Page 53 of Excess

She looked so pretty in her forest-green shirt, loosely tucked into a short black skirt.

“No.” I pushed my hands back through my hair, probably turning it grey with plaster dust.

Inika’s body language changed right in front of my eyes. An omega responding to her alpha, soothing his distress, wanting to take own his emotional burden as her own.

Except I wasn’t her alpha.

I could be her fuck buddy. I could be her friend. I could be the best damn plasterer she ever had. But her alpha? That was the one thing I could never be.

“I’ve been stressed this afternoon,” I forced myself to say, using my words like a big boy. “Knowing those alphas were in your office. It made me… concerned for you.”

Jealous, perhaps.

Maybe I wasn’t using all of my words.

She exhaled heavily, giving me an apologetic look. “I’m doing my best to fight my instincts, but I think I’m going to have to give you a hug. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” I said gruffly, catching Inika as she launched herself at me and hauling her up in my arms while she wrapped her legs around my waist.

It was terrifying, the way I immediately felt better. I pressed my nose to her throat, inhaling deeply for any trace of her natural scent beneath all the Om-Guard she slathered on each day.

If she wasn’t leaning in, inhaling me like she’d die if she didn’t, I’d be embarrassed that I was doing the exact same thing.

“Are you going to tell me who those alphas were?”

“You won’t like the answer.”

“They were from that heat agency thing, weren’t they?” I sighed, having already known the answer deep down but not wanting to cop to it. I squeezed her a little tighter, trying not to let the unreasonable side of me win.

Inika had asked me to fulfil the role, and I said no. She’d made no promises about not finding someone else to do it, and frankly, it was wrong of me to even consider that she would.

Objectively, I was aware of that.

“And?” I growled. “Did you like any of them?”

“They seemed nice.”

“You don’t like nice.”

She leaned back in my arms, looking down at me with one eyebrow raised. “Sometimes I like nice.”

“Not during the sometimes when you’d need a knot-for-hire.”

Inika narrowed her eyes at me, squeezing her thighs a little tighter around my waist. “Are you going to make this even harder, Blake?”

My hands found their way under her skirt, probably leaving dusty streaks on the globes of her ass. “I’m trying not to.”

She exhaled heavily, her fingers clamping down on the back of my neck, making my eyes roll back.

Thank fuck none of the alphas she’d been interviewing had touched her. I didn’t like to think how I’d react if I’d smelled their scent on her silky skin or expensive clothes.

In a vaguely homicidal way, probably.

“Who is the leading candidate?” I murmured. What the fuck is wrong with you, Blake? You don’t want to know the answer to that.

“None of them were a good fit,” Inika replied, the faintest hints of an omega purr distorting her words. My throat tightened at the realisation that she was soothing me, acting in the way that any nurturing omega would if an alpha she cared about was agitated.

Why was it so difficult to stay detached where Inika was concerned? It wasn’t like she was trying to make me like her. She’d asked me to fill the role of a knot-for-hire for her heat. Inika was sticking to our “it’s just sex” agreement better than I was.

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