“This can’t be happening,” I gritted out.
“Hey, easy, you’ll hurt yourself,” he said, turning off the gun before setting it aside. “You’re bleeding.”
I looked down, and for the first time, I felt slightly woozy when I saw the trickle of blood running down the half-finished design, a droplet encircling my nipple, which was already embarrassingly hard.
Why the hell had I thought getting a chest tattoo from an alpha was a good idea?
Not just any alpha, either. Him. The one I could barely stand to be around at family gatherings, and only then because he was important to my brother.
“I’m fine,” I muttered. “Just get me a bandage or something and I’ll go.”
He frowned, watching me with increasing unease. I’d expected him to react that way to the realization that I was in heat, assuming he found me half as distasteful as I thought I found him before tonight. Not now. “You can’t leave, not like this.”
I wasn’t sure if he meant my unfinished tattoo or the heat, but either way, he had a point. It just wasn’t good enough to calm my fight or flight instinct.
My hands were trembling from the adrenaline rush, but it occurred to me only when I realized it wasn’t because of fear that it should have been. I was alone with an alpha I barely even knew. Not really. There were plenty of alphas who seemed perfectly civilized on the surface who would use an omega’s heat as an excuse to act like beasts, and the world was still backwards enough that there were still plenty of archaic laws on the books that let them get away with it much of the time. That was one of the reasons I’d chosen to go into law in the first place, to fight for the rights of other omegas in a way no alpha could be trusted to.
That, and it was pretty amusing to watch their faces whenever they were expecting some huge alpha and I walked into the room instead.
No matter how much it angered me, I had reason to fear him. He was physically stronger, so much so there wasn’t even a contest, and only a couple of people who were otherwise occupied even knew I was here. Fear would have been a perfectly rational response, and yet all I felt as he looked down at me, the desire that had immediately flared in his gaze muted by what seemed like genuine concern, all I could feel was…
I swallowed hard, forcing myself to stand even though my knees felt weak. This was bad. I’d never gone into heat so suddenly, and without warning.
Then again, I’d never gone into heat because of an alpha. I knew it was possible, but it was supposed to be only with pair bonds, or at least people who had the potential to form one. The implications of the possibility that James--of all people--had thrown me into heat were too much to bear.
“It’s okay,” he said, putting a hand on my shoulder. I froze even as every muscle in my body wanted to unwind in response to his touch. He yanked his hand back quickly, and winced. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to…What I’m trying to say is everything’s fine. I can drive you home.”
“No,” I said far too quickly. My heart was pounding again, so loud I could barely even hear my own thoughts. “No, I…I can’t go back to the dorm anyway.”
He nodded in understanding, and I could see the wheels turning in his head, like he was actually considering what I was saying when most of the alphas I knew who looked like him would have already come to their own “solutions.” Ones my heat-addled mind had already concocted far too vividly for my liking.
“Do you want me to call your brother?” he finally asked.
The shame that accompanied the thought was enough to dial back my lust by a fraction, but it didn’t last. I shook my head. “I really don’t want him to know about this. Or...anyone.”
“Okay,” he said, swallowing audibly. The scent of his alpha hormones mingling with mine were playing games with my head, and if he was half as affected, he managed not to show it somehow. “What can I do?”
It was the last question I'd expected to come out of his mouth, and while my lizard brain fired off a series of responses unfit to say aloud, he actually seemed to mean it. There was no doubting that my heat had thrown him into rut, from the change in his pleasant, musky scent to the look in his eyes, but he was still so calm and...thoughtful.
“Why are you being so nice?” I blurted out. I’d never had much of a filter, according to...well, pretty much everyone who knew me. So it wasn’t really a surprise that it came completely dislodged under these circumstances.
The question seemed to confuse him. “Nice? What are you talking about?”
“You’re an alpha,” I said, folding my arms to hug myself as much as my raw flesh would tolerate.
Understanding turned his gentle expression into one of disapproval, but he still didn’t snap or even harden his tone. “I’m an alpha, not a pig. You seriously think I’d take advantage of an omega in heat? One of my clients, no less?”
I hesitated. I’d just assumed he fucked his clients, which probably explained the waitlist.
No…he was talented, I’d give him that. The art on his walls left no doubt, and it was nothing at all like his brother’s awful pieces. Those reminded me of those B-horror movies Kellan liked so much. They really were a match made in Hot Topic.
“I don’t know,” I admitted, shrugging.
He ground his teeth in the first hint of agitation he’d shown yet. “Well, I wouldn't. And I want to help you, if you’ll stop assuming the worst for two seconds and tell me how.”
I drew my bottom lip into my mouth and worried at it with my teeth, trying to hold back the words on the tip of my tongue. I’d always been a good multitasker, which had its pros and cons. I couldn’t focus on anything, not even a movie or a book, without simultaneously going through a bunch of potential solutions to whatever problems had plagued me during the day. This situation proved no exception, and the conclusion I’d already come to was one that was getting harder to resist with each second that passed.
In fact, the only thing holding me back was the fact that I wasn’t sure he’d go for it, and then I’d be humiliated in every possible way.
“What?” he pressed.
“Will you…” The words stuck in my throat and I couldn't get them out, no matter how hard I tried.
He waited expectantly. “Well? What is it?”
Man, he really was naive. That, or just clueless. Either way, he was nothing at all like what I’d assumed, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
“Will you mate with me?” I finally managed to get the words out through my teeth, and the resultant sting of humiliation was as sharp as I’d feared. Especially since he was staring at me with a completely blank expression, as if he’d never even considered the possibility, for long enough I was pretty sure I was going to die from the anticipation of a response.
“You want me to…” He trailed off, like his mind was still putting the pieces together. I’d never seen an alpha blush, but the way his eyes darkened with the same need that had been his initial response satisfied some primal need for approval buried deep within. One I was going to root out the first chance I got.
“There are only two ways out of heat, as far as I know,” I said, forcing myself to look at him even if I couldn’t bring myself to meet his eyes. “Wait it out, or the old-fashioned way. Unless you have any other ideas?”