Page 61 of The Omega Lesson

I ignore his wagging brows and grab his face, laying a kiss on him. “That’s so sweet, Noah,” I tell him. “Now put me down so I can suck your cock in appreciation.”

“Not in front of Bree’s pony,” he huffs, his head whipping around as he considers his options.

“Pool house?” Mattie suggests, his eyes twinkling. “It’s closest.”

“Perfect.”

Again, the pool house puts my little cottage to shame. The French doors open into a big entertainment space, all done up in cool beach colours. But my jealousy takes a darker turn as I take in the empty liquor bottles lining the marble bar, and the damp bikini tops hanging from various points around the room. A faint cherry scent - along with lashings of pungent perfume – assault my nose and I scowl. “Your cleaners didn’t make it this far yet?”

“Fuck,” Noah grunts, putting me down on my feet. He turns on the overhead light and I can see the lipstick smears on the champagne glasses and cigarette butts. There’s a table covered in cards and poker chips, and when I glance in the bin behind the bar, there are a couple of used condoms. “Some of the guys have keys,” he mutters. “They must have used it while I was staying at yours.”

“Oh, yeah?” I walk over and hook a bright pink bikini top off the edge of a rattan couch. “But it’s your favourite colour.”

Noah’s face falls even further. “Ipromiseyou, Lexi. I haven’t been near another woman since I met you.”

I don’t respond, turning on my heel and walking back towards the main house. Mattie trots at my side, checking my face, while Jack punches his brother in the arm. They descend into a furious whispering match, but I don’t stop until I’ve reached the rumpus room. I walk over to the beautiful black piano, which looks like it should be on a concert hall stage, and turn to face them. “Could you play something for us, Jack?”

He frowns, but slides onto the stool next to me. Something beautiful and passionate pours out into the room and I bend to lay a kiss on the side of his neck. The look he gives me sends tingles down my spine.

“You remember the first night I was here?” I ask Noah, who’s scowling at the back of his brother’s head. “You said I should tell you what I need, and you’d deliver. At the time, I didn’t know. I wasn’t sure how we’d make any of this work. But I am now.”

Noah’s gaze snaps my way, and I see real fear in his eyes. It’s enough to make me open my arms to him and, just like that first night, he doesn’t hesitate, crossing the room and gripping me so hard I know I’ll have bruises. Maybe it’s losing his brother the way he did, or the shit their dad put them through, but something has convinced him he’s so easy to cast aside, and it speaks to my soul.

I grip him back, whispering in his ear. “I’ll never let you go. I’ll never give you up. And I won’t share myself with anyone outside our pack.” I pull back until I’m cupping his cheeks and staring into his beautiful, shadowed eyes. “But I don’t need to tell you that, Noah, because I know you feel the same way.”

“I do. It’s all I want.”

“Then show me. I’m the last girl you make love to in this house.”

He’s already shaking his head, trying to tell me it wasn’t love, and none of them mattered, but I don’t want to rewrite his history. He wears it on his body to remember, and now I want that, too.

“I’m going to lock you, Noah, and then I want to bite Mattie and Jack.” A strange sense of power ripples through me as they all stare at me, transfixed. “I don’t know how it will work with my messed-up designations, or if it will even hold if I switch, but I want to share this with you. I want us to be bondmates. Can we try?”

“Fuck, yes!” Noah crows, while Mattie rushes over to throw his arms around both of us.

It’s only as the music trickles away that we turn and see Jack watching us from the piano stool, his fingers motionless on the keys. “What about Ben and Travis?”

I nod, because as desperate as I am to get closer to the men in this room, their brothers are on my mind, too. “I pretty much laid it all out for Travis in the locker room. The next move is up to him. But Ben… Should we wait? I know he’d be here if it wasn’t for work. And he’s already your mate, Jack. He should have a say in how this happens.”

Noah makes a rude sound at that, but Mattie is already pulling his phone from his pocket. “So, we call him. Easy.”

He sounds so supremely comfortable dialling up his brother to ask if his teacher can bond him, that I have to laugh. “Just like that?”

“We can always put him on mute if he says no,” Noah mutters in my ear, but then Mattie holds up his phone and I realise we’re about to video chat. I try to smooth down my clothes and hair at the same time, but it’s a lost cause with the guys in the way. And then Ben is filling the small screen on Mattie’s phone, and I drink him in. He’s wearing a white, open-necked shirt, a battered Eagles cap on his head, and he has the beginnings of real scruff on his jaw. He’s leaning against a sleek white wall, but he’s moving slightly, and I wonder if he’s drunk. But his eyes are laser keen as they take us all in.

“This is a nice surprise.”

Jack is close enough that I can see the shiver pass through him at the throaty growl, his fingers drifting from the keys to the bonding bite on his neck. “We miss you,” he says with a tinge of longing in his voice. “And we have something we need to discuss.”

Ben nods, looking us over, before his gaze zeroes in on me. “Pink looks good on you, Lexi.”

I smile, touching the end of my ponytail, only to find Noah’s fingers already tangled there. “I love it, but I have to dye it back before school…”

“Then you should take a day off,” Ben interrupts me, leaning towards the camera. The way his eyes rove over me feels like he’s trying to reach through the screen and touch me. “I can be home before noon on Monday. I’d like to see it in person, if you can wait.”

A warm, syrupy heat fills me, but Mattie turns the screen his way, his brow cocked. “Aren’t you out in the middle of the ocean?”

“That’s what helicopters are for,” Ben rumbles, then sits forward, his electric green gaze filling the screen. “So, I heard you and Travis played a pretty good game, Lexi. I wish I was there to see it.”

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