I give her a confused look, but she carries on and explains.
“I couldn’t properly change out of that get-up when I ran home. There were things I forgot, and the pendant was the first thing he saw before he tore my clothes off and told me he loved me.”
“He told you he loved you!?” I shout loud enough that my voice bounces off the trees around us.
Eyes popping out of my head, breathing fast, I stop dead as I watch her come to a halt as well.
Her look is so dark it aches. “I’ve also betrayed him so badly that he probably never wants to see me again.”
“I’m so sorry,” I rasp. She just shakes her head as she glares at me.
“Ollie,” I say as I step toward her, and she folds her arms. “Ollie, I mean it. I screwed up so badly.” I take another step, and she turns her face away from me. Her beanie covers most of her piercings, but I don’t miss the plugs in her lobes the same color as Timber’s car. “I should have just trusted you, and I’ve hurt you so much more. I’m sorry.” I cup one elbow, and she shudders under my touch. “I mean it. Look at me, sweetness. I’m so sorry I made everything harder for you. I’ll apologize as much as I can, even if you don’t forgive me.”
She lets me take her other elbow, so I’m holding her, but not embracing her like I want to.
“I was going to leave before my heat, Kane,” she whispers, her voice growing louder as she continues, “All I had to do was have that dinner with him, and I could have gotten away fine. If it were up to me, Timber wouldn’t even know that I’mhavingaheat. But you—” She cut herself off, her throat bobbing as she swallows her anger. “You set us up and, in the end, it turned out exactly how you wanted.” She lifts her chin to glare at me again as my heart cracks. “So well done, Kane. Good job. Now Timber knows I’m Ollie and that I’m going into heat. Oh, and he also knows that we’ve been hiding my secret behind his back since we first met, so you can have fun dealing with that one, because I can’t ever see him talking to me again.”
I could tell her again that she didn’t have to come to the hockey game, that that part wasn’t all my fault. But that would be stupidly childish, and it doesn’t make up for the pain she’s feeling. The blame for everything at the restaurant definitely lies with me.
“Shit, Ollie, I’m s—”
“No, Kane.” She sighs, her shoulders deflating. “I really… you…” I never in my life thought I’d see her twist her lips as she holds back her tears.
I wrap my arms around her, pulling her to my chest as she growls. But she still softens into me, and her arms come around my waist. My tough, cheeky omega is holding onto me as she needs me to support her.
I said so many fucking times I was going to be her alpha. Even though my warped thoughts brought me to a place where I thought it was okay to hurt them as long as I got what I wanted.
“I’ve been so selfish, sweetness. I’m sorry. I won’t push you; I won’t force you into anything. I won’t try to make you two meet and talk or be a mediator or the glue between you or whatever.” I know I’m beginning to ramble, and all those notes I’d prepared and practiced were forgotten. “I just love seeing you two together so much. You’re both perfect for each other, and I’m so sorry I rushed you because I was scared I’d lose you both. I don’t want you to go into heat with anyone else, and it felt like we had a deadline, and I was scared that we just—”
She suddenly choked under me, and I gasped as I realized I was squeezing her tighter the more we talked.
“Ollie? Sweetness? Are you okay?” My worry is so thick in my voice as I loosen my hold, and she groans.
“Will you shut up?” Ollie says, tipping her head back to look at me. Her smallest smile gives me hope.
I was panicking because she wasn’t replying, but the second I see she’s not angry, I relax as well. With the winter cold seeping into me, I don’t want to let her go, but I don’t fight as she eases away from my chest. Her hands slip to my waist as mine lower to her hips.
I could keep the mood heavy, go deeper into it, but her expression says there’s another way. It’s a risk, but I’m going for it.
“Come on, you can’t be angry when you see my handsome face. I’m like a breath of fresh air in a field of flowers.”
She smells better than me, though. Her top is soaked, and her scent is growing even more lush the longer we’re out. I’m pretty sure that if I bend down to sniff her, I’ll lose it.
She glares at me again, and I inwardly wince. I stroke my thumbs in circles over Lycra as the tension softens.
I don’t miss the way she draws in a breath, and that her eyelids flutter, because I know my lavender sweat is luscious as fuck.
“Why don’t you get a drink with me?” I say.
“My heat is overdue, and there’s only so many suppressants I can take before I get sick, So I don’t think it’s good for me to be around either of you right now.”
“Well, we could always sneak off into the woods and go for the tried-and-true method of knotting until the sun sets.”
I’m getting addicted to the way she narrows her eyes at me.
“I thought you were stalking me because you wanted to apologize.”
“We can make up with our bodies as well as our mouths,” I purr, and a rush of pleasure runs through me as she snorts.
