Page 112 of Feeling the Heat: Part One
River’s throat works, swallowing hard as he puts his usual neutral expression back in place. “Please don’t apologize. I just haven’t scented you when you’re not in distress.”
“That bad, huh? I have some neutralizer in my purse, one sec…”
I freeze when River grabs my wrist as I go to dig around inmy purse. Traitorous heat pulses between my thighs at his firm grip, fingers digging into my pulse point as our eyes lock.
There’s something dangerous there in his gaze. His lips part to say something, but I don’t get the chance to hear what it is because Jackson and Ambrose appear behind him, bright smiles on their faces.
“Camille, you’re here!” Jackson says, sounding as enthusiastic as his dog, who resumes her tail thumping at the sound of his voice and makes another chirping sound of excitement.
Ambrose inhales deeply as he approaches, his eyes fluttering closed for a moment like he’s savoring the mix of our scents. When his gaze lands back on me, it’s full of affection. “So happy you could make it.”
River releases my wrist before either of them can notice that he’d grabbed me, but I don’t miss how he balls his hand into a fist at his side and his eyes drop to focus on Dahlia instead of me.
That touch meant nothing. It was him reacting to me being silly about my scent. He didn’t feel the electric current in the air between us. My omega is being overimaginative yet again.
I greet Ambrose and Jackson, soaking in their warm welcome and letting it melt away any of the confusion from my interaction with River. We head into the kitchen, where it looks like Jackson has been cooking.
“It smells amazing in here.” My stomach gurgles, eager to eat whatever delicious dinner Jackson has made this time.
Ambrose steps in behind me, wrapping an arm around my waist and bending to run his nose along the side of my neck. “Mmm, it really does.”
I flush at the casual, intimate contact, eyes darting between Jackson and River nervously. The beta grins, his eyes heating as he watches my reaction to Ambrose’s touch. River continues his slow, gentle petting of the dog in his arms, buthis nostrils flare and there’s a flash of an emotion I can’t place behind his eyes.
Jackson glances at the timer on the stove. “Dinner still has about twenty minutes in the oven before it’s ready. Let’s go get comfy in the living room and get the hard stuff out of the way first.”
“Wow, get a girl a drink first before you ask her to deal with your ‘hard stuff’.”
Ambrose’s laugh reverberates against my back, and I fight hard to not perfume at the sensation. I really should’ve worn my scent neutralizer, or at least my omega panties, tonight. Lauren told me it wasn’t necessary during courting, but I failed to factor in how embarrassing it would be for my boss to scent my response to his packmates. Or how I might react to him.
River’s snort at my joke is almost too soft to be perceived, but I catch it.
Jackson’s smile turns dirty. “You’re right. Where are my manners? What can I get you to drink?”
“Water would be great, thank you.” I bat my eyelashes at him as he chuckles.
Jackson nods. “Coming right up.”
“I’ll get the drinks. You all go get settled and I’ll be there in a sec.” River’s voice sounds casual, but it’s hard for me to not read into the fact that he already wants a breather from me.
Ambrose’s lips brush against my cheek in a light kiss before he steps away and moves to River’s side, squeezing his arm affectionately. “Thanks, love.” Something passes between the two of them, and some of the tension in River’s spine eases as Ambrose steps back.
“C’mere stinky,” Jackson says, holding his arms out for River to pass Dahlia over to him. She happily switches over to his hold, clearly used to being the pack’s princess.
Maybe a different omega would be jealous of how theydote on this dog, but all mine can think is that it shows the love and care these men are capable of giving. Granted, Dahlia is the cutest dog I’ve seen in my life, so you’d have to be a monster to not want to shower her with love. But it still warms my heart.
We head into the living room, which has a massive sectional couch big enough for all of us to snuggle on, if we wanted to. I’m still not sure if that’s a thing that’ll happen.
My question is answered almost immediately when I take a seat and Ambrose and Jackson fill the spots on either side of me instead of taking a chair or leaving some distance. My omega is delighted by being surrounded by both of these gorgeous, sweet men, and when Dahlia pulls herself over onto my lap and rolls onto her back for tummy rubs, it gets even better.
Is this what being part of a pack feels like? No wonder omegas are obsessed with it. I’ve always thought I was fine on my own, but the ache in my chest that I’ve spent years ignoring eases in this moment.
Jackson rests his arm behind me and Ambrose places a hand on my thigh, and as their scents mingle together, the comfort shifts to arousal as memories of being surrounded by them during my heat float into my mind.
Shit, don’t think about that.
I don’t want River to come back to a room filled with my coffee stink. It’s already bad enough that he reacted so adversely to it before.
I focus on the little dog in my lap to put myself back in a cozy mind-space. Her sweet, soulful brown eyes look into mine as if she’s trying to tell me, “Hey, you’re mine now.”
