Page 38 of Scent of Home

“They left you here. You’re all alone.” The beta is relentless, her hands stroking my chest. I feel tainted and dirty.

I hear a sound, like the ringing of a phone that I know I’ve heard before, but it’s a unique tone. I whip my head around, holding still while I try to isolate the sound. Is it in my memory or is it real?

Her scent. The phone. Her hands on me. I can’t breathe. I’m going to die.

Panic flares and floods the air between us. She smiles wider and steps closer. Cupping my cock right in the middle of the dance floor, out under the blue sky of this small town. Shame explodes inside me, violent and nauseating, filling everything inside me until I can’t even think clearly.

It’s brazen, it’s inappropriate. It’s terrifyingly aggressive.

Did I hear that phone? Was that my imagination? My instincts are screaming. Run, run, run. But I don’t know where to run.

“I’ll take care of all your needs!” She whispers and stands on her tiptoes, pressing against me, her lips so close to mine.

That snaps me out of it.

Anger rises, and I step back and sneer at her. “I don’t think so.”

Her face folds, the pleading, sexy expression morphing into something sinister.

“I don’t think you understand-”

“Jess! I thought I smelt something foul. Be gone! I curse thee,” Bray spits on the ground and crosses himself three times.

“One of these days, Bray, you’re going to realise no one fucking wants you,” Jess snarls, planting her hands on her hips and tossing her hair.

“Well, fuck, today is not that day. I want you, Bray,” Erin purrs and leans on him with a wicked smile aimed in my direction. “Did my baby tell you no?”

“Your baby?” Jess snarls.

“Mm,” Erin points to Bray. “Mine.”

Her finger flips to point directly at my chest. “Mine.” She points behind me and her finger wavers. I turn and find Shane and Finn. “Both of those, also mine.”

Jess splutters. “I don’t think-”

“Exactly, you don’t think. Sexual assault is a chargeable offense, and if I find out that you are fucking around and pushing him into touching you…oh, girl, you do not want to see what I will do to you in a courtroom.”

“You’re a contract lawyer. I looked you up,” Jess spits out.

Erin just smiles. “You think I can’t do criminal? Oh, darling. I think you need to run home before the big city spanks your cute little ass.”

Jess has turned an interesting purple colour. I’d feel sorry for her, but I’ve seen women like her a million times before. They push, and when they don’t get what they want, they get mad, and then they get mean.

For a flash of a second, I feel apprehension, but when Jess spins on her heel and leaves, it fades under the powerful wave of mint and mocha.

I’m an addict for their scents. I’m not going to admit that I’ve stolen a number of Erin’s clothes in some kind of apparent break from reality. Sniffing them like a drug addict in the moments when she’s asleep or bathing.

Fuck, this is not me. I’m in control. I’m ice. Hell, I’m a freaking god.

Instead, I’m hard, unable to concentrate because every time my mind drifts, I’m thinking about fucking everyone. No, not everyone, just these four. Erin, Brayson, Shane, and Finn.

A whine slips from me, and I slap a palm to my mouth to silence the sound, but Bray is staring at me with darkened eyes. Erin either didn’t hear or is pretending not to.

Bray moves in closer and grips the wrist that’s covering my mouth. He drags me away from the dance floor. I stumble in an effort to keep up and then find myself tripping and slamming into something hard.

I step back and look up, finding Shane staring down at me. His eyes are filled with the same flinty hardness he always looks at me with, and I feel like a kicked puppy.

I wilt under his derision.

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