Page 65 of In Doubt

A fool to trust.

I’ve tried so hard not to make that mistake again. And yet I’d trusted him enough to tell him that much.

“What happened?” he asks.

I ignore him, scraping at the sandy earth.

“You don’t need to worry about it. It’s something that happened a long time ago.”

“I can’t …” I hear him swallow but I keep digging. “I can’t help thinking about it, Omega. I need to know.”

“Why?” I say. “It’s nothing to do with you.”

“Then why did you tell me?” he says in a pained tone. “It’s in my head now, swirling round and round.” I peer over my shoulder at him, watching as he drops his trowel to the ground. “I need to fix this, to put it right for you.”

I stare at him in disbelief. What does he mean? What is he trying to tell me?

He wants to put it right because we’re, what? Friends now?

Or is it some paternal alpha need?

Or something more? Something …

I think of that kiss again. The pure passion of it.

“It’s not your business,” I whisper, dust and sand swirling in the beams of light, “I’m not your omega.”

He opens his mouth to speak, then stops, his jaw snapping shut. “You’re right,” he growls through gritted teeth.

I wait.

I wait for him to say the words. To change everything between us. To tell me that he wants me. That he wants me to be his. His omega.

Every fibre in my body is taut with tension, waiting, hoping he’ll say it. Hoping he’ll give me that opportunity to trust again.

He doesn’t.

He picks up his trowel and turns his back on me.

Fine.

That’s just fine.

I’m fine and my heart isn’t aching in my chest.

At ten o’clock, a man dressed in a security uniform and brandishing a torch stops by our trench and tells us it’s time to leave.

“We’ll just pack up our stuff,” Jake tells him and the man swings his torch between us with suspicion before stalking away.

I gather up our tools as Jake climbs out of the trench, pulling me out silently after him. There’s that same crackling electricity when our flesh connects. Familiar now.

We ignore it and I wait while he goes to switch off the lights.

At first we’re lost in the dark, picking our steps carefully as we stumble back to the main tent. But soon my eyes adjust and above me one by one by one stars illuminate the heavens until they form a vibrant line across the sky, curling like the river Nile.

“Look!” I say to Jake and we stop, tipping our heads back to stare enchanted. There’s no light pollution here, no city glowing in the background. There’s only the temple and the desert.

And us.