Chapter 78: A kiss in an unexpected way

​My eyes widened in sheer shock. As his tongue swept into my mouth, tasting the lingering water and the sharp, medicinal tang of the pill, a sudden realization hit me like lightning through my haze.

​We had never actually kissed before.

​Through the cabin, the heat, my house, the countless times he had handled my body and used me for his own satisfaction—he had never once put his lips on mine.

It had always been rough, clinical, and transactional. But right now, with his body burning with fever and his mind completely gone, he was devouring my mouth like a starving man finding water in a desert.

​It was deep, messy, and entirely too heavy. I tried to pull back, my hands planting against his chest, but the intoxicating spike of his frozen pine pheromones hit my senses up close, and my wobbly, exhausted knees completely gave out.

My eyelids fluttered shut, my grip on his shirt tightening as my head spun, and I just... had to go with it, letting him pull me down into the dark, burning heat of his mouth.

We kissed for a while, so long that the rest of the penthouse completely faded into a blur.

Our lips curled together in a deep, agonizingly slow rhythm, the heat of his fever transferring directly into my mouth until my lungs felt tight and completely breathless.

​It was my first kiss.

​Through all the years of hiding my second gender, focusing entirely on the sport, and locking my heart behind a wall of cold professionalism, I had never let anyone get this close.

And even with him—through everything—it had always been about the physical release.

I had never imagined kissing was this way.

I always thought it would be a simple touch, but this was a heavy, intoxicating collision of wet heat and desperate friction that made my head completely spin.

​Reid’s tongue swept through my mouth with a raw, unhinged possessiveness, pulling a soft, muffled whimper from the back of my throat. He tasted entirely like himself—addictive, rich, arrogant mixed with a primal hunger that completely conquered my senses.

​His hands stayed locked in my black hair, his thumbs brushing firmly against the sides of my face, holding me down as if I were the only thing keeping him from slipping into the dark.

Every time our lips parted for a second, he would chase me down again, tilting my head to drink deeper from my mouth, entirely unbothered by the fact that he was supposed to be delirious.

​My inner Omega didn’t just swoon; it completely dissolved into the heat of the bond. My arms wrapped tightly around his broad, sweating shoulders, my fingers bunching into the fabric of his shirt as I leaned my entire weight into him.

I forgot about the wobbly weakness in my knees, forgot about the mess on the couch, and forgot about the dangerous contraceptive situation currently ticking in the back of my mind.

​I just let myself drown in the rhythm of his mouth, completely helpless against the terrifying realization that my first kiss had just been thoroughly stolen by the most dangerous man in my life.

Just then, as I was letting myself go, the doorbell rang.

​The electronic chime sliced through the heavy silence of the penthouse, and I flinched. The sudden noise hit me like a bucket of ice water, instantly dragging a fraction of my captain’s logic back through the thick, intoxicating fog of the kiss.

​I pulled back completely, trying to tear my mouth away to look toward the door, but Reid caught me again. His hands tightened at the back of my head, his fingers tangling deeper into my dark hair as he pulled me right back down, thoroughly ravenous for my lips, entirely deaf to the outside world.

​"Reid... mm... hold on," I mumbled against his mouth, my hands planting firmly against his collarbones to push him off.

​He didn’t let go. His jaw shifted, tracing the edge of my lips to drag me back under, his frozen pine pheromones surging in a stubborn, feverish attempt to reassert his control.

He was completely out of it, operating on pure, unhinged Alpha instinct, and if I didn’t stop him now, whoever was at that door was going to walk in on a disaster.

​I had to knock some sense into him. Gathering the last bit of my strength, I brought my forearm up and shoved it hard against his chest, deliberately pressing near his collarbone while pinching his jaw with my other hand, breaking the seal of our lips with a sharp, forceful yank.

​"McCoy, stop!" I gasped out.

​The sudden resistance seemed to drain the very last of his adrenaline. Reid let out a low, defeated growl, his grip on my hair instantly slackening as his smoky grey eyes rolled back.

His arms dropped uselessly to his sides, and he passed out cold against the leather pillows once more, his breathing returning to that shallow, burning rattle.

​I sat frozen on the edge of the sofa for a second, my chest heaving as I wiped the back of my hand across my swollen, wet lips. My heart was hammering violently against my ribs, and my legs were still trembling from the sheer weight of that kiss.

​Ding-dong.

​The doorbell rang a second time, louder and more persistent.

​My stomach dropped. Who was at the door? Who could it be at this hour?

​A cold sweat broke out across my neck as a wave of acute anxiety rushed through me. The penthouse was an absolute warzone. The air was thick, heavy, and completely suffocating, smelling violently of my exposed, sweet orchids tangled with his dark, possessive frozen pine.

Anyone with a functioning Alpha nose who stepped across that threshold would know exactly what had happened within three seconds.

​What if it was someone from the team? What if Marcus had sent one of the staff to check on his star rookie, or worse, what if Coach Devin or one of the guys had decided to drop by?

If anyone saw me here, looking disheveled, with my adhesive patch ripped off and the room dripping in explicit Omega pheromones, my entire life was over.

​Panicking, I scrambled to find my discarded synthetic patch on the floor, slapping the crumpled adhesive back over my pulsing scent gland to lock down my pheromones as best as I could.

I frantically fanned the air near the sofa with a throw pillow, trying to dissipate the heavy cloud, before smoothing down my shirt and gripping my keys.

​Creeping toward the door, I held my breath, my hand shaking slightly as I reached out toward the security peephole to see exactly who was standing on the other side.