. “Is that so?”

He stroked my wet hair back, giving me a wry look. “Why do I feel like you’re asking me leading questions?”

Reaching a hand between our bodies, I wrapped my fingers around his heavy girth and gave him an experimental stroke. “Damn,” I said. “There goes my clever subterfuge.”

His summer-sky gaze went heavy lidded. A moment later, I was on my back in the tub with six-foot-plus of horny alpha on top of me, and no real awareness of how I’d gotten there. Warm water sloshed around my chin. I gasped, straining up, and was met by a pair of faintly chapped lips covering mine in a kiss that quickly turned filthy.

By the time he let me up for air, I was breathless.

The smell of cypress and musk filled my senses. One large hand rested between my shoulder blades, preventing me from sliding underwater. His touch guided me to arch my spine until the tips of my breasts broke the surface. His teeth closed around my right nipple, drawing an undignified whine from my throat. A pulse of hot slick turned my inner thighs slippery beneath the water.

It was possible I hadn’t thought this plan all the way through.

“I miss your perfume,” Jax said, and bit the other nipple.

I yelped, arching helplessly into the stimulation. “C-couldn’t risk it in case we need to run,” I managed.

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