Page 43 of Omega's Formula

“We already have a problem.”

He’s close enough now that I can feel the warmth of him and smell him. My hands are shaking. I curl them into fists at my sides.

“Erik—”

He kisses me.

It’s softer than yesterday. Slower. His hand comes up to cup my jaw, tilting my face toward his, and he kisses me like he has all the time in the world. He kisses me like this is the only thing that matters.

I kiss him back because I can’t not. I’ve been thinking about this all night. His mouth is warm and his hand is gentle on my face and for one perfect moment, nothing else exists.

My fingers find his shirt, bunch in the fabric. He makes a sound against my lips—a groan or a sigh, I can’t tell—and pulls me closer. His other hand settles on my hip, right over the bruise from yesterday, and the small flare of pain makes me gasp.

I pull him back down, kiss him harder. He responds in kind, teeth catching my lower lip, tongue sliding against mine. Heat pools low in my belly. I want—Ineed—

Voices. Coming down the trail.

We break apart so fast I nearly trip over my own feet. Erik steadies me, one hand on my elbow, and then we’re standing arespectable distance apart as a couple rounds the bend with a golden retriever on a leash.

“Morning!” the woman calls cheerfully.

“Morning,” Erik replies, voice perfectly steady like he wasn’t just kissing me breathless thirty seconds ago.

I manage a nod. My heart is hammering so hard I’m sure they can hear it.

The couple passes. The dog sniffs at my ankles and then loses interest. They disappear around the next bend, and Erik and I are alone again.

Neither of us moves.

“We should head back,” I say finally. My voice sounds strange. Wrecked. “Visiting hours.”

“Right. Yes.” He runs a hand through his hair, messing up the careful styling. He looks almost human like this. Almost touchable.

We walk back to the trailhead in silence. Not touching. Not looking at each other. The kiss hangs between us, impossible to ignore.

I don’t know what we’re doing. I don’t know what any of this means.

The hospital is busy when we arrive. Erik goes to the coffee shop on the ground floor while I head up to Ellie’s room, grateful for the excuse to be apart.

I need to think and process what just happened. I need to figure out what the hell I’m going to do about the fact that I just kissed my fake husband in the woods and liked it way more than I should have.

Ellie’s door is open when I reach her floor. I knock anyway, habit, and push through.

She’s sitting up in bed, her expression murderous.

I stop dead. “Hey. What’s wrong? Did something happen with the treatment?”

“When were you going to tell me?”

Her voice is colder than I’ve ever heard it, and Ellie has been through enough that she’s earned the right to be angry about pretty much anything.

“Tell you what?”

“Don’t.” She practically spits the word. “Don’t play dumb with me, Nolan. Everyone in this hospital knows. The nurses were gossiping about it when they came to take my vitals. I had to find out from a stranger that my brother gotmarried.”

How fuck does anyone know? I told no one. No one except Hazel. Would she have told anyone? I rack my brains for what I told her. I asked her to keep it quiet until I’d told Ellie but that was weeks ago.

And then I hadn’t been married. She must have assumed that it was no longer a secret. Not if I was taking leave for the marriage.