Holly doesn’t move to make room for me as I sit gingerly not the edge of the bed, close enough that I can feel her body heat through the blanket, hot enough that she might as well be a furnace.
She lets her arm drop with an exhausted sigh after I finish taking her blood pressure. I warm my stethoscope with a long exhale, before maneuvering my hand under the blanket to place the diaphragm against her bare chest.
And I do my very best not to notice that she is naked underneath all this bedding.
I have an omega, naked in her nest and only a foot away.
“Deep breath,” I instruct, willing myself to focus.
She complies, and I listen to her lungs, trying to pay attention to the sound rather than the way her chest rises and falls beneath my hand. Her respiratory rate is slightly elevated, but lung sounds are clear. No signs of respiratory distress.
Next, I check her pulse, wrapping my fingers around her wrist. Her skin is hot to the touch, and I feel her pulse jump at the contact. A small gasp escapes her lips.
“How are you feeling?” I ask, counting the beats while staring fixedly at my watch.
“Mostly in need of a hard fuck,” she replies matter-of-factly.
My head snaps up, and I stare at her, momentarily speechless. Holly meets my gaze, then bursts into laughter at whatever expression is on my face.
“Sorry,” she says, not sounding sorry at all. “But you asked.”
The blunt response is so unlike the reserved woman I’ve come to know that I have to take a moment to recalibrate. This is the heat talking—lowering inhibitions, increasing sexual drive. It’s a normal physiological response, nothing to be shocked about.
“Your temp is still high,” I say, ignoring her comment and placing a thermometer against her forehead. This is a clinical assessment, nothing more. I need to remember that. “102.1. Higher than I’d like, but still within expected parameters for an omega in heat.
I realize I’m still holding her wrist, my thumb unconsciously stroking over her pulse point. Holly seems to notice at the same time, but doesn’t pull her arm away.
“How’s my heart rate?” she asks, her voice softer now.
“A little faster than normal, but not by as much as I’d expect given the circumstances,” I answer, finally releasing her wrist and belatedly realizing that I hadn’t actually remembered to count the beats.
Before I can pull away completely, Holly catches my hand and presses her fingers to my wrist, mimicking my earlier action.
“I can’t say the same for you,” she says after a moment, looking up at me through her lashes. “Your pulse is racing.”
I move to pull away, but she tightens her grip, surprisingly strong for someone her size.
“I know you won’t give me a knot,” she says, her voice low and intimate. “But I looked up some research on my phone. Turns out alphas don’t have to knot if they’re in control enough, not even when they have an omega partner in heat. You’re always in control of yourself, right Dr. Klinkhart?”
This fucking girl.
The clinical way she phrases it, like she’s presenting a case study, almost makes me smile despite the tension coiling through my body.
“Or can I call you Noah now?” she asks, voice teasing. “Seeing as we’ve become so well-acquainted. Here, I’ll try it. Noah, will you please fuck me because I think I might actually die without a dick?”
“That’s the heat talking, baby.”
She shivers at the pet name, pulling harder on my wrist as her other hand moves beneath the blanket in a way that is impossible to mistake for anything but her fingering herself. “Pretty sure that’s my pussy talking. Can’t your hear it?”
I have to close my eyes to fight off the image of what is happening under that bedding.
“You don’t know what you’re asking for,” I tell her, my voice rougher than I intend.
“Don’t I?” Holly challenges. “You promised to take care of me. Soothing my heat will keep it from lasting any longer than it has to.” Her expression softens slightly. “You can go back to hating me when this is all over. Pretend like nothing happened.”
“I don’t hate you,” I say too quickly, surprising myself with how adamant I sound.
Holly raises an eyebrow. “Then stop acting like it,” she says. “And do what I need you to do.”
