“If we do this…” I start, but he doesn’t stop touching.
His hands squeeze my ass, greedily playing with my plush flesh, his fingers dangerously close to brushing my already aching apex.
"Viper, you need —oh, rut-damn…”
Denied access to my mouth, he diverts his attention to my throat. He nips and licks and sucks at the space beneath my jaw and above my bite collar. My eyes cross. The skin there is hypersensitive. So very close to my mating gland. Only a scrap a leather between us and a claiming bite.
I can’t let that happen. I won’t do that to him.
“We can’t. You can’t — I told you all,” I gasp, trying to remember how to speak.
“I’m defective!” I finally holler, “If we do this you’ll want to claim me, and once you do, you’ll be stuck. With me. Forever.”
He doesn’t answer. Just rips the gusset of my pants with one brutal motion. The fabric digs into my thighs as it tears, but I don’t register the pain in the wake of my wave of arousal.
“Oh frack, Viper!”
It bursts out of me, more praise than protest.
He leans back, stares down at my swollen nether lips, inhaling the plume of my perfume. The cellar air feels colder now that he’s peeled me open, but his stare heats every inch of me.
“No one is leaving,” he says firmly. “Not again. Never.”
"Viper—"
He growls and seizes my mouth in another demanding kiss, silencing my protests. When he finally releases me, I'm panting hard.
"You’re not defective. You’re perfection." His voice drops deep, challenging me to disagree.
I shake my head, and warble out a weak protest. “I’m broken. I’m unmateable. I can’t give you pups—”
He silences me with a snarl.
"You. Are. Perfection." He repeats, each word carrying the weight of his conviction, his tone leaving no room for argument. Fierce and final.
Tears sting my eyes. My throat works around the lump rising there.
I’ve spent my whole life believing I was nothing but a liability. Worthless. A broken Omega with no purpose. But Viper doesn’t see that. He looks at me like I’m made of light and is genuinely offended I can’t see it too.
He waits, brows raised, like the whole damn world’s on pause until I give him the answer he already knows to a question he didn’t ask.
And I nod. A shaky, reluctant nod.
Only then does he kiss me.
It’s slower this time. Confident. Like he’s won the battle he needed to win and can finally enjoy the spoils. His lips brush mine, then his tongue begins teasing. It’s gentle, caring, and when I suck it deeper into my mouth, he makes the most glorious sound.
It’s a groan. Low and primal.
His hips involuntarily jerk, shoving me harder against the oak barrel, jostling a little cloud of dust into the air.
He pins me there, using his weight to keep me at his mercy. Rough hands with callused fingertips smooth over my ass. He wastes no time prying my cheeks apart, spreading them until they burn from the stretch.
"Viper?" I gasp, straining against him.
Are we going to do this here? Now?
He hushes me, burying his face in my hair, the sound of his breath coming out in a series of short, sharp puffs as he inhales my scent.
