Page 22 of Swipe My Alpha
"It's you trying to protect your career. Which is fine. That's your right. But don't stand there and call it protecting us when what you mean is protecting yourself." He pauses, exhaling through his nose. "I think you should go."
"This is my apartment."
"You gave me a key and told me it was ours. So right now it's mine and I need you to not be in it." His voice cracks on the last word. Just barely. Just enough for me to hear the hurt underneath the anger. "Go, Rhys. Please."
I go.
I grab my jacket and my keys and I walk out of my own apartment and the door closes behind me and the hallway smells like nothing at all.
I sit in my car in the parking lot. The engine is off. The streetlight above me flickers in a pattern that would be annoying if I could feel anything other than the bond in my chest pulling so hard it aches. Pulling toward the apartment where my mate is alone in a nest I'm not allowed in.
I did this. I told the person I claimed to be invisible. I told the omega who built a home in my bed to stay away from it. Because someone at a party made me nervous. Because my old programming kicked in and told me the rules matter more than the person and I listened to it instead of the bond screaming the opposite.
An hour passes. Maybe more. I don't check the clock.
My phone lights up. Not a call. A text. From Jude.
I'm so pissed at you.
I stare at it. Type back:I know.
I'm pissed at you and I can't sleep and the nest smells like you and I can't turn it off. I can't turn any of it off. Do you know how infuriating that is?
Yes. I'm in the parking lot and I can feel you through the bond and it's killing me.
Good. You deserve it.
I do.
A pause. Then:Are you really just sitting in the parking lot?
Yeah.
That's pathetic.
I know.
Another pause. Longer. I watch the screen, my thumb hovering. Then:
Tell me what you'd do if you were here right now.
I'd get on my knees the second I walked through the door. I wouldn't even take my jacket off. I'd just drop and put my face against your stomach and breathe you in and tell you I'm sorry until you believed me.
And then?
I'd put my mouth on you. Wherever you wanted. However you wanted. I'd let you use me until you weren't angry anymore or until you were more angry, whichever you needed.
That's convenient. Offering your mouth to fix things.
I'm not trying to fix things. I'm trying to tell you I'd give you anything right now. Anything you asked for. I'd do whatever you said.
Anything?
Anything.
Are you hard?
I am. I've been half hard since his first message because my body doesn't care that we're fighting. My body knows my mate is a building away, furious and wanting, and it responds to that like a compass pointing north.
