Page 174 of Captive Omega

“I’m going to sit up now,” I say, not wanting to startle her by moving too fast.

I don’t kiss, and I don’t touch.

But since Resa appeared, I don’t want to be in my room, hiding my scars from the world. I want to be the man I was before the car crash made a wreckage of my life.

“You’re not sitting up,” she says, her eyes fused to my lips.

“I’m thinking.”

“About?” she breathes, rocking slightly toward me.

I squeeze my right hand, flexing my fingers, and I swear I feel the softness of her cheek in the second before I brush the strand of hair from her face.

She freezes.

I pull my hand back. “Sorry.”

“No…” Her soft voice trails off. “It’s okay.”

Okay, like she wants me to touch her again or okay like she wants me to kiss her?

Her scent drifts toward me. Sweet peach, rich and?—

Slam.

The door thumps into the wall and Resa jumps as Vaughn shouts, “Hey! What are… oh, am I interrupting?”

Resa scrambles to her feet and bolts.

She’s across the room, ducking past Vaughn, who yanks the door open for her and disappears in a flurry of dark hair and, unless I’m mistaken, aroused omega pheromones.

Vaughn stands just inside the doorway, blue eyes sparkling as a slow satisfied smile pulls on his lips. “Ah, I did interrupt something.”

I flop my head on the mat and stare up at the ceiling, ruing missed opportunities that might never come again. “No.”

For the first time since the car crash, the voice in my head reminding me that touch equals pain wasn’t the loudest voice. I wanted to pull Resa’s head down and kiss her, and I thought she wanted the same. For the first time, I was the one doing the reaching.

And Resa ran away.

“It was nothing.” I push myself to my feet as I dodge Vaughn’s gaze. “Just a misunderstanding.”

Chapter 49

Resa

I’m in my nest, hiding from my feelings as the sound of whistling moves closer.

I get up since the song is familiar. Vaughn, pretending to be a drunk, was singing it when he saved my life in the alley.

I slide the pool house’s glass open and step out.

“Hey, can we talk?” he calls out.

I don’t particularly want to, but Vaughn is already dropping onto the soft grass with his back to the pool house and patting the space beside him. “Come sit.”

Sighing, I join him on the grass. He’s easygoing, but I sense he’s going to be stubborn about this talking business. “If I said I didn’t want to talk, would you leave?”

He slides his arm around my shoulder and drops a kiss on the top of my head, briefly nuzzling me. “Probably not.”

---