“It doesn’t. I’m sort of partial to you. Sometimes. Depending on my mood. And whether you’re naked.”
Her mouth curved. “My heart can’t take these loving declarations of yours.”
He kissed one corner of her mouth. “You hungry?”
“No.” Her stomach was still in knots.
He kissed the other corner of her mouth. “Tired?”
“No.” Catching sight of an almost completely faded bullet wound on the edge of his neck, Bree touched it with her finger, wishing she could take it away. “That bitch. I’m glad your beast ripped her apart. She just kept on shooting, and I couldn’t do anything.” She’d never felt so damn helpless.
She bit down on her lip. “Can I officially meet your beast? I want to thank him for what he did today.”
Alex’s eyes went all soft and languid. “No thanks are necessary but, yeah, of course you can meet him. He’s wanted a one-to-one with you for a while now.”
She watched as Alex quickly shed his clothes, revealing all that honed muscle and bitable olive skin. Yeah, she’d be leaving a mark or two on that later.
“He can be pushy and bossy, but I swear he won’t hurt you. He’d never do that.” And then Alex shifted, and his stocky beast did a languid stretch.
She smiled as small, dark, perceptive eyes met hers. “Hey, there,” she said, sitting on her haunches. One of his huge webbed paws landed on her thigh, but those impressive claws didn’t so much as abrade the skin. “Wow, you’re bigger than I remember.”
He gently butted her with his broad head. “Oh yeah, I see the bossy now.” Taking the hint, she stroked the dark brown fur on his neck, admiring the cream patches on his face and body. His coat was softer than she’d expected and incredibly thick, but there was no missing the solid muscle and latent power that lay beneath it.
“Thank you for saving my cat,” she said, knowing Alex would relay the meaning of her words to the animal. “But please don’t jump in front of any more bullets.”
He nuzzled the palm of her hand with his dark snout. And then he nipped her, the little shit. It didn’t hurt or draw blood, but still …
She gave him a playful shove. “Mean.”
His mock growl made her chuckle. And then bones popped and snapped as he shifted.
“He’d have spent all night letting you pet him if I’d allowed it.” Curling his arm around her, Alex stood, pulling her to her feet. “We’ll have to give him some time with your cat soon.”
“Soon,” she agreed. Bree showed him the mark on her palm and gave a lighthearted frown. “He bit me.”
“I know.” Moving his face closer to hers, Alex whispered, “I’m gonna do the same.”
And then he tumbled her into bed. He ate her out, greedy and hungry, and then took her hard. When he came inside her, he bit the crook of her neck. Sated and all marked up, she happily napped with him before heading to the kitchen for dinner.
Later, when they’d not long finished their meal, a knock came at the front door. She’d expected it to be his parents coming to check on them. But when she opened the door, she found a familiar woman stood there, her eyes red from crying. “Renee,” she greeted softly.
Benny’s girlfriend gave her a watery smile. “Hi. I wanted to see you.”
“Come in.” Bree stepped back and let her inside. “Um, I don’t know how to say this without sounding insensitive, but I’m not the best person to help grieving people.”
“Maybe so.” Renee sniffled. “But I wanted to talk with the person who set Benny on the right path. He and I might not have had a lot of time together, but we wouldn’t have had any of that time if you hadn’t helped him.”
Bree blew out a breath. “Then let’s go dig out the tequila.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The next morning, Bree rested the side of her face on Alex’s kitchen table and groaned. A drumbeat seemed to pound on her temples, and every little noise just made the pounding worse. Hello, hangover, my dear old friend.
The coffee hadn’t helped much. Nor had the plate of eggs, bacon, and sausages that Alex—who looked close to laughing—made her.
She’d have snarled at him, but he’d been great last night. The moment she’d let Renee inside, he’d given Bree a quick kiss and then disappeared into the bedroom to give the two females privacy. When Bree had later joined him in bed, where he’d been watching something on his tablet, he hadn’t complained that he’d been alone for hours. He’d just stripped her naked and set out to investigate just how good drunk-sex-with-Bree would be.
She’d thought it was pretty damn fabulous.
When she’d tried to apologize for leaving him alone for so long, he’d put a finger to her lips and said, “This is what you do—I get it, I don’t resent it. I’ll be here when you need me to be, and I’ll be out of your way when you don’t.”
He could be ace at times. It had settled something in her cat to know he accepted the omega side of her nature and all that came with it.
Four loud bangs seemed to rattle the very walls of the building and reverberate through her poor, poor head. Bree squeezed her eyes tighter shut. “Are we being bombed?”
“No,” said Alex, a vein of humor in his voice. “Someone’s at the door.”
“Bleh.” She winced as the legs of his chair scraped along the floor. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard.
“I’ll get it.” Fingers danced over the side of her neck as he disappeared from the room. He didn’t make a sound as he walked, bless his beautiful soul.
Hinges creaked, and then … “Good morning, Alex. I’m here for Bree.” Dani.
Bree groaned. Hell. She weakly lifted her head just as her primary swanned into the kitchen looking as perfectly groomed as always. Her cat sat up, rumbling a put-out growl.
“Morning,” Bree mumbled when what she really wanted to do was sharpen her claws on the bitch’s face.
Dani took one look at her and sighed, all superiority. “I’ll bet you’re promising yourself that you’ll never drink again, aren’t you?”
Bracing her elbow on the table, Bree rested her chin on her hand. “I try not to lie to myself.”
Dani looked at Alex, who was leaning against the countertop. “Could you leave Bree and I alone for a minute so we can talk in private?”
“No,” he said. Ah, the wolverine tone had returned.
The primary sighed. “I realize this is your home, Alex. But, with all due respect, this is omega business.”
“Don’t care. You want to talk to Bree, get it done. I’m not a fan of having people in my apartment who I don’t like or respect.”
Bree inwardly winced. “Mean,” she mouthed at him. He only shrugged.
Twin dots of red stained Dani’s cheekbones. “That was uncalled for. But since I don’t have much regard for you either, I won’t—”
“Talk or leave,” he said.
Her mouth tightening, Dani turned to Bree and folded her arms across her chest. “I heard Renee came here last night. How is she doing?”