“What?” I frowned.
“I called my cousin.” That came out clearer, but there was a faint note of sheepishness. I didn’t get the reference. Rhett camefrom a fairly large family, but he’d never seemed especially close to any of them.
Roan pinched the bridge of his nose. “You called yourcousin?”
“We needed answers.” Rhett sounded defensive now.
“You asked your cousin, thedoctor, about suppressants and omegas?” Maybe it was how quiet and even he sounded, but the shock punching through the words declared how appalled he was.
“I asked carefully,” Rhett argued and I raised a hand as Roan started to round on him. To my utter shock, all three went still and the weight of their regard slammed into me like a fierce wind.
“Rhett…” My voice was hoarse, raw, but I couldn’t seem to smooth it out.
Jay moved abruptly and returned before I finished getting my thoughts together with a fresh, and very cold, bottle of water. I took it gratefully, unscrewing the top and drinking down several gulps.
“Thank you,” I murmured, and Jay nodded.
The world was starting to blur at the edges, there was almost a lens flare effect. Not only was the room filled with my scent, but I could taste theirs now and it was in every single breath I took.
So much for getting past the heat. I blinked slowly, trying to recover where my thoughts went. Oh. Heat. Meds. System reset. Another drink of water then I focused on Rhett again.
“We can worry about this later,” I said slowly. “I can call my doctor tomorrow. She has my records. She—she can of course check.”
“Did she warn you about this?” Roan asked, his intensity so visceral it was like he wrapped around me again and where ithad muted the throb beneath my skin before, it only seemed to enhance it now.
“Not this, specifically. She just said…” I tried to remember her exact wording, but the syllables were slipping away before I could fully grasp them. “Fuck…”
The last word came out a groan because Jay had drifted closer, and the rich amber of his scent was so heady, that I swore I was damn near drunk. He smelled so good. They all did really.
“Don’t touch her,” Roan ordered. Who was he talking to? Then I realized my eyes were closed, so I forced them open again. Jay was a half step from me and on one knee, his whole body seemed to be leaning in my direction.
“She’s hurting.” The protest from Jay was remarkable enough to make me focus again.
“Not… pain.” It came out reedy, and winded, like it had taken me a lot of effort to push those words out. “You’re just pretty.”
Jay blinked and he wasn’t alone. Rhett’s lips twitched, but Roan’s entire being seemed to turn to stone.
“You’re all so damn pretty.” There was no hiding the shaking now. Maybe I should call the doctor now? When I couldn’t even think of her name, I had to discard that idea. The men were moving around me, and I frowned as Roan lifted me. “What are you doing?”
“Taking you back to bed,” he said.
“Oh… will we get naked there?” Some part of my mind said I probably shouldn’t have asked that, but the rest of me just threw up my arms with a why the fuck not? My nipples were tight, my cunt slick and pulsing, my body on fire, and Roan hadn’t even touched me for real yet.
Skin-to-skin… that’s what we needed.
I fumbled with the tie of my robe.
Roan let out a little growl. An actualgrowl. It was the kind of aggrieved sound he only used when he was truly aggravated. Theneed bloomed inside of me like a gas explosion racing through to consume all the oxygen.
I was going up in flames.
“Stop,” he told me in a voice that was a low rumble, power and need vibrating in the single syllable. I turned my gaze up to him, trying to push away the sting of that rejection.
“You don’t want me?” The question broke free before I could stop it—barely a whisper, more wound than words.
Roan didn’t answer right away. His grip shifted on me as he carried me toward the bedroom, his arms like iron bands, his jaw locked so tight I couldfeelthe tension in him. Every step he took was deliberate. Controlled.
Too controlled.
