to pierce through his frustration and actually land a blow to his pride.
No one—not even his own omega—could talk to him this way.
True, he'd never asked for her, never wanted an omega in the first place. But the woman didn't even have the sense to know when to surrender. She just kept fighting him and fighting him…until she left him no choice but to put her in her place.
He closed the distance between them in a single stride, but she stood her ground, her expression tight and unchanged. Her scent shifted, wariness taking the place of contempt…but something else was going on, too.
No matter how she dared to speak to him, Olivia's body didn't lie. It couldn't.
He could actually feel her heartbeat aligning itself with his, matching his rhythm as desire unfurled like an exotic bloom inside her. Her legs shifted, opening to him slightly, though he'd wager she had no idea. In the background of her scent was the slightest hint of fresh slick, brimming and ready to be coaxed out by a word, a breath, a touch.
Gray couldn't help but lick his lips in anticipation. He might never have wanted an omega, but that didn't mean he could steel himself against her presence.
He inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with the intoxicating scent as he gazed down into her eyes. Already, his cock was stiffening. He tried to remember what they'd been talking about.
"You're telling me you can't think of a single difference between me and this beta shit who dragged you here?" His voice sounded thick even to himself.
Olivia's chest rose and fell with each deepening breath. She grazed her teeth over her lower lip before telling her first real lie. "Not one."
Gray grumbled deep in his chest and crouched down between her knees. She drew in her breath sharply as he slid his hands under the blanket she'd draped around herself and cupped her knees.
"So, you're telling me that you let the agent touch you like this," Gray said softly, kneading the tender flesh behind her knees, letting his fingers trail up, not quite reaching the cleft between her legs. "That your skin heated up the way it's doing right now. That your pussy was just as sopping wet with slick. That you couldn't stop thinking about him touching you…the way you're thinking about me."
Olivia clamped her mouth shut, her face going pale with the effort of not reacting. Her fingers tightened on the leather cushions, and she pressed her legs together as hard as she could, but it did nothing to diminish the flow of her slick.
Gray could have told her that it was no use to fight her urges. That the changes in her body—the rush of hormones, the shift in her nature—were much too powerful to control.
But he didn't bother, for the simple reason that he liked watching her squirm. Liked it almost as much as anticipating what would happen when he moved his hands higher, slid them up to her—
"He used me," Olivia blurted, that last thing Gray expected to hear. Then, almost plaintively, she added, "Just like you're using me now."
"No," Gray corrected her harshly. "No one touches you like I do. No one gets to taste your pleasure but me. Your alpha. And if anyone tries, I'll kill them."
He wasn't trying to frighten her—it was merely the truth.
And reminding her of that fact felt good. It felt right in a way he'd never felt around any woman before. Even if she didn't need to hear it, Gray needed to say it—and his rock-hard cock was proof.
Now it was time to make sure she'd learned the lesson.
"Don't bother pretending that anything we've done has been against your will," he muttered, leaning in so that his lips were a fraction of an inch from her neck, knowing the effect his hot breath would have. "You were the one clawing at my back and begging me to fuck you harder. Now tell me who I am."
She didn't answer the question. Instead, she lifted her head and looked him in the eye. Somewhere within her, defiance flared. He could sense the shift, the retreat of her new identity in the face of her brazen contempt.
"Fuck you."
Gray wanted to roar his frustration, but he gritted his teeth and held back. She thought she was being strong. She had no idea.
What the hell was it going to take to break this woman?
He removed his hands from her thighs and took grim satisfaction when her face fell, her