Page 14 of Salt and Knot

A sense of being home, and whole.

His orgasm slowly recedes, and for a while, we’re both motionless. I try to take in what has happened. My first heat. The sea creature. This wonderful alpha saving me. My first time having sex, and my first orgasm with another person.

It’s a lot, but the press of his body to mine keeps out the rest of the world.

He stiffens, and I brace in response.

“Oh, shit, I’m squashing you,” he says.

“It’s okay, I—” I start to tell him I like it, but he growls, and I shut up.

The alpha—I vaguely remember him saying his name was Dylan—lifts himself up, then shudders as his cock shifts inside me. The angle moves my cervix, and it must feel good for him too, since he groans, and his eyelids flutter.

“You’re going to kill me,” he says with a half-laugh.

“Sorry,” I say quickly.

“You never need to be sorry for anything with me.” There’s a wistful note in his tone.

When he turns his head, I finally get more of a look at him. When I saw him before, it was through a haze. My heat. But he really is stunning. Even for an alpha, who are usually extraordinarily gorgeous, he’s exceptional. And the imperfections only make him lovelier to me. A few scars, one over his dark eyebrow, another next to his ear. Grey hairs at his temples.

Except, I could swear when I’d looked at him before his eyes were a dark, stormy-blue. Now they’re the pale-blue of a summer sky at the horizon in the early morning.

“Hey,” he says softly. “You’re here. Finally.”

I wince and my cheeks heat. “Sorry, I was a bit nuts. A bit out of it.”

“What did I say about apologies?” he rumbles.

“Sorr…” I bite my lip, and he laughs. The humour vibrates through me.

“Oh, omega.” He shifts his arms, and in one fluid movement, flips us over so he’s on his back and I’m lying on his chest. He’s still inside me, the knot holding us fast.

“We’re going to be here for a while.” He strokes my lower thigh, and I have a flash of instinct that he’d like to stroke me more intimately, my bottom specifically, but doesn’t want to scare me with the force of his desire. Keep things light, given we’ve barely met. “Why don’t you tell me about yourself, Isla?”

His touch is respectful. Keeping a certain distance between us despite him being lodged firmly in me. I can feel him. Huge. Filling a gap I hadn’t realised was there.

Mate.

I blink, then shrug. “Not much to know.”

He raises one eyebrow. “We could start with how you ended up on your own, on a beach.”

Nice of him not to mention the fact I was naked and in heat. “I was walking on the cliffs, and it was hot. I went for a swim and…” I think that creature unlocked something in me. “I’ve skipped days of suppressants before, and it’s never been an issue. But today I was unlucky, I guess.”

“Mmmm.” His lips quirk up. “Or I’m very lucky.” He rolls his hips and pleasure spears me as his cock bumps against my limit.

I gasp.

“So sensitive,” he murmurs. “So responsive to me. We’ll get back to that. But now, why were you hiking on your own?”

“I don’t have anyone else,” I admit. “I really wanted to come to the sea, and I finally saved up enough money to be able to afford to go on a camping trip.”

He stares intently at me, and I swear his eyes darken. “Can’t afford?”

“I work in a shop, and rent in Manchester is expensive.”

“Canals. No rivers leading to the ocean,” he murmurs, and I’m not sure what he means, but I nod. Manchester is well-known for its network of canals, and it’s far inland.