Page 52 of Torment Me Knot
Another cramp doubles me. A keen tears out of me. Her scent floods me and I think for a second she has to be enough. She's the one I chose. She has to be enough.
“Let me try to help you,” she breathes against my lips.
Her thin thighs bracket my hips, her hands fisting in my hair, the press of her breasts soft and warm through her shirt. Her hip bone knocks mine and she adjusts. She kisses me like she can fix this. Her hands are everywhere. In my hair, on my face, fisting my shirt. She is not going to stop until something gives. Her lips are soft. She tastes like sleep and chamomile and I kiss her back, I grab her shirt and pull her in and drown in her. Her tongueslides against mine and I chase it and I slide my cock between her thighs.
The cramp keeps climbing and a low groan rips out of me.
“It's not working.” Her voice shakes. “Aubrey. It's not working.”
The cramp drops me and I curl around it and keen and she's shaking too, her scent gone sharp with her own distress, her breath coming too fast against my neck. My pain is in her body. Tears on her cheeks.
“I'm sorry.” I can barely form the words. “Espie. I'm sorry. It's not enough.”
“I know.” Her voice cracks. “I know. I wish I was. God, I wish I was enough.”
She's crying. I'm making her cry.
I have to make it stop. Not for me. For her.
“Aubrey.” Her breath is ragged against my throat. “Please. Sera can help. Let her help you.”
Sera.
I lift my head, and there she is. She's leaning forward, book abandoned, her whole body oriented toward us still in the chair. Amber eyes locked on mine. Her hands are braced on her knees and her jaw is tight and she's breathing slow and careful.
Alpha. Female. Alpha.Sera.She could help. I don't know where the certainty comes from, but it’s there. She helped my mate. Stayed at her side when Espie was in need.
“Alpha.” Her name rasps out of me. “Please.”
She's out of the chair, coming to me. Her scent thickens. Basil sharper. Blood orange deeper. The cedar reaching me first, before her body does. Her shadow falls across my legs. Then across my chest.
Yesyesyes.
She reaches the chair and pauses at the edge, hands hovering. I reach for her. “Please.”
“Okay, omega. I’m here. I’m coming.” She climbs in.
Slow. So slow. One knee on the cushion, then the other, settling her weight carefully beside me. Espie's heartbeat is still going against my ribs on my other side. Sera arranges herself along my side, a warm line from shoulder to hip. Her hand hovers until I nod.
Then she touches me. Her palm lands flat on my sternum, just over my heart. Warm. Heavier than I expected. She doesn't move it. Doesn't stroke. Doesn't press. Just holds it there, a steady weight through the cotton of my shirt, and my heart hammers against her hand like it's trying to reach through.
Her scent folds around us. Basil first. Sharp enough to cut through the sour of my own scent. Blood orange next, ripe and heavier. The cedar underneath, deeper than anything I've smelled in a long time. It pours into my lungs layer by layer and my body takes each one in order.
The cramp loosens half a degree. Easing. The clench around my pelvic bone gives up a fraction of its grip. Air goes further into my lungs. The tremor in my hands slows.
My shoulders come down. My jaw unlocks from whatever shape it had frozen into. Something in my chest lets go. A knot I didn't know I was holding. My breath comes easier. The gray at the edges of my vision pulls back further than Espie's breathing ever got it.
Her scent. Gods. Her scent.
A shift low in my belly. Not the heat cramp. Something else. A heaviness. A flicker. My skin goes from tight-with-pain to tight-with-something-else. Not shame this time.Response.
My body is responding to her. I…want her. It's been so long I'd forgotten what desire felt like. What an alpha could do.
“I've got you, Omega.” Her thumb strokes my collarbone. “Breathe for me, Aubrey. Breathe.”
“Alpha. Please. I need. I—”
“I know what you need.” Her hand slides up to cup my jaw and she tilts my face and her mouth pauses just above mine for a breath. Asking. Then her lips come down on mine. I startle. I want.Alpha,my biology screams at me, and the word doesn't come with teeth this time. It comes with my body leaning toward her instead of away.
