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“Yes.”
She swallows. “Please.”
Ezra’s eyes meet mine over her shoulder. We’ve never done this before. No one else has ever felt like they might belong in the space between us. In the bond I can feel his question, and I answer with an approving nod. Pepper needs our help but it’s more than that.
Ezra comes in close behind her and kisses the back of her shoulder, then the curve of her neck. Pepper melts between us with a helpless little moan. I slide one hand beneath the hem of my shirt where it hangs on her body and stroke up her thigh. Slick coats the inside of it already.
“Sweet omega,” I murmur. “So wet.”
Her face buries in my neck. “I can’t stop.”
“You don’t need to.”
My fingers find her clit first, circling gently until her whole body jolts. Ezra kisses along her shoulder and jaw, one hand cradling her breast through the shirt while the other slides lower to gather slick from between her thighs.
Pepper shivers and rocks harder into my hand. I grind my heel against her clit and tease her opening.
“You smell incredible,” Ezra whispers against her skin.
Pepper whimpers. “Both of you.”
I keep her on the edge until her thighs shake, then I give her what she needs. I apply pressure to her clit and skim my teeth along her neck. She comes with a gasp, her body tightening all over before sagging back into me.
When she turns her head, Ezra kisses her mouth, soft and deep, while I stroke her through the aftershocks. She barely catches her breath before the ache builds again.
“Oh no,” she says, dazed. “It’s still there.”
Ezra smiles against her temple. “Good thing we’re committed to helping you with your research.”
This time, his hand slips between her thighs while mine stays at her waist and breast, holding her open against us. Pepper trembles as Ezra works her back up, clever fingers slick and sure. I purr into her ear and kiss beneath it while she writhes in my lap, rubbing helplessly against the hard length of me.
She comes harder the second time, crying out and clutching at both of us before collapsing limp and warm against my chest.
For a while none of us moves. Ezra tucks himself close behind her, one hand over her stomach. I keep my arms around her and breathe in the scents of our little nest: cedar, cotton, river air, flowers, and the rich sweetness of our omega.
Our omega. I never expected that possibility to belong to me. At seventeen, I thought survival was the highest thing I would ever earn. At twenty-nine, I’d resigned myself to a quiet life, a fading bond, and the heart-breaking work of holding Ezra here as long as I could. I never planned for an attic full of lights, a nest by the channel, and a soft, bright woman in my lap taking heat notes between kisses.
Pepper’s breathing slows. She mumbles against my throat, “Need to text work. Heat leave.”
I reach for her phone from the mattress and place it in her hand.
She blinks at the screen, types with great seriousness for several minutes, then drops it onto the blanket. “Done.”
“Good,” I say.
She smiles without opening her eyes. “I like being your omega.”
The words strike deep enough to leave me speechless and enchanted. Before I can reassure her that I’d like it very much if she was mine, she snores softly.
Chapter 7
Ezra Heron
Iwake with Pepper’s scent in my mouth and Theo’s hand on my hip. For several seconds, I don’t move.
The attic nest glows around us in the soft gold of half-working string lights. White tablecloths drape from the low rafters, loose and imperfect, making a tent over the mattress beneath the window. The channel outside glimmers through the glass. Ferns and trailing vines crowd the corner near Pepper’s blue blanket. Her purple notebook lies open beside a bag of pretzels, a pen tucked into the crease as though she planned to resume gathering data the second consciousness became available. Her slippers sit at the foot of the mattress, facing opposite directions.
Pepper sleeps curled against Theo’s chest, one thigh tucked between his, my gray hoodie clutched beneath her cheek. Her dark curls spill over his arm. She smells like peppermint, vanilla, rosemary, heat, and our nest.
