Page 21 of Omega Island
Immediately, my body convulsed as his presence left me. The sense of abandonment was strong. And also, irrational. We didn’t know each other. We weren’t bonded. What was happening?
I gripped my stomach and curled into myself, my knees bent.
Immediately, Raimi came back with acetaminophen and a bottle of ice-cold water. I lifted one shaky hand to accept the pills and quickly popped them in my mouth. But as I grasped the bottle, the water went everywhere.
“Hold up. Let me.” Raimi pulled the bottle back and placed the top against my lips, tipping up. It startled me how close he was, flame radiating into me hotter than the sun itself. I wanted to move forward, press my face against the bottle and his hand. I wanted to lean into his strength. Arousal dampened my entire backside.
Coolness gushed into my mouth, and I automatically swallowed, pills and all.
He took it away. “More?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Thank you.”
Raimi knelt on the ground beside the lounge chair, so tall he still seemed to loom over me.
“Give the pills some time to help,” he said.
I nodded. This was a perfect mess. I couldn’t walk the way I was. And I couldn’t know if the second heat wave, though receding, might lead right into a third.
Raimi’s hand went to my shoulder and stayed there. His touch shot fiery spikes down my back and into my chest. The embers sizzled down to my stomach and pooled there, molten, making my balls draw up.
I felt helpless. I couldn’t remember such strong heat feelings in my past. Sure, I became aroused and wanted to fuck all day and all night, but this? This was something bigger. Stronger.
I stole a glance at Raimi. His concerned expression, those blue eyes and that golden hair slicked back, still wet from his swim—all of it drew me. Even worse, the raw vulnerability of him having just come out of a toxic relationship made me want to soothe, claim, hold on. I wanted to wrap around him and have him push inside me, feel me, feel wanted.
It was selfish. It was wrong. But there he was. And everything in my being wanted to absorb this alpha into me.
Both my arms were still clutched against my stomach, but I moved one up so my hand brushed the back of his on my shoulder. My fingers curled against his, trying to weave between them. Slowly, they spread to allow it to happen. Our gazes met, wide open, only inches apart.
A rumbling sound escaped him that sounded like, “Oh.”
“Oh?” I echoed.
Raimi leaned back a few inches. His open gaze softened even more, eyebrows narrowed like he was suddenly questioning everything around him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything.”
“Don’t.”
“Don’t?”
“Don’t apologize.” I had to use all my inner strength to keep my voice steady.
“I—I—”
I decided to be forthcoming, not to seduce him, but to let him know nothing here was his doing, or his fault. “I seem to find myself in somewhat of a dilemma.”
Raimi’s mouth opened, pink lips stretching slightly, almost showing teeth. That gesture alone, out of all the others, drew me hard.
I’d never wanted another so badly in my life.
10
Raimi
What did he want me to do?
I would have asked Straten that straight away, but this wasn’t Straten. This was a man—an omega—I’d just met. One that I was drawn to which, I thought, shouldn’t be happening. Not so soon after Straten. Not after having almost no libido when Straten had basically beaten and shamed it out of me.
I’d been around omegas in heat before. Of course, I had a reaction. But it wasn’t more than a surge, a knowledge that someone was in a cycle that attracted others.
