Chapter Six
He completed what should have been a four-week job in two-and-a-half, working long hours and cramming the hold full of anything valuable from the wreckage sites. It was enough to properly look after an Omega and a child on the way and provide the finest medical care available. He would ask her input about moving from his planet for the time being, wanting to take her to one of the more centrally located Coalition planets with better health care available.
He’d spent the last seventeen days working to the verge of exhaustion, but it had done little to shut down his mind. When he’d first left her behind, his plan was to use the time to ensure he maintained distance between them. He wanted her to practically hate him and want nothing to do with him. It was the only way to keep him from loving her, since that bond was already likely to form anyway now that he’d claimed her. Proximity and time would only lead to caring more and more for her, and he couldn’t imagine doing that again.
Somehow, it hadn’t worked. Despite his resolve, his thoughts had centered around her, not in how he could keep himself from falling for her. Instead, there’d been random snatches of memory that came to him, both from the brief time he’d claimed her, and from their interactions at their last meeting.
Every time he thought of her, he associated it with anger—her anger, not his. He would’ve preferred it if he could have been angry with her and resented her for being part of his life, but his own actions had allowed the opening, and it wasn’t like Azaria had seized upon it gleefully. They were both in the situation they were in due to outside influences, and he’d come around to the idea it was better just to accept that and be the best Alpha to her that he could.
He wasn’t expecting much of a greeting when he arrived home that afternoon after selling his salvage, but she didn’t even look at him when he walked into the house. She had been at the kitchen counter, looking like she was making something.
The room was redolent with the scent of spices, and his nose twitched in appreciation. He started to say something about it, but she took one look at him, went pale, and stormed away. She left her task half-finished, and he considered chasing after her, but he accepted her anger was justified.
She probably truly hated him, and that had been his goal to start with, but now it felt wrong. They were going to be bound together for a long time, at least the rest of their lives until one of them died. After that, she might be able to free herself from the link between them, but he didn’t want to contemplate that. He realized he didn’t want this cold, unhappy union with her. He wanted her to see him when he arrived home and smile, or better yet, to have her working alongside him at the next operation.
He groaned and wiped a hand down his face as he realized just how badly he had screwed up everything. She represented another chance at happiness, a chance he’d denied himself and refused to ever contemplate in the past, and now he’d done his best to sabotage it, to ensure it could lead nowhere happy for either of them.
With a sigh of disgust at himself, he left the kitchen and went down the hall, deciding a real shower would feel good after being confined to the tiny space on the ship for the last seventeen days. Once clean, he wrapped a towel around his waist and walked into the bedroom, startling her in the process.
She glared at him, hands on her hips. “What are you doing?”
He arched a brow. “I’m getting some clothes. Unless you prefer me naked?” He asked that playfully as his fingers went to the knot on the towel.
“Don’t,” she said sharply, but the way her nostrils flared, and pupils widened betrayed she wasn’t entirely opposed to the idea, though she might want to be. “That’s not funny.”
“I’m not trying to be funny.” He moved closer, drawn by the scent of her. She smelled different this time than she had last time, likely because she was in a different stage of pregnancy.
He could see the faint outline of her stomach protruding through the jumpsuit she wore, and he realized she was still wearing the clothes she’d worn before. He hadn’t left her any credits, and she’d probably never needed a credit account living at the convent. He frowned at the oversight. “Have you had enough to eat?”
She seemed surprised by the note of concern, but she nodded. “You had enough food.”
He walked forward, putting a hand on her shoulder. She stiffened, but she didn’t shrug it off. “I’m sorry, Azaria. I behaved badly. I never expected this to happen, and I just dropped you here with a need to escape, wanting to put distance between us. It didn’t occur to me to think about your needs in any fashion, and that makes me a selfish Alpha.”
She didn’t argue. She simply nodded as she looked at him, her gaze revealing nothing. “What changed? You’re back a lot earlier than I thought you’d be, judging from what little you said before you left.”
He could see how she ached to be angry with him, and how she wanted to reveal no curiosity or softening at all to his presence, but he had a feeling it wasn’t in Azaria to be cold and withdrawn like that. “I worked like a dog, eighteen-hour days to finish what should’ve taken a month in two-and-a-half weeks. I wanted to get back to you.”
