Page 37 of The Omega Project

I know he means the toll his condition has taken on him, but his beauty still steals my breath. Maybe he’s lost the rosy glow of the boy on the beach, but the haunted look in his dark eyes is alluring in a different way. “You’re stunning,” I tell him as he works the last button free. “Everything about you draws me in.”

“Then we should finish what we started in the car,” Derek says, his arms sliding around me from behind. His mouth dips to my neck as Soren peels off my blouse and I shiver between them. “We’re going to take such good care of you, Em.”

“Please,” I whimper, my head falling back against his chest as Soren unfastens my bra. It’s nothing special – just plain, white cotton – but Soren makes a low sound in his throat as he drawsit down my arms. Tossing it on the growing pile of clothes, he gives me a questioning look before slowly cupping my breasts in his hands. I arch my back, a shudder running down my spine as he thumbs my nipples. I’m so sensitive, I cry out as I feel another flush of liquid between my thighs. “Oh, God. I’m leaking again.”

“Slick,” Soren purrs, his eyes so black I feel like I’m drowning in them. “You smell so amazing; I can’t wait to have a taste.”

“Like honey and vanilla ice cream,” Derek says, biting gently on the side of my neck. “I can still taste her on my tongue.”

Soren has been fiddling with the shower controls, but now he leans forward and captures Derek’s chin, angling his mouth for a brutal kiss. There’s no warm-up, just passion exploding beneath them as their tongues battle for dominance. I’m still wedged between them, their bodies caging me in, but they don’t try to touch each other anywhere except their duelling mouths. I hold my breath, waiting to see if Derek’s natural dominance triggers something in Soren, but they just break apart with matching grins. “Who knew betas could kiss like alphas?” Soren smirks, running his tongue over his puffy bottom lip.

Derek lifts a brow at him, but there’s no denying the blush on his cheeks as the three of us manoeuvre under the shower spray. “Who knew alphas were worth kissing in the first place?” he muses as he starts to soap up my hair with some decadent-smelling shampoo.

“And who knew the pair of you kissing could be so hot?” I add, then raise my hand. “I knew, that’s who.”

“Smart mouth,” Soren responds with a mock growl, giving my nipple a pinch before he drops to his knees. There’s so much heat in his gaze, if I was drowning before, now I’m in danger of melting into a puddle. “See if you’re still sassing us when I take you apart with my tongue, pretty girl.”

“Yes, please,” I whimper, bracing my knees as he leans forward and kisses my mound. He buries his smirk against mysoft folds, and the first swipe of his tongue dissolves all traces of his smile. Midnight eyes gleam up at me, and then he groans deep in the back of his throat, his fingers digging into my trembling thighs. I don’t know if I really taste like ice cream, but he seems to approve, because he licks me so thoroughly, I’m a whimpering mess before he even reaches my clit.

“Hold her open, big guy,” he tells Derek as he nudges my feet further apart. “She’s so wet, I need a little help down here.”

I groan, but it’s the best kind of dirty talk, especially when Derek reaches around to open my folds. Warm water cascades across my exposed flesh, and I shiver as Soren swirls his finger around my clit. “You’re so slick, you’re like my own personal waterfall, omega.”

Derek huffs in my ear, his teeth sinking into my shoulder right as Soren starts sucking on my clit. Pleasure buzzes at the base of my spine, and I tilt my hips wantonly, my fingers twining through his blue-black curls. “Please,” I beg as I rub my arse against Derek’s cock, desperate for more friction. “I need you both.”

“Then let’s hitch your leg up, omega,” Soren says, easing it over his shoulder. I’m now spread so wide, they both give growls of approval. But as Soren hovers in front of me, he gives Derek a quick glance. “You got a good grip on her, big guy?”

“I’ll never let her fall.”

“Exactly. Leave the falling apart to me.”

I whimper, but it’s all anticipation as Soren makes good on his promise, rubbing my walls with his finger while he sucks me to orgasm. I come in a panting gush, my legs so unsteady that Derek sweeps me up into his arms. I cling to him as he backs away from the spray, his eyes gentle as he takes in my wrecked state. “That was beautiful, Em.”

I want to agree, but to my dismay, another wave of cramping need has me in its grip.

“You need a knot, sweet thing.” Soren gets to his feet, but when my gaze dips to his enticing cock, he shakes his head. “As much as I’d love it to be me, it’s best you start with one of the other alphas.”

Derek’s gaze snaps to his face. “Why? What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing, big guy,” Soren says soothingly as he cups my boyfriend’s shoulder, but he’s already climbing out of the shower and reaching for a towel. “I’m feeling good – better than good – but I’m an alpha less than half the time. I’ll be right there, all the way, but Emily’s first knot shouldn’t come with any surprises.”

Given the amazing way he’s handled me so far, I think he’s doing himself an injustice, but I’m not about to push. I’ll take Soren any way I can get him, and besides, the next wave of heat is building so fast, it’s stolen my breath.

“I’ll ask Langston,” I say around a painful pant. “Just because I know him best.”

I don’t know what the etiquette is for passing over the mate of the guy who just gave you a mind-scrambling orgasm, but Soren shoots me a cheeky wink. “No need to explain, sweetheart, I can definitely see the appeal.”

Langston

Emily comes out of the bathroom wrapped in a fluffy white towel, smelling of vanilla shampoo and omega slick. We all heard them in the shower, and I’m not the only one who’s hard as a rock as she approaches the bed. Finn has taken command of the armchair in the corner, while Creed is still standing like a statue near the window. I don’t think he moved an inch the entire time they were ‘washing up’, his gaze burning a hole in the closed bathroom door. Soren gave me enough warning to strip down to my boxers, but it felt weird hovering in the middle of the room, so I’m perched on the edge of the nest. I know the bedding is brand new, since I picked it out, but I’m not sure if it’s to Emily’s taste. She’s not a fussy person, preferring to wear band tees and denim, but with her omega side coming out, maybe I should have bought cushions with more frills?

I forget all about soft furnishings as she drops the towel and comes towards me with a needy whine. Her skin glistens with moisture – both from the shower and her heat - and my mouth waters as she steps between my legs. I have an instant flashback to the night at the fundraiser, when I lost the grip on my control and backed her up against a wall, plundering her mouth like an alpha in his first rut. To my relief, she’d kissed me back, but there was more than a little guilt mingled in with the pleasure. Finn was already throwing around words like ‘soulmate’ and ‘solution’, and one taste of her mouth confirmed it. My prettybee mentee was as close to my perfect match as I was going to find in this lifetime.

Naturally, I’d freaked out and taken personal leave, burying myself in Soren’s case. If there was a scientific way to help him, I was determined to find it, even if it meant combing through the same damn data for the hundredth time. Finn, meanwhile, took my attraction to Emily as a confirmation of his theory, and he cooked up the project job to drag her into our orbit. Should I have done more to protect her? Yes, I owed her that, both professionally and personally. At the very least, I should have given her some idea of what she was getting into, even if I didn’t know she was a switch. But Finn was certain she was a null, and that her presence would soothe Soren, and maybe even help him find a middle ground between his excruciating heats and mindless ruts.

But my attention is completely focused on Emily as her hands land on my shoulders, her thumbs stroking my collarbones as her hazy eyes drink me in. She’s taking her time, like she’s savouring the view, and the alpha in me preens as her perfume thickens around us.

Am I the sweet-smelling pollen, drawing my pretty bee mentee into our world?

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