Page 77 of Heat Island
“No, I’m not finished.” My voice rises with conviction. “You think I care about your job? About how much money you make? Do you have any idea how many wealthy, successful alphas I’ve met who are complete assholes? Who only see omegas as property? The only reason you’re here is because that is the exact kind of alpha that I do not want!”
His jaw tightens, but he doesn’t interrupt.
“I want you because when you played that piece just now, it moved me. Because six months ago, you held me like I mattered. Because you notice things about me that no one else does.” I take a deep breath. “I want you because of who you are, not what you do or how you compare to anyone else.”
For a moment, he just stands there, shock evident on hisface. Then slowly, hesitantly, he reaches out, his hand hovering near my cheek.
“You deserve better than me,” he whispers.
I lean into his touch, feeling the calluses on his fingers as they brush my skin. “I deserve to choose what I want for myself.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
KYREN
My hands freezeon the piano keys as Trinity slides onto the bench beside me. Before I can react, she swings one leg over and settles in my lap, straddling me.
My first instinct is to push her away. To protect myself from wanting something I can’t have. To shield her from making a mistake she’ll regret. But my traitorous arms circle her waist instead, pulling her closer. I’m acutely aware of the piano’s edge against her back, so I shift to shield her from the hard edge of wood.
She feels too right in my arms. Too perfect. Too much like something I’ve imagined in quiet moments alone in my apartment.
“I skipped my dose of suppressants yesterday,” she whispers, her breath warm against my neck. Her arms loop around my shoulders, fingers playing with the hair at the nape of my neck. “I think my sense of smell might already be coming back a little.”
My heart stutters in my chest. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She leans back slightly, eyes searching mine. “How do I smell to you, Kyren?”
The question hits me like a physical blow. How does she smell to me? Like everything I’ve ever wanted and couldn’t have. Like home and desire and comfort all rolled into one.
“You smell like...” I inhale deeply, letting her essence fill my lungs. “Like the first breath of winter that promises snow. Like that moment when you’re falling asleep and can’t tell if you’re dreaming or awake.”
My hands tighten at her waist. I’m not trying to be poetic, I’m just a guy who makes sound effects for bad theater productions. But I can’t just tell her that her scent is still too faint to identify clearly—just wisps of something tantalizingly familiar that dance at the edges of my awareness—so I settle for how it makes me feel.
“There’s something warm there,” I continue, burying my nose against her neck. “Something that reminds me of holidays I never had. And underneath, something wild—like forest floors after rainfall.”
Trinity shivers against me. Her fingers tighten in my hair.
“Your scent has layers,” I continue, unable to stop now that I’ve started. “There’s the surface—warm and sweet. But underneath, there’s something livelier. Something that calls to me on a level I can’t even explain. It’s like...” I search for the right words. “It’s like hearing a song for the first time but somehow knowing all the words.”
A soft smile curves her lips. “That’s beautiful.”
“It’s just the truth,” I mutter, embarrassed by my own intensity.
She shifts in my lap, and I have to bite back a groan. “You know what I think?” she asks, tracing a finger along my jawline.
“What’s that?”
“I think we could be scent matches and not even know it.”
The words hang between us, so close to the truth that it physically aches. We are scent matches. I’ve known it since the moment I met her, even through the suppressants we both took during her heat-breaking session. It’s why I ran. Why I couldn’t call her back. The intensity terrified me.
“Maybe,” I say instead of confirming what I already know. “Maybe that’s why...”
I trail off, unwilling to admit how deeply she affected me.
“Why what?” she prompts.
“Why I couldn’t get you out of my head,” I admit quietly. “After your heat. I tried, but...” I shake my head. “Nothing worked.”
