The words sent a chill over growing gooseflesh, Morgaine’s eyes on the male’s bared chest. The closer she crept, the more obvious his effect on her became. It was not just the way she inhaled deeply through her nose, it was her eyes. The blue was disappearing, being eaten up by a black pupil. “I’m not ready…”
There was a buzzing between her thighs, and he had not so much as laid a hand on her in weeks. As if he knew, the man drew in a deep breath, fought a groan. “Your estrous will arrive soon…”
Finding that she’d taken another step, that one whole foot was over the line, Morgaine blinked. Heart beating fast, the whoosh of blood in her ears almost louder than his purr, she said, “That is what they have told me.”
Voice low and suggestive, the lazing Alpha tried to coax her nearer. “What else have they told you?”
“That my first estrous might be difficult.” Unblinking, she met his gaze, completely enraptured. “But I’m not afraid of the pain. I’ve felt it so many times.” Another step, the golden line behind her now. “I’m afraid of you.”
“I don’t think you are afraid of me at all.” A gentle curl to his lips, a deeper purr was offered. When she edged even closer, he teased. “If you hold my hand now, you’ll see that I can be a lamb.”
Near enough to touch, the great, lounging male moved slowly as if to take the green sash, but instead, ran the back of his fingers up her arm. The Omega let out a breath, closing her eyes on a hum.
He dared to touch her loose hair, to tease the tendrils between his fingers. “And if you let me kiss you now, you’ll find that I do taste like spice cake—which I suspect you enjoy very much.”
The smell of slick was abundant and rich, wafting from the layers of Morgaine’s skirts. Breathless, she murmured, “You brought me here because you knew I was unhappy. You brought me here to this place where I feel safe, a place where you cannot take me away without my permission… and I want you to know that I am grateful.”
But he could take her away, because she had fully stepped over the golden line. But he didn’t do more than kneel at her feet and lightly play with her hair. “Then will you come home?”
In that moment, Morgaine was thoroughly tempted, licking her lips as if imagining licking the expanse of chest that—even with him kneeling—was close enough to kiss. When her eyes traveled downward to find the clear outline of his hard cock behind the leathers, she whimpered. It was not the whimper of fear.
“Please, kor’yr, come home. You don’t need estrous as an excuse to be cared for.”
Not yet. Laying the green sash over his shoulder, Morgaine asked her final question for the day. “Simin, tell me one thing the Omegas have yet to share. What does kor’yr mean?”
It was the first time she had spoken his name. The first time she had willingly touched him. The first time she had almost wished he’d carry her off and take the choice away.
Instead he spoke, eyes wide and full of love. “It means soulmate.”
Chapter 22
When a chime summoned him in the middle of another sleepless night, Simin knew that this was the defining moment. Estrous had come.
For over a month, he had affected a cool demeanor in front of the female his body and spirit already counted as his, fought to keep things light and easy so Morgaine could grow confident.
All the while imagining how hard he’d fuck her on the floor, right there in front of the translator and all the women gathering in the room behind her to spy. It was impossible to keep his thoughts innocent. Not with the way he’d trained her to look at him.
Not when her skirts—and whatever she had wrapped around her hips under them—couldn’t hide the tantalizing aroma of fresh slick.
Her body was begging to be penetrated, satisfied, and knotted.
The last week, her pupils had blown from nothing more than a covert stroke of her fingertip when she bravely took the tray. If Etaine was doing as she’d been ordered, the Omega translator had also been whispering in her ear, guiding her to find favor in him.
And if she hadn’t, then biology had done the work.
Morgaine desired him. His sweet kor’yr just needed to reconcile her physical attraction with her mental hesitations. Every meeting was a war against what might as well be considered scrupulous virginity. The more Simin had read about her people, the more he understood.
She required so much more than wooing.
She needed a spiritual conqueror and a physical presence between her thighs. And by the higher power, he had taken on that mantle with a vengeance. Sweet words, laughter, food made by hand and seasoned with fresh come.
Dribbled on her porridge, covertly rubbed over sticky fresh fruits, sweetening he
r tea. The more he provided the hidden ingredient, the more she seemed to enjoy his cooking… and the closer she came to estrous.
A steady diet of her future mate.
If Etaine had noticed the particular aroma, the translator had never so much as blinked an eye. Nor had he received any form of reprimand from the Omega Superior. The females might have offered Morgaine sanctuary, but in reality, it was in their best interests to maintain a sense of alliance with their Heidron. After all, his men kept them safe from foreign males who would happily enslave and rape them.