Page 24 of His Captor

“Yeah,” I answered with a sigh, relaxing.

Ace understood that my heat had ended. I could tell from the way his body lost its tension that he wasn’t going to lunge for me or try anything that I didn’t want. He might have been a bad, badalpha in the fantasy we’d been playing, but the fantasy was over now, and he was a good guy.

Ace was a good guy. I knew it like I knew it was late morning outside, like I knew my heat was over. Whatever characters we’d played during our fantasy, Ace was cool.

I forced my sore and tender body to move, pushing myself up on one arm. “I feel like I should apologize,” I said, still hugging the sheets to me.

“For what?” Ace sat as well, conscious to keep the lower half of his body covered.

I shrugged one shoulder. “I feel like I’m disappointing you because my heat ended a little early.”

“Did it?” Ace asked, blinking. “It’s Monday. You went into heat on Friday. Heats last three days, right?”

I winced and shrugged again. “Yeah, they do. And you’re right. Looking back, I might have started going into heat on Friday afternoon, before the conference ended. I just thought the AC at the hotel was broken.”

“There you go, then,” Ace said, smiling. “Nothing to feel guilty about. I’m honored that you chose to let me take you through your heat instead of calling the fantasy off and finding a professional.”

The smile I gave him was wobbly, and for some damn reason, I felt like crying. Nice guy. Ace was such a nice guy. I liked him so much. Really liked him. Even though I didn’t know the first thing about him, other than that he designed kink equipment. It kind of sucked that I had a flight to catch that night and that I would never see him again.

“Well, um….” I cleared my throat.

“Do you want the shower first?” Ace asked.

No, no, no! We should shower together. And we should fuck in the shower, like two virile, hot-blooded people should.

“Yeah, thanks.”

I slipped out of bed, unable to take the sheets with me, but hugging myself, like that would hide my prickly, odd-feeling body from him. I practically ran into the bathroom, then stood with my legs squeezed together as the shower heated so I didn’t dribble cum and old slick onto his bathroom floor.

I took my time in the shower, scrubbing my skin hard to try to get the prickles to go away. I knew what they were now, of course. It was the post-heat aversion to touch. Shit, flying back to Barrington in a tiny metal tube filled with people was going to be a bitch. At least I had a business-class seat.

I took extra care to wash out my insides, since they especially felt like they needed to be cleansed. It was the weirdest sensation, but I almost felt like my womb was sentient, like that was my inner omega, and it had hunkered down on itself, like it had something to protect.

It occurred to me what that something might be for about half a second before my mind rejected the idea and pushed it away. No. Not gonna happen. I was not pregnant with a stranger’s child. Never.

Ace was up and fiddling around in the kitchen when I finished my shower and skittered around his living room, collecting the pieces of my business suit that had been strewn around the main room and forgotten on Friday night. The fact that neither of us had bothered to pick up my clothes, fold them, and put them aside was a testament to how overwhelmed with passion we’d been for the last three days.

As soon as I was out of the bathroom, Ace took his turn in there. I dressed, then I headed into the kitchen area to finish the breakfast preparations. As I did, I found my cell phone on the counter, where I’d left it after the last time I’d checked in with Ari.

I needed to let Ari know the fantasy was over, so I picked up the phone and tapped his contact.

Ari picked up after several rings and answered in a mock-irritated voice, “You know you’re the only person whose call I would take during dinner.”

I winced, remembering time zones. “Sorry,” I said. “I just wanted to let you know it’s over.”

I heard the sound of shifting, Samson’s deep voice murmuring something I couldn’t make out, then Ari said, “Over?” He paused, and I could practically see his frown. “Are you alright? Did something happen to end it? You sound…I don’t know. Not yourself.”

“I’m fine,” I said. It felt like a lie. I almost burst into tears.

That shocked me enough to dispel some of the overwhelming emotions I hadn’t noticed pressing down on me.

“I’m fine,” I repeated. “Just the usual intensity of the end of heat.”

Ari was silent for another moment before sighing and saying, “I remember. Are you still with Ace?”

I glanced to the bathroom door just as the shower cut off. “Yep. My flight isn’t until this evening, but I…I have all these weird feelings, like I don’t want to stick around here too long.”

Or like I wanted to stay forever.

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