The water from the pool licked at Alison’s sides as she swam her laps, lost in the familiar and repetitivemotions. It had become part of her routine, to rise when Kyle did, to have coffee with him, then to swim.
A clearing throat made her stop, and sure enough, crouched by the side of the pool was Trent. He didn’t smile, but she’d come to find that tiny crease that appeared in his cheek was his version of it, though it didn’t do much to soften his features.
He crooked his finger, and while weeks before she’d have balked at such a blatant demand, she found herself wading to him without a second thought.
Trent’s lips against hers could wipe away any of Alison’s good intentions. She’d always thought of herself as a strong woman, as someone who could resist anything.
Leave it to the alpha to teach me how wrong I was.
He leaned forward at a precarious angle and gave her one hell of a kiss. When he pulled back, she tried to follow like a mermaid he was luring to dry land.
Isn’t that supposed to go the other way?
If there was anything she’d learned with the alphas, it was that either she was all wrong about the alpha-omega interaction or she was just exceedingly easy. She’d always thought the omegas lured in predatory alphas, that the female was the trap.
Instead, she’d found herself drawn tothem. They could do nothing, just sit there, and everything inside her would crave just a little affection. She’d want to crawl into their laps, even as they watched television, and curl against their chests.
Worse? They’d allow it.
And here she was again, her plan destroyed, and all because of one crooked finger. Yet, even as she scolded herself, she kissed him. Shewantedhim. Four days without sex, of resisting them, of passing off all thehorrible symptoms she’d started to have as nothing but her period. They were sweet, ensuring she had anything she needed, that she took it easy, that she didn’t overdo anything. Even at night, when she curled against them, they didn’t go past the limit she’d set.
And all of that only served to make her feel worse. It was so much easier to resist them when she thought of them as nothing but pushy, overbearing, asshole alphas. When they acted likethis, when they treated her as though she mattered, it unsettled her.
Trent broke the kiss, a groan on his lips as though he wanted nothing more than to take her around the waist and pull her from the water to fuck her right there.
He’d do it, too. Another truth they’d proven was that modesty mattered little to them. They had no hesitation about starting anything with her anywhere, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
And worse? She’d grown to feel that way, too. The shame she’d had at first if she kissed Trent and Kyle walked in, if she were in Kyle’s lap when Daniel took a seat beside them, had disappeared. All the times she’d grown up hearing that only whores took more than one alpha, when the idea of doing such a thing was a foreign idea, couldn’t keep a foothold when the alphas looked at her as they did, with such affection.
Trent sat, his legs crossed in front of him. “How are you feeling today, pet?”
She floated backward, wading in the deep water. “Good.”
“Did you sleep better?”
She nodded, though compulsion forced her to add, “I’m still not feeling great once I wake up.”
“I had some tea delivered. It’s supposed to help. I want you to try that instead of coffee.”
She opened her mouth to argue—coffee was a staple of life, after all—but his lifted eyebrow silenced her.
Except, as usual, he relented, especially once she’d given in. “Tea first. Wait an hour, see if it helps, then you can have coffee with some food.”
Alison studied his handsome face—well,shefound it handsome, but she wasn’t sure if others would. He was frightening, larger than most men, covered in muscle, and the sharp lines of his face gave him a dangerous edge. “Thank you,” she said, an honesty behind the words she hadn’t meant. It just slipped out, as if she meant it for so much more than just the coffee.
It was about everything. It was about their entire time together.
As they neared the end, as Alison had accepted that she would lose those things, she was still grateful she’d experienced them.
Losing them would hurt, sure. She had no doubt that aching hole in her chest would never fully heal, as if they’d reached in and torn a chunk out, when she finally walked away.
Still… she couldn’t regret it. Each time she tried to tell herself she wished she’d never said yes to this, she knew it was a blatant lie.
“You know,” he said slowly, as if unsure. “I was thinking, after this is over, maybe you’ll want to come check out my gym. I know you like the one you’re at, but I think you’d find there were some perks with mine.” He offered a smile that was more nerves than confidence. “Like me?”
Alison’s smile fell away, a chill running through her. She shook her head. “I can’t.”
“Why not? I know you told Kyle the same thing, that this is over as soon as the case is. Why does it have to be?”
