Page 46 of Lying Lainey

“I got it,” Kerian called from somewhere in the room. A moment later, I saw the man himself looking as tired as I felt. “Can you sit up?”

It wasn’t until I started to move that I realized how sore I was. My body felt like I’d been worked over with a meat tenderizer.

“H, help her,” Quintin ordered.

“Easy now, Quin, I was going to,” Halstead’s deep voice chided from behind me. “I wanted to give her a moment and see if she could manage on her own. This isn’t her first heat, and I’ve heard not every woman likes to be touched after things have settled down. What we just went through was a shit-ton of physical contact.”

I turned to look at him with a raised brow. “Is that what we’re calling it now, a shit-ton of physical contact?”

“Best I got on the fly,” he answered with a shrug. “Would you like a hand?”

“Yes,” I admitted as my arms started to shake.

Kneeling behind me, he sat me up, but instead of putting me propped up against the pillows, he settled me between his outstretched legs. It was then my brain realized he was wearing sweatpants—they all were.

“Is it over?” I asked, even though it sounded more like pleading.

“From what we can tell, it subsided around three this morning,” Quintin answered. “Your scent changed to a more normal level, and the fever broke as well.”

“I had a fever?” I questioned.

“A really bad one for at least a day, but it didn’t slow you down one bit,” Kerian shared as he handed me the water. “It’s one of the reasons H was so worried about you. We managed to take your temp while you slept, and it was a hundred and three.”

A moan tumbled out of me at the taste of the cool, refreshing liquid. Never in my life had water tasted so good to me. While I’d heard what Kerian said, my body’s demand for me to finish off the water was more important. Once the glass was empty, I could relax against Halstead and let Kerian take it from me.

“How are you feeling now?” he asked, searching my face. “Do you want more water?”

“I would love more water, but I think I’m gonna need to work on that slowly. Right now, all I want to do is guzzle it down,” I explained. “As for how I’m feeling, let’s just say I’m really glad the meat is dead when we tenderize it because, damn, this sucks.”

Quintin slid off the bed then paused, catching my eye. “I’ll be right back. I just want to see if we have a glass with a straw for you to drink from. That should help you to slow down the water intake enough so you don’t overdo it. Is there anything else I can get you… painkillers, a snack?”

The mere thought of taking any medication right now had my pulse racing with panic. “No, I think I’ll be okay. If you guys have a bathtub I can use to put some Epsom salts in, that will be all the medicine I need.” Quintin nodded and left the room, closing the door softly behind him.

Kerian draped a ridiculously soft blanket over me as he came to sit cross-legged before us. “Lainey, something tells me that wasn’t a normal heat for you. Is there something going on that we should know about? Are you okay… in general, I mean?”

It was kind of cute to see Kerian stumble over his words being the normally confident and boisterous man out of the three. I reached out, and he took my hand instantly, letting his thumb stroke my skin.

“I’m fine, I promise,” I assured him, even though I wasn’t exactly sure that was true.

Whatever the Syndicate had given me had to have been the cause of this. It had me questioning what else it might be affecting as well. When I got the chance to be alone, I needed to reach out to the doctor again and ask more questions.

“Since I’ve been hiding being an Omega, I only allow myself one heat a year. Unfortunately, the second heat fell right when I needed to start working at Enigma, and I couldn’t risk asking for the time off. I’d hoped to get at least a few weeks in before I got ‘sick,’ ” I shared, using finger quotes to make my point. “My guess is since we are scent-paired, being around the three of you forced the heat, even though I’d made sure to re-up my suppressant dosage.”

Kerian nodded, scooching forward so he could keep my hand in his. “That actually makes a lot of sense now that you put it that way. It was just you were here with us engaging, then a switch flipped, and you were gone. None of us knew what to do other than help you through the best we could. The craziest part was if you weren’t knotted or asleep, it was like you were in real physical pain.”

“I’ll be honest, there are parts of all this that I truly don’t remember. It could have been from the fever putting me in a daze, I’m not sure, but what I do know is that I’m completely fine now,” I offered, squeezing his hand in reassurance.

He gave me a soft smile and leaned in to give me a peck on the lips. “Thank God for that because I’m not sure how papa bear here would have handled it if you didn’t get better. I thought that man was going to have a heart attack trying to keep up with your voracity.”

“Ha,” Halstead grunted. “Says the man who passed the fuck out the moment she did during that first DP.”

“Whoa, let’s not point fingers,” I cut in. “I’m not sure anyone, no matter their age, could have kept up in that frenzy. Let’s just say job well done by all, we made it through, and it’s over. You’ve all worked hard, so let’s make today a day off… hmm?”

Halstead tucked a knuckle under my chin, tipping my head back so he could kiss me deeply. It wasn’t frenzied like the others we’ve shared before. This one was intimate, full of emotion, and had me melting in his arms. Things were getting dangerous, and I didn’t mean with the Syndicate. Right now, these three men were threatening my very existence and what I had planned for my life. Too easily was I losing sight of the reason I was even there with them in the first place. Their sweet words, gentle kisses, and tender touches were like a siren’s call to me, begging me to throw the whole mission out the window and stay with them.

However, I knew that couldn’t happen. I would never be what they wanted once they learned the truth. Everything they thought they knew about me was a lie or half-truth, and nothing was real. Who could accept someone who lied so easily? How would you ever know if they were telling the truth? No, this was a blissful moment I would treasure forever in my heart, but I couldn’t stay.

Halstead started to purr as he pulled back from our kiss, gazing down at me with such affection in those deep blue eyes I almost wanted to cry. “You said something about a bath. Why don’t we start there so you can get cleaned up? I hope you don’t mind, but we sent our driver over to your place and grabbed some clothes and other personal effects. Figured you’d probably feel better using your own toothbrush and such.”