Gray (The Boundarylands #10) - Callie Rhodes Page 0,35

had never been so exhausted in her life. What the hell…

The memories started flooding in. Little snippets of moments so astonishingly raw and dirty that she felt her entire body flush.

Oh yeah. That.

No wonder she felt like she'd been flattened by a steamroller. Considering what she'd been doing for the last several days, there was no way in hell she was getting out of this bed.

Unfortunately, her alpha had other plans. He slipped his arms underneath her and lifted her unceremoniously into the air, cradling her against his chest.

"I've drawn you a bath," he said as he carried her out of the bedroom.

"I don't want a bath. I want to go back to sleep."

"I know, but I can't put this trip off any longer."

Olivia gave up and let her head loll against his chest, where his strong, steady heart beat against her ear.

So, he had a heart after all. Olivia couldn't help a small, private grin. Her fury at the alpha had been her prime defense mechanism against him ever since he'd found her, but it was hard to stay angry after he'd shown so much restraint during her—her—

All right, so she wasn't quite ready to use that word yet. But he had been solicitous and careful during whatever the hell they'd just done together.

And he didn't have to hold back, not when she'd been begging him to go harder, faster, more more more. That, she remembered with deep mortification. What was that all about? Omegas were supposed to be nothing more than warm, wet holes for their alphas' pleasure—so why did hers care so much if she was torn up?

Instead of knotting her again and again, he'd taken her on what had to be the world's longest oral sex marathon to give her a chance to heal.

If that wasn't evidence of character, then Olivia didn't know what was.

That was why she kept her mouth shut when the alpha gently eased her down into the effervescent, steaming water in the basin. It felt like heaven on her sore muscles. She didn't protest when the alpha took the bar of sage-scented soap and gently scrubbed her hair and body clean of four days of sweat and grime.

She enjoyed the experience so thoroughly that when the alpha lifted her out and wrapped her in a towel, she mewled with annoyance. If he was going to drag her out of bed, he could at least have the courtesy to let her soak for a while. But instead, he blotted the water from her hair, then slipped a cable-knit sweater over her head. It was nice and warm but so large that it slipped off one shoulder and hung all the way down to her knees.

"This thing is huge," she observed as she rolled up the sleeves, "but it would still never fit you."

"My sister likes to knit," he shrugged. "She sent it last Christmas, but we haven't seen each other in a couple years. I think she forgot my size."

"You have a sister?" Olivia was surprised. She knew that no one was born an alpha, of course. But for some reason, she couldn't quite imagine her alpha being a part of a family, with a mom and a dad and a house in the suburbs.

"And a brother." He picked her up again and carried her out into the main room. Olivia was pretty sure at this point she could have walked on her own, but she didn't bother fighting him. "And two other sisters."

"That's a big family," Olivia said as he set her down in the leather chair, then knelt before her to put on the canvas shoes that she'd been wearing when she arrived.

"How about you?"

"A couple of step-brothers, but we're not close." Olivia waited for the old familiar pang from long-ago hurts, but it didn't come. "My dad left when I was young, and my mom remarried after I left for college. I don't see them much anymore."

"Why not?"

"I have my own life, and they have theirs." It was her standard answer, but for once, it simply felt like the truth and not a defense. "My work keeps me away a lot. I'm out in the field sometimes for weeks or even months."

"Taking pictures." A smile teased his lips.

"Exactly."

"You'll have to show me your portfolio sometime."

Olivia laughed. "You've already seen some of my work, and from what I remember, your reaction to it wasn't exactly positive."

"Tastes change." There was a teasing gleam in his eye as he rose to his feet