His shoulders relax, and he stands from his spot on the couch, moving until he’s standing in front of me. Then he drops to his knees, bending over so his head is resting on my stomach. “I need to feel you again, Jo. Even if it’s just a bite and nothing else.Please.”
“Oh, Hayden,” I whisper, sitting up and stroking my hands through his hair. “You don’t need to say please. Yes. You can claim me. Right now. I love you.”
“Right now?” Sam chokes out, and my head lifts as I give him a dirty look. But he’s not looking at us with annoyance or derision. No, he’s looking between me and Hayden like he’s seeing us for the first time.
Or like he’s about to.
“Yes, right now,” I say evenly. “Nothin’ should have ever happened to the bond to begin with. Every moment I can’t feel Hayden in my chest is a moment I feel like somethin’ monumental is missing from my very self. I don’t want either of us to feel that way a second longer.”
Hayden’s grip on my waist tightens in appreciation.
“My alpha is going to take me to bed, and he’s goin’ to claim me.” I look from Sam to West, and then to Kole. “I won’t be bondin’ with anyone else right now but…” Swallowing, I look down at Hayden, whose hazel eyes are trained on me. “Do you want this to be private?” I ask him quietly, not wanting to offer something he’s not comfortable with.
He sighs, nuzzling into me. “As long as I get you, Fireball, I don’t care what happens. The thought of being watchediskind of hot though. They can all see firsthand that I was the first one to claim you.”
I return my attention back to the other three. “I will be leavin’ the door open. You can ignore us…shut the door…or…” My voice catches in my throat. “Watch.” As confident as I seem, the extent of my experience with multiple partners starts and ends with mine, Hayden’s and Kole’s rendezvous in the craft room back at Thornfield.
Before I can think too hard about it, Hayden is scooping me up and carrying me to the bedroom. Kole is hot on our heels, and I try not to let my heart fall when I don’t immediately hear Sam and West following.
Sharing that kiss with West when I first got up had been…well, it had been life-changing. If there were any doubts about how he feels about me, they all got swept away by the passion behind that kiss. Even though I was the one who initiated, it was like breaking a damn, and he swept me away in the current of his feelings.
Then, the way he held me after? Fuck. I’d never felt more safe.
“What are you doing?” I hear Sam hiss quietly as Hayden gently lays me on the bed.
“What areyoudoing?” West snaps. “We tortured a piece of shit rapist, covered up a murder, killed who knows how many guys and broke a dozen laws to get her here and…what? Now you’re going to pretend that you’re above all this? That you’re not just as whipped as the rest of us? Why did you say you were in if you were going to play this hot and cold game? You’re in or you’re out, Sam. Figure it out.”
Something warms in my chest when I see West in the doorway over Hayden’s shoulder, his eyes heated.
“I love you, Jo,” Hayden whispers as he looks down at me, all the affection he feels for me clear in his eyes. “I need…can I be in control this time? With everything that’s happened…” He closes his eyes and lets out a shuddering breath. “My alpha needs this.”
I wrap my arms around his neck. “I love you too, Hayden. Of course. Take me. I’m yours.” Then his lips are on mine, and I’m losing myself in the sensation of his touch.
Is this what it would have been like? If I wasn’t raised in a trailer park, and he wasn’t abused by his dad…would we still have found each other? Would our first time together have been in a comfortable cabin, where we could take our time and explore each other, and not in a twin bed with the fear of getting caught?
I know there’s no point in wondering, because if I had to do it all over again, just to be here with him, I would.
His fingers grip the hem of my shirt, and we break apart briefly as he pulls it off my head. I didn’t put on a bra, so I’m bare for him as his eyes roam down my body. “I fucking love your boobs,” he groans as he peels off my leggings, and the bed dips next to me.
“Mmmm, so do I,” Kole rumbles, his hand palming his dick through his sweatpants.
“Where do you want my bite this time, Jo?” Hayden murmurs as he sucks at the column of my throat, his hand palming the breast that has his original bite. “I could do the other side and give you a matching set.”
“Ohhhh,” I moan, arching my back as heat pools low in my belly. “I think I like that idea.”
“What do you think, boys?” Hayden sits up, looking over his shoulder. “You think our omega would look even more sinful with a mark on each of her perfect tits?” I follow his line of sight to see West and Sam sitting in two chairs against the walls as they watch us.
I realize it’s the first time either of them have seen me naked.
The thought has a bolt of awareness shooting straight down to my throbbing core.
West does nothing to hide the way his hand squeezes his dick from outside his pants or the hunger in his eyes, while Sam looks like he’s about to crack a tooth with how hard his jaw is clenching. I’m about to tell him that nobody is forcing him to be here when he surprises me by answering Hayden.
“Yes,” he grits out, his fists so tight they’re white, and I realize he’s not tense because he doesn’t want to be here. No, he’s tense because he’s trying to keep himself from getting too close. He wants to let Hayden and I have our moment.
The thought of being nearly irresistible to a man like Sam Wright sets my body on fire.
“I would have thought it impossible,” West murmurs, his heated eyes roaming, “but I do think you’re right, Hayden.”
