The pizza was great. The games were awesome. We played late into the night. I won so many of them I accused him of letting me win.
“I wouldn’t do that.” His voice sounded snarly but when I looked at him, his dark eyes stayed soft.
“Well, I have been practicing,” I admitted.
My sleep that night had me tossing and turning. I kept thinking: Did he really want me? And in what way? The word want could take on many meanings from possessing a thing to sexual desire.
But not Malin, I told myself. He’d rented me that first night to make other alphas jealous. Jealous of me or him? He’d never said, but I assumed it was of him getting everything he wanted all the time. The fact that he’d also rescued me from being drugged and wearing a see-thru G-string was happenstance. He didn’t care about that. But then again twenty-four hours later he’d come back for me. With the statement, “I want him.”
I couldn’t sleep no matter how much I tried. I took a shower. I read. I played games on my tablet. But I couldn’t shake the idea of attraction. That he’d saved me because of that. Whether he consciously knew it or not.
The next morning, I made breakfast and he was quick to compliment the food and coffee. Then, out of the blue, almost rude, he blurted, “When is your next heat?”
I froze.
He shrugged at my expression. “We’re living in the same space. It needs to be discussed.”
He was right, of course. I had on white jeans and I began to rub my palms down my thighs. Not in any sexy way, just to ground myself. Malin had to know the answer to the question he asked. He was an alpha living with me. It would affect him.
“A couple of weeks. Maybe three.”
“That soon?”
“I had got my heat when I arrived at Brimstone. It was awful. I’m glad I barely remember the breeding.” My face heated even though none of it was my doing. “Then six months later I had my second. It’s been almost six months since then.”
Malin looked angry, his shoulder coming up as if to make himself look bigger. “It’ll never happen like that again. I vow it.”
He sounded suddenly formal. Not like himself. I believed him.
“You should know this stuff about me. It’s only fair to you.” I wanted to tell him more. My private life might be private once more, but not with him always close by. “My heats last two days. There’s pain. Like severe cramping.” I shut my eyes hard. “It’s why I wasn’t put to auction. I’m not a good match for someone to buy me as their mate.”
“What about pain meds?” His voice was rough.
I winced. “They cut the pain a little.”
“I’ll make sure to have them on hand. Would you like to see my doctor?”
“I’ve seen lots. They can’t help.”
“Mine is very good.”
“Thank you for the offer. I’ll think about it.”
“You’ve had enough suffering. I’ll do what I can to get you an appointment if you decide to go.”
“Before Brimstone, there had been no one. I was a—a virgin.”
Malin cussed under his breath. “I would go over there tonight and open the gates if I could, then set the place on fire after getting all the omegas out.”
Sentiment from him? But I had been carefully watching him and knew he was capable. His anger was a habitual mask. He wouldn’t suffer that if he wasn’t somewhat sensitive. I had already convinced myself of that. When he blamed himself for the broken sphere. When he bought me. When he spilled the beans about the money coming from his dad.
I bit back a smile. “I’d help.”
He grunted, then said to the air, “Partners in crime.”
I liked that. It sounded intimate without being scary vulnerable. But I wanted the scary vulnerable part, too. I’d justdecided that. Right now. I wanted him and though he’d said it twice now, he didn’t want me in the way I meant it. I was a screw up and quite possibly infertile. Those were very hard thoughts to admit to myself.
But that whole day, Malin spoke to me in a slightly different tone of voice. Not so flat, more engaged. A softness edged his usually hardened gaze.