She scoffed when she looked away. “Sure, you did.”
“I did.” He put his hand on her chin, turning her face back to his. “I didn’t want to be with you, but that’s not because of anything you’ve done, Azaria. I have good reasons for avoiding this sort of situation, but there’s no escaping it now. I missed you while I was gone, and despite my best efforts to try to keep any emotions from forming, it was too late. I think it might’ve been too late from the moment I first saw you trapped in that box, writhing with pain and need. You called to the Alpha in me then, and you still do now.”
Her lips trembled, but that was the only sign of his words getting through to her. “How am I supposed to believe you? You’ve never acted like you cared about me at all.”
He closed his eyes, his shoulder slumping forward. “I know. I’ve been a bastard, but I’m hoping you’ll give me a second chance to prove I can be a good Alpha to you and our child.”
“I just don’t see that happening.” She turned away from him then, seeming final in her decision. If her shoulders hadn’t been just as slumped as his, and if she hadn’t trembled slightly, he would’ve accepted that. But seeing evidence that contradicted her words, he reached out for her instead, pulling her back against him and wrapping his arms around her.
She moaned even as she tried to pull away when he pressed his mouth against her scent gland on the side of her neck, licking and nuzzling until she relaxed in his arms. If he couldn’t get through to her any other way, he was certain they could communicate through passion. He just needed her to relent enough to see he was serious about making this work in a way that made them both happy.
She resisted for a moment longer before her arms came around him. Quinn groaned low in his throat, purring against her scent gland, which made her whimper in need. Her pheromones drenched him, and he could smell the slick she produced in her arousal. He lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed, holding his breath as he laid her down, half-expecting her to refuse him. She was capable of clear thinking and resisting her biological imperative when she wasn’t in estrus.
When she pulled open the fasteners on her jumpsuit, he dared hope she was responding to him for an entirely different reason than their basic biology. He wanted Azaria to want him as a man, not just an Alpha.
He dropped his towel before joining her. He wanted to take his time to explore her, but it had been too long since he’d had her. Having her in his arms was intoxicating, and his mouth devoured hers, though she wasn’t shy about responding.
He tasted her repeatedly, his tongue dipping between her lips as his cock nestled against the heat of her core. He rubbed the head deliberately against her clit, making her gasp and produce more slick. He couldn’t deny his need to taste her, and he wrenched his mouth from hers with monumental effort.
She seemed dazed, and he didn’t give her time to compose herself or second-guess what they were doing. Instead, he slid down her body and parted her thighs, inhaling her addicting musk before bending his head to lick where it dribbled on her puffed lips. She thrashed against him, twisting her hips, and he focused his attention on the little nub.
She cried out with need before calling his name. “Quinn, I…”
He growled low in his throat, nearly undone by the sound of his name on her lips instead of the generic “Alpha” she’d used during their last mating. He’d never heard anything more exquisite, and he was determined to pleasure her to the point where she’d never regret any of this. He redoubled his efforts, working his tongue around her clit before sucking on it several times.
She shattered, screaming his name again, which made his cock flex. He couldn’t hold back as he moved up her body, parting her thighs and making a space for himself between them. She clenched her legs around him seconds later, and he stared down at her beautiful face. It was still painted in ecstasy as she rode the aftermath of her release, and he aimed to keep that expression on her face as long as possible.
He slid inside her carefully, aware she wouldn’t be as accommodating when not in estrus, but he wouldn’t be as large when he wasn’t in rut. They fit together as beautifully as they had before, and he bottomed out inside her as she licked her lips and tossed her head.
“More, Quinn.” She grunted as she strained against him.
He increased the frantic pace of his hips as he reached between their bodies to strum her clit. She whimpered and clenched around him at the additional ministration, and the micro-contractions of her sheath soon had him close to the edge.
When she came with another cry and spasm of her channel, he couldn’t hold back. Grunting her name in a sound that was barely coherent, he surged deeply inside her and spilled his pleasure, mingling it with hers while wishing they could make every aspect of their future together fit so cohesively as the passion between them.