Page 57 of Omega's Virtue: Part One (The Hartwell Sisters Saga 2)

She pulled in a deep breath, her head settling against my shoulder, and her everything relaxing until I knew she must be asleep. It was no effort to lift her into my lap and fit her against my body. Ten years. My arms tightened around her. I could have had this for ten years. Just holding her in my arms.

The clouds moved through the blue sky, but it was as if time stood still. My omega mate asleep in my arms, so exhausted from her memories that she allowed me to hold her as close as I desired. Dear Goddess, I never wanted to let her go. Never wanted her to know a moment of loneliness ever again. My strong, reckless, and brave omega would have two strong alphas at her back. As she said, wrenching her from danger by the back of her collar. My purr strengthened at the nascent vision of the future.

She stirred in my arms, and, as carefully as possible, I slipped my hand from under the fine cotton shirt and rested on her mate bite. The Lovers’ Circle.

I knew the moment she realised where she was, who she was with, for her body became rigid and her scent spiked.

“Can I get you anything,” I murmured into her hair. I almost wished she’d stay silent, half afraid that on waking I’d be the one to learn this was some dream. Trix. Mine. I looked with wonder at where my bite stood stark against her pale skin. I’d marked her the first time I’d knotted her. I didn’t know what kind of alpha that made me, but what I knew was that it made her mine. Finally, my alpha sighed. Finally, I could keep her near. Tied to my side for all time.

“You can let me go. I am… I am sorry for… You, I am sure, are not interested in rehashing the past. It happened. No need—“

“Enough. You shared something with me. I’ll respect your desire to… To not pursue the topic further, but do not tell me you did not want to take me into your confidence.”

“We are different people, Jack.”

I wanted to… To kiss her temple, if I was honest with myself. But that was a greater liberty than if I’d stripped her naked and fucked her against this tree.

“I want to go back,” she rolled off my lap but her foot caught a root as she attempted to stand. A small cry and she fell to her knees. A too quiet grumble was a better expression of my feelings at my omega doing anything without relinquishing at least some small part of her protection to me.

I picked up an armful of curvy omega whose protests were all bark and no bite, and carried her until we arrived at the large bay who’d been content to rest in the shade—Pax no doubt would have words about leaving him to stand for so long but he’d had his swim and a long drink. Better than my little mate who’d refused to drink any of the lake’s clear water.

“Please… I hate horses,” she whined.

“You tweaked your ankle and you’re overheated. Trix, you are like to faint if you try to walk back. And do not dare suggest that I leave you here. Get up.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t like the idea of having something between my legs that thinks!”

My laugh hurt, it was so loud and full. Oh, this omega, this woman did things to me. Bringing all kinds of emotions to the surface… I sobered. Ten years. The time we’d lost could not escape me. Ten years of having no one to be so free with. Pax had filled the hole, but I could not be completely free until he knew Trix was my mate.

“You will get on that horse. Either astride or like a sack of corn. Which—“

“Astride.”

I cupped my hands so that I could hoist her up, but the stubborn piece of baggage didn’t throw her leg over, and ended up exactly like the sack of corn she did not desire to be. But it was no laughing matter, for I was face to her ass, a luscious one begging for me to sink my teeth in and take a bite of that round peach.

“Help!”

I blinked, rubbed a hand over my face, and with a deliberate calm, making no criticism of her, uh, form, I righted her on the saddle.

“I’m facing the horse’s ass, Jack,” she complained.

“I know.” I said through gritted teeth. It was an intentional… Mistake. Though I only realised it as such when I mounted myself and like a monkey she clung to me. Thighs draped invitingly over mine, her hot core so near my cock that if I’d not been so distracted by everything she had told me, I’d be half-way to knotting her on the back of a horse. That was what she could do to me.

Her arms tightened about me. Face buried in my chest like a child. “I hate it,” she grumbled.

“It will be a walk, I promise,” I assured her, though the temptation to urge my horse into a canter, that she might strangle me with her arms and legs held some temptation. I’d never considered the pure agony of riding with an erection and it was taking a considerable effort to ignore the sweet smell of her sweat and her heat seeping into me.

The horse entered the stable yard at a sedate walk, no doubt tired from the heat and need to carry two persons.

“That’s it, Trix. Time to get off.” I squeezed her thigh, a sort of intimacy I craved as much as my next breath.

She sighed and ran a hand up my back until it cupped the back of my head. She was short but seated on the horse her body pressed against mine, she could just about reach. I leant into her hand, her body. So much smaller, yet radiating a strength I relished and wanted to protect in turns.

“What are we to each other?” She asked but her eyes cut away, looking at the dusty stones of the stable yard.

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