Page 73 of Torment Me Knot
She growls. Low. A real one, from the back of her throat. She fists his shirt. Pulls him closer. She grips his bicep like she's testing whether he's real, while I grind my erection against her belly.
Her scent deepens, richer now, settling low in my lungs with every breath. This is what we needed her to understand. We are not trying to make her less. Not trying to smooth down the sharp edges of what she is. We want all of her.Becauseof her.
She's breathing in great uneven drags when Ezra pulls back. Her eyes are unfocused. Two of us have had our mouths on her and she's still standing in our kitchen, still here, still looking between us with doubt that I want to wash off her face.
Kev's scent has been climbing the whole time we've kissed her. Oakwood. Whiskey. He moves the way he closes an argument. Each step considered. Nothing wasted. Sera's breath catches as he comes to her, and her pupils blow wider.
Kev stops in front of her. He's a big man. Not young enough to be naive. Old enough to know what he wants and he uses that knowledge now. He brings his hand up. Traces the line of her cheekbone with his thumb. Once. Slow.
“May I kiss you, Sera? Kiss you to show you how much I want you? Because this is not a one-time deal. This is real. This is forever.”
He cups her jaw. His dark eyes stay on hers. She could refuse. One word. One shake of her head. He'd step back so fast it'd be like he'd never moved. She tips her chin up. Parts her lips.
Kev leans in. Slow. He takes his time and I remember the heat of her, the give of her mouth, the way her tongue felt against mine. My cock hasn't gone down. It's not going to. Not while she's three feet away with her lips parted, waiting to be kissed by my pack brother.
He breathes against her lips. She shivers. Full-body, knees-going. Then he kisses her. Her groan wrenches up from somewhere deep inside her. The sound runs a full-body shiver through me and I can't help but shift around her, sandwiching her between us so there’s no space for her to move.
She softens between us. Her spine, that beautiful stubborn straight line, curves. Kev slides his hand down to the back of her neck. Puts his other arm around her waist and pulls her flush. She's still got her hands in his shirt, but the grip has changed, and I can't tell if I'm projecting or if she's stopped holding on for the kiss and started holding on for after.
Kev pulls away. Sera keeps her eyes closed for a beat. Her lips are parted. Her breath is coming back. For a moment her face is unguarded the way I've never seen it, and I thinkthere she is, that's what she looks like when no one's watching.
She opens her eyes and the warmth vanishes from them.
One blink and her guard is back.
She shouldn’t look so guarded after being kissed like that.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Sera
Kev’s mouth was just on mine. His hands in my hair.
Before that it was Ezra.
Before that it was Lex.
Three of them, one after the other — their scents, their hands, their mouths — and I let it happen.
I let it happen.
I leaned into Lex. I opened for Ezra. And when Kev kissed me, something inside me cracked open so completely I forgot how to fight it.
What the fuck.
What the fuck is wrong with me.
I got carried away and now… Ineverget carried away. I force myself to ground even though I’m packed between hard slabs of muscle.
“Hey.” Kev's thumb strokes the corner of my mouth. His scent goes deep and dark, oakwood thickening, whiskey burning instead of pouring smooth. His gaze roams my face. This alpha sees too much. “Eyes on me, Sera. Come back to us.”
I push his hand away. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“Mm.” His thumb moves over my lower lip, not liking my answer. “Looks like we haven’t done a good enough job.”
I stare at him. He thinks the problem is the kiss. That he missed a mark somewhere. Technique. Pressure. Timing.
A laugh catches in my throat and dies.
