Page 40 of Omega Chattel
Then I sensed something deeper. An assurance in the back of my mind like a warm flicker with thefeelof Tarin that my crush was not simple, and not necessarily one-sided.
Subconsciously, I’d known. Which was perhaps why I’d continued to be forward and brave when I thought I was rejected.
In a small voice, I said, as if I knew what I was talking about when truly I didn’t. “It’s more than the scent.”
No response.
“Tell me you feel it. That I’mnotcrazy.” My words came out of me as if from someone else.
A warm hand closed over mine against his arm. Holding me there. Fingers pressing the tops of my knuckles, soft but firm.
A pulse from my core, like white noise, blocked out everything for the next few seconds. Electrical surges shot through my chest, stomach, arms and legs.
I held back a groan, but a tiny sound escaped my throat, desperate, pleading.
Finally, an answer. A single utterance.
‘Yes.”
I wasn’t sure at first what the word meant, or who spoke it. When I realized Tarin was answering me, addressing my question straight on, my head went back and I sought his gaze.
Yes, he felt it, too? Yes, I wasnotcrazy? Maybe I wasn’t his type, but he sensed it, themorebetween us, the pull, the tug, the flip of the heart.
There was some amount of pain, too, in that single syllable.
Tarin had had issues with Omegas. Concerns of the heart. Of trust. I didn’t know how I knew, but it was there inside me, the knowing along with the longing along with the irresistible craving for him, like the stars when you’re a kid and you first reallyseethem. Like long nights when you can hear the rain and it just goes on forever and you know you’re a part of it, never ending, and there is no such thing as birth and death, just being. Just pure and inspiring energy.
Tarin leaned into me at that moment when I was remembering, when the essence of the feelings inside me manifested to experience, and artful need.
I felt his lips before they even brushed my forehead, the surge of their plush texture, the muscle of the kiss pressed into my skin. He raised his free hand and put it at the back of my head, threading his fingers through my hair.
The world became a rush of noise and sensation, the dark alive, the moon brighter than the longest day.
And I was precious. For a few moments in his arms, I was rare and new and he wasn’t being polite about it, or kind, or indulging my boyish crush. It was real, and he was letting me know it.
I raised my head and his mouth slid over my forehead, down the bridge of my nose to my upper lip. I opened my mouth a little and kissed where I could reach. Above the chin. The underside of his mouth. The pressure encompassed the gesture, and before I knew it his lips fit perfectly against mine.
I wanted to drink him down.
These days when the world yearned for better things, I yearned more to have this feeling. To feel the closeness of this man, this Alpha. I was a selfish brat. Gray had told me this many, many times as he dragged me to the closet, as he paddled me with his many wood and metal devices.
But I couldn’t deny that in this moment this was what I’d been living for. What I’d dreamed of my whole young life. Not college degrees or owning businesses, or even an Omega’s freedom to be equal with his Alpha counterpart, but this. Always this.
Was it always like this for Omegas? Was I different? Or was what surged between me and Tarin special?
His lips moved gently over my whole mouth, tasting me for many seconds before he finally pulled away.
I gripped his forearm hard. “Don’t.”
Tarin’s breath came out in a whoosh. “That’s enough for now.”
“For now?”
He looked at me with liquid eyes. “We should not rush into anything. I don’t rush.”
My fingers clutched him. “Don’t you feel it, though? Tell me you do. It’s something real. I feel it in my mind.”
“Yes.”
