Page 199 of Altius
Hurrying down the stairs, I rushed out the door and into the hallway—nearly colliding with Cal as he walked from the elevator toward my loft.
“Whoa, sweetheart. What’s the rush?” he asked, helping to steady me. His eyes flashed gold, sucking in a deep breath as he zeroed in on my coat.
Shit. I’d hoped the insulated fabric would be enough to muffle the scents emanating from the clothes hidden inside, but apparently not.
Which meant Joaquin and Alijah knew I’d run off with their respective shirt and pants.
Fucking fantastic.
“No wonder you weren’t answering my texts.” Cal let out a low chuckle. “Seems like you hadquitethe eventful day, Dr. Van Daal.”
“And it’s not over yet.” Shooting a playful look over the rims of my glasses, I popped the question. “So, Dr. Carling—how do you feel about living in sin?”
Forty-Seven
Wyatt
Iwas used to performing for an audience. Not whatever this was.
“Pick up the pace,” Cal said, trying to capture beads of sweat running down my bare torso in a glass vial. “This isn’t nearly enough raw material to work with.”
With a perverse gleam in his eyes, Owen increased the speed on the treadmill in Morgan’s home gym to eleven miles per hour.
“Why are you pushing him so hard?”
Morgan lay on the floor, drained from her own sweat extraction exercise, unknowingly filling the room with a heady cloud of her orchid scent. Combined with the visual stimulation of her full chest in a sports bra and thick thighs in skintight athletic leggings, it was too much temptation for my lovestruck brain.
I accelerated to a full-blown sprint, fighting the primal urge to pounce, knot, bite—
The cold rim of the vial dragging across my skin shocked some sense back into me.
Taking a deep breath, I looked out the window at the pre-dawn February gloom that shrouded the river
It was early. Too fucking early. Even for gym rats like me and Morgan. But they didn’t want Kelsey to know what we were doing.
I didn’t agree with the decision, but I got it.
Morgan wanted to keep her diagnosis private until Kelsey finished moving.
Breaking the news to her family would be easier after Cal moved in. There could be no greater reassurance than having a leading pheromone expert living under the same roof as two people with waning syndrome.
I’d already relocated my meager belongings into the guest room upstairs. Technically, it was my room now, but it felt more like a glorified closet, since I slept with Morgan every night.
A luxury that wouldn’t last.
Joaquin was already insisting that Alijah’s Wednesday date nights were now a group activity that included sleepovers.
Morgan nipped that in the bud for the time being. But we all knew it was temporary. They’d start pushing for more time with her as soon as Kelsey’s last box was carted out of the loft.
You always knew you’d have to share, I reminded myself as Owen increased the pace yet again.
I shot my brother a death glare. He responded with a smug grin.
“Keep going,” he said, attention shifting to Cal. “See if you can manage another six-minute mile.”
Cal huffed, slowly running the vial along my neck. “We’re here for serious business, not to give me shit about my knees.”
“Why not both?” my brother and I asked simultaneously.
