Page 49 of Run Omega Run
I whimpered, curling against him, my body trembling. “It hurts—oh God, it hurts.”
“I’ve got you.” He swept me up into his arms as if I weighed nothing. My forehead pressed into the hard plane of his chest, the steady thud of his heartbeat fighting against the chaos roaring through me. Each step up the stairs jostled the storm inside me, and I clung tighter, desperate for his touch, his strength, his scent.
The climb up the stairs blurred in pain and need. Every step jostled me, but his arms never wavered. My nails dug into his shirt, dragging at him, and I couldn’t tell if I was holding on for stability or begging for more.
He pushed into my room, my small, simple space that I’d carved out as my own. Faded curtains, secondhand blankets layered into a nest on the bed, scraps of comfort I’d gathered where I could. It wasn’t much. But it was mine.
Bennett laid me down carefully, like I was breakable. My body though, didn’t feel fragile. It felt rabid. Starved. I writhed against the blankets, fists clenching, breath ragged.
“Heat,” I croaked. The word was half a confession, half a curse.
His eyes softened, even as his jaw tightened. “I know. Dante told us it was coming. You’ve been off suppressants too long.”
Shame flared, fast and hot, but it drowned in another wave of pain that ripped through my body. I doubled over, clutching my stomach, tears spilling unchecked.
“Make it stop,” I begged, reaching blindly for him. My fingers curled in his shirt, dragging him closer. “Bennett, please...”
He caught my wrists gently, pressing them to the mattress. His voice was steady, even though his scent spiked with arousal. “Heather. You have to say it. Do you want me to stay? To help?”
Consent. Even now, he was asking. My chest cracked open with something more than heat.
A whimper ripped from my throat, raw and desperate. Another wave of fire slammed through me, making my back arch off the bed. “Yes! Please, Bennett, I need you! I can’t bear it!”
That was all it took.
Clothes vanished between frantic hands. His body pressed down, hot and heavy, and when he pushed into me, the agony split open into raw relief. I sobbed, clutching at him like a lifeline as the world narrowed to the burn of him filling me, stretching me, claiming me.
It wasn't gentle. It couldn't be, not with the fire consuming me from the inside out. Bennett's hands gripped my hips hard enough to bruise, anchoring me as he moved with a rhythm that matched the desperate pounding of my pulse. Each thrust drew a sound from my throat I didn't recognize—somewhere between a sob and a plea.
The first wave of relief crashed over me like a tidal force, but Bennett's movements remained controlled, deliberate. His hands framed my face, forcing me to meet his gaze even as my body writhed beneath him, desperate for more.
"Look at me," he commanded, his voice rough with restraint. "I need to know you're with me, Heather. Not just the heat."
I forced my eyes to focus on his, seeing past the haze of need to the man who'd spent yesterday rebuilding my home, who'd run beside me through empty streets, who'd asked permission even when my body was screaming for him.
"I'm here," I gasped, my fingers digging into his shoulders. "I see you, Bennett. I want you. Not just—" Another wave of heat stole my words, made me arch against him with a cry that was half pleasure, half pain.
He moved then, setting a rhythm that was both mercy and torture. Each thrust pushed back the fire consuming me from within, but it also built something else, something deeper than the biological imperative driving my heat. His peppermint scent wrapped around me, mixing with my own until I couldn't tell where I ended and he began.
"That's it," he murmured against my throat, his lips finding the sensitive spot where my pulse hammered. "Let go, Heather. I've got you."
The permission undid me. I shattered around him, the relief so intense it brought tears to my eyes. But even as the first wave of heat ebbed, I could feel another building, my body far from satisfied with just one release.
His rhythm was relentless, protective, forcing my body to surrender. The emptiness inside me filled, anchored. And when his knot locked deep, my scream cracked into a broken sob of release.
“Bennett—” My nails bit into his shoulders. The fire wasn’t gone, but my mind cleared just enough to know what I needed next. “Mark me. Please. I can’t—I need it—I need to belong.”
His thrusts stilled. He cupped my face, eyes wild. “Heather, once I do this—there’s no going back.”
Tears streaked my cheeks. “I don’t want to go back. Do it.” My fists tangled in his hair, dragging him down. “Now.”
The growl that ripped from his chest vibrated through me a heartbeat before his teeth sank into my shoulder. White-hot fire lanced my skin, then exploded inward, flooding every nerve with something vast, eternal. I screamed out, back arching, bodystiffening, as for that moment, everything else dimmed except the purity of the orgasm that charged through me.
Bennett was still locked deep inside me, his body stiff, back arched, and a heavy moaning filled my ear. The knot pulsed, stretching, binding me to him in a way that left me trembling. He grounded me. It was the only thing keeping me tethered while the explosion raged on, momentum building, sparking inside every cell in my body.
But it wasn’t enough. The craving rose higher, vicious, relentless. My body twisted against him, straining toward the others.
Before my body continued to burn again, my bedroom door opened. I tensed, but Bennett's hand on my hip kept me grounded as Dante's marshmallow scent filled the room.
