Page 99 of Fragile Heart

I already have the back door open. I ease Brielle onto the seat and then reach across her to grab Camden’s seat. Brielle whines, shifting under me, and then bites my neck. Hard. Mint surges around us, my body responding to her fundamental need.

“Alpha,” she whimpers, her voice broken and hoarse like she’s been sobbing for the last hour. Fuck, she probably has.

“Can you take this to the porch?” I ask Caleb, getting my last breath of non-lavender infused air for the foreseeable future.

He grabs it with a shaking hand and then walks away.

I guide Brielle onto her back, and she whines, the sound eager in a way the others haven’t been.

“Please, please, please,” she begs. “Make it stop.”

“I will, princess. I’ll make it go away.”

Her hips jerk as I palm the button on the fly of her jeans. My skin skims hers as I ease the zipper down, and she cries out, devolving into sobs, fresh tears falling over her lashes. My hands are trembling hard enough it takes me a minute to get her jeans off. Her movements grow more desperate, more jerky. Her hands dig into my forearms, trying to guide them to her cunt.

Her panties are fucking soaked, her slick sticking to her thighs and dripping to the leather seat. They’re another set of La Perla, the small logo nearly undetectable. I weigh the difficulties of trying to slide them off of her so she doesn’t lose another piece of expensive as fuck clothing.

Her nails bite into my arm, hard enough to draw blood, and the decision is made for me. Hopefully she doesn’t hate me for ruining another pair.

The lace rips easily under my hands, falling away from her flawless skin. Somehow, her scent gets even stronger. I can’t help but groan. I fumble with my own button and zipper, easing my belt loose enough to slip down my jeans. And then I wrap my arm around her waist.

“Come here, Omega,” I say, pulling her into my lap.

Her knees lock around my hips. Her hand shakes as she grips my dick, guiding me into her, and then she slides down in one quick motion. Her moan is louder than mine, but it’s a near thing. She doesn’t pause at all, simply plants her hands on my shoulders and uses them as leverage as she moves, chasing the orgasm her body needs—both hers and mine, the one that will set off my knot and lock us together.

It takes an embarrassingly short amount of time to get me right to the edge, ready to fall off at the smallest movement.

“Brielle,” I mutter.

She mewls, the sound so sad and desperate, I don’t try to get her off first. She twists her hips, and I’m gone, heat shooting down my spine and through my legs. I pull her down into me. She screams as my knot locks us together, biting my shoulder. Hard. Blood seeps into my shirt as she drops her forehead to the aching spot.

Her breathing evens out about the same time Caleb opens the driver door and slides behind the wheel. I brush aside her hair and wipe the tears off her cheek. She shivers, but her eyes don’t flutter at all. Caleb rolls down the windows, and her scent slowly fades out, letting me think a bit better.

He tilts his head back and sighs before looking at me in the mirror. When I nod, he starts on the dirt road toward Emily’s place.

Chapter Forty-Three

BRIELLE

The room is dark when I wake, covered in my favorite blanket and surrounded by the pillows that I usually pull off my bed before actually going to sleep. I slowly sit up, a headache forming behind my eyes that echoes my heartbeat. Is it a headache? The throbbing pulse moves lower, until my nipples ache with it.

I groan and tip my head back, trying to remember how I even got back to my nest. I’d been on a ride with Caleb, hadn’t I? Lavender floods the room, and the soreness between my legs blooms into a need that’s the same as the pulsating current webbing out through the rest of my body. Definitelynotmy heartbeat. It pulses in my belly, and I crumble, shrieking with the sudden ache of it.

A door clicks open, and cinnamon surrounds me.

I swallow, trying to wet my mouth.

“Omega?” Caleb’s warm voice cocoons me as a set of strong hands cup my face and tilt my head. “Sweetheart?”

When I open my eyes, Caleb’s blue eyes greet me, worry and heat equal measures in his gaze. That need pulses in my belly again, and I cry out, grabbing his arms to keep myself steady.

My voice shakes. “What?—”

He kisses me, soft and warm and comforting. I collapse against him even as my scent surges around us. It feels like its own living thing at this point. My nipples are so sensitive, my thighs clench as they brush along his shirt.

“You’re in heat, sweetheart,” Caleb says against my lips, wrapping an arm around my waist and laying me out on the bed, the pillows surrounding me. They smell of mint, and it makes my need ratchet tighter.

“Heat?” I ask.

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