Page 82 of Use Me Up

I rub my jaw. “Well, I guess so, but I have to admit, I don’t like sending you out there. Will we see you again? Will you come back?”

She meets my gaze. “You don’t have to pretend like that. I don’t need that. We know whatever was happening in there was…” She doesn’t finish.

“Was what?” I say, because I’m going to disagree with what she said. Something about this dynamic with her and Ellis, it’s not great. And maybe at this moment, I’m a little biased towards her. She’s small and soft and round in all the right places, and I still remember the tight grip of her little pink pussy on me, so I’m predisposed to like her, I guess, but I don’t like what she’s saying. I certainly am not pretending.

“Opportunistic, I guess,” she says. “On both of our parts. I also probably did it to get back at him. And you’re only the second person I’ve ever had sex with, and it was nothing like me. I’m not like that—”

“The thick wall of scent in there was probably messing with all of our heads,” I cut in. “Are you saying, now, that you weren’t truly able to consent?”

“No,” she says. “Don’t be like that. You don’t even know me. You don’t have to pretend like you care about me.”

“I don’t not care about you,” I say. “Look, I would like to come with you and help your brother, because an omega in heat on her own is a disaster. But I can’t leave Ellis, and I’m a little torn, because I don’t think he really wants you to leave.”

“If you tell him about Calliope, he’s going to insist on going out looking for her,” Hannah says. “He’s devoted to her.”

“So, you want me to go back in there, lie to my omega, and just let you go without a second thought?”

“I mean, your thoughts are your own business, I guess,” she says. “But yeah, I think I have to go. And you’re Ellis’s alpha, so I think you have to stay.”

“Give me your number, at least,” I say.

She shakes her head at me. “Why? You’re not trying to…?”

“This all seemed unfinished and there’s something here,” I say. “That’s why. I want to talk to you again, that’s why.” Of course, I’m naked. “Here.” I motion for her phone.

She hands it over.

Then I have to make her unlock it, because the screen’s gone off. I send myself a text from her phone so that I have her number. Then I hand it back.

She takes it. “I have clothes upstairs,” she says.

“Right,” I say, and I watch as she leaves the room.

I go back to the nest where Ellis is alone.

“Where the fuck is Kane?” I say as I crawl in.

“Washing his cock,” says Ellis.

“Oh,” I say. It’s probably not necessary if Ellis is slicking there, because his anatomy shuts anything off, turning his asshole into an omega sex hole and nothing else. But it’s not a good idea to go ass to mouth, ever, so that’s just responsible of him. I survey Ellis. “You’ve been crying.”

Ellis sighs, shaking his head.

I eye him. “I’m sorry I fucked your girlfriend.”

“Yeah, she’s probably not my girlfriend anymore,” he says. “Maybe she never was.” He shivers a little.

Instinctually, I wrap my arms around him, pulling him up against my body as I begin to carefully stroke his skin. “Omega, can you accept alphaing from me right now, or are you too angry with me?”

“I’m not angry,” says Ellis, sagging into me. “I just wish I wasn’t in heat right now. I feel like everything’s impossible right now.”

Everything is always impossible with Ellis, that’s the thing. Poor guy. He’s a walking tragedy, it feels like. Things get out of hand around him.

“Knot me?” he says, shivering against my skin. “Knot me, please, alpha?”

“I can absolutely do that,” I assure him.

At that point, Kane comes in with a pill bottle and a glass of water.