Page 24 of The Heat of Us

I gazed out into the distance, taking in the view of the affluent suburb where Juno’s pack house sat. “Bittersweet,” I admitted. “So happy for her.” I leaned over the balcony and stared down at my clasped hands. “Angry knowing everything she suffered. Guilt over my part in it.”

Hazel drew closer and her scent swirled between us. A flower-lined path, pushing aside overhanging leaves, each step bringing me closer and closer to—

I gripped the stone beneath me so I wouldn’t waver on the spot.

“It doesn’t go away, you know,” Hazel said.

Her voice was barely audible in the still night air.

“What doesn’t?”

“The guilt.”

I found myself standing over her, losing myself in those infinite dark eyes.

“What happened to you, Hazel?” I asked hoarsely.

She didn’t answer. Instead, we took our next three breaths together.

In and out. In and out. In and out.

“Why does it feel like this?” she whispered.

I knew what she meant but asked anyway. Needing to hear her say it.

“Like what?” I said thickly.

“Why does it feel like we can dig the worst parts of ourselves up for each other and it’ll never be too much?”

“I don’t know.”

We moved towards each other like it was preordained. My hands found the curve of her waist and pulled her against me. Her fingers at the nape of my neck tightened at the first touch of my lips against hers.

It was the end of the world and the start of my life all in one devastating instant. I sank into the oblivion of tasting and feeling her. Lost my sense of self at the small involuntary noise she made when I deepened the kiss. The way she pulled my head back to hers the moment we separated branded me.

And her scent.

The trees seemed to swallow me, the aroma from their adornments inescapable. Plump limes, soft white flowers. I pushed the final branch aside and there she was. Past, present, future melded into one. She turned to greet me and her face blurred—

My thigh slipped between her legs as our tongues met for the first time and the energy between us tilted. Turned dark, primal and hungry. The heat of her burned through my system and there was a persistent, pulsing pressure in my cock driving me.

I needed her on all fours.

Presenting her dripping pussy.

Ripe for me to mount.

Rut.

Breed full of my—

Hazel ripped her mouth from mine and I was bereft. She was staring up at me, a stunned horror seeping into her gaze. Her chest rose and fell as she took a deep inhale and her expression shifted like she’d confirmed something.

“No.” Hazel stepped back.

“Hazel,” I rasped, not even knowing what I was pleading for.

“No,” she repeated, resolutely this time. “You can’t be.”

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