Page 34 of The Omega Verse
His eyes crinkle at the edges, and I have to pinch myself. Because this is Kobi Grace, my all-time crush, and he’s cradling my face like I’m something precious.
“Such a sweet girl,” he murmurs and then he’s pressing his knot inside me and I’m swept away on his cinnamon scent, and the even sweeter things he whispers in my ear.
Strange to think I used to sleep to dream, but when I open my eyes next, Tom is leaning over me. His handsome face is better than anything I could have imagined, but my smile dims as I take in his olive-green paramedic uniform. “I have to go to work,” he says, his jaw tight. “I tried to get out of it, but there’s no one to cover my shift.”
I swallow back the pathetic sound rising in my throat and push myself up. Sunlight is spilling through the blinds, but it’s the deep gold of sunset. “Okay. Wow. What time is it?”
“Close to five.” He nods at a tray of food by the bed. “You need to eat something now your heat has broken.”
I blink up at him, surprised by the way my heart lurches in my chest. “It has?”
“There might still be spikes.” His mouth twists at that, his eyes all broody. “But the guys will be here to see you through that.”
“Born to serve,” Silva mumbles into his pillow. He’s facedown and butt naked next to me, and Tom just grunts.
“We’ll take care of her, brother,” Kobi says from where he’s resting on my other side, and they exchange a manly chin lift. I can hardly complain about being left between these two, but my eyes still cling to Tom as he heads out of the room. He only gets as far as the doorway before he curses and strides back over, slamming his lips on mine.
I drink him down, those pathetic sounds turning to victory purrs as he ravages my mouth. He tastes like toothpaste and coffee, but it’s the satisfying scrape of his teeth, and the hungry thrust of his tongue that makes my toes curl. And as I feel our bond sparkling like fireworks through my blood, I grab his shirt, trying to pull him down on top of me.
He wrenches his mouth away, his eyes wild. “Fuck,” he mutters as he laps at the bite mark on my neck. “How am I ever meant to leave her?”
“Don’t!”
It’s an outraged cry and hands shoot out from everywhere to soothe me. But I’m staring at Tom, who looks like he’s been torn in half. Good. It should feel like shit to even think those words.
“It’s the mate bond, guys,” Kobi says in his sweet rumble. “It all feels crazy right now, but you’ll get used to it.” He strokes my back as he looks up at Tom. “But you should talk to your supervisor about going easy on the shifts for a while. You need your honeymoon period.”
“And your mating party,” Silva adds, rolling onto his side and giving me a wink. “We gotta dress up pretty and take our girl out for drinks and dancing.”
Okay. That doesn’t sound so bad. “Less shifts, more honeymoon,” I tell Tom.
He rubs a frustrated hand over his head. “It’s the surfing competition. If there weren’t so many tourists in town, I could probably get some time off…”
Which makes me a shrew of a mate. I’ve known Tom for three years, and he’s the most responsible person I’ve ever met. He grumbles a lot about the stupid idiots he has to patch up, but he cares in a way that I know - from bitter experience - is rare.
“Ignore me. I’ll be fine.” I rise up on my knees to press a gentle kiss to his cheek. I’m careful not to get too close to his uniform, but he pulls me in tight, not seeming to care that I’m a slick-covered mess. “We should get up anyway. I need to go to the bakery and check on things.”
His frown darkens at that. “You need to stay close to home, Cass. My guess is your designation is realigning itself, but until it does, those spikes can come out of the blue.”
Which means I’m a beta again? I don’t know how I feel about that. Or, if I’m being honest with myself, how these guys will feel now I’m no longer an omega.
“We’ll take care of her,” Kobi promises, reaching over to stroke my cheek. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a needy wreck, or because he senses my unease about switching back. “You go to work, Tom, and we’ll keep you updated by text.”
“And if she really misses you,” Silva adds, staring up at Tom through his lashes, “we’ll dial 000. You can ride to the rescue, and we can have an orgy in the back of your ambo.”
“Yeah, Ron will really love that.”
I bite back a smirk, since I’ve heard a lot about Ron and his uptight ways. Bad enough he’s going to have to ride around with a newly mated alpha all day, Tom now has slick stains on his pristine uniform.
When Tom finally leaves – after another round of deep, swoony kisses – Kobi presses a hand to my forehead. “You feel cooler. You want to go wash up or nap some more?”
“Definitely shower,” I reply, screwing up my nose at the way the blankets cling to my skin. I pick the least disgusting one and wrap it around me. “And I need to make a trip to the laundromat. These sheets are a disgrace.”
“They should be framed and hung in one of your touch temples,” Silva says as he follows me towards the bathroom. Kobi stops to sort through the jumble of clothing on the floor, but Silva waltzes out, buck naked and hanging loose. “Where’s the shower in this shack?”
“Behold, the wonders of outdoor plumbing,” I tell him, pushing open the sliding door to reveal a concrete slab and basic shower head. There’s a privacy wall and a hot water tank, but it’s not exactly the rainforest shower you see in design magazines.
“Jesus,” Silva mutters as I jerk the knob and a blast of tepid water pours out. “He really is a tough bastard, isn’t he?”