Page 27 of Knot My Fault
“Calc 3 is a snooze fest but I have a B so at least I’ll pass.”
Bishop smiles, and the inch between us starts feeling stupid. I move closer. He notices but he keeps talking about practice, about my time off the wall, about the next meet cycle like myname belongs in future tense. I end up with my shoulder against his. Then my knee. Then somehow, without either of us making a production out of it, I’m half in his lap with his arm around my waist and my face tucked against his neck.
Bishop’s fingers move to the back of my neck, and I tilt into it before pride can stop me. “The nest was better with you there,” I say against his collar.
He goes still for half a breath. “Yeah?” He turns his face toward me, close enough that I can feel the warmth of his breath, and waits until I close the distance between us and kiss him.
His hand stays at my waist, the other at the back of my neck, holding without taking. The courtyard noise fades into distance, and for once I don’t care who sees. I only care that Bishop’s mouth is warm, that his thumb moves once against my skin, and that he doesn’t chase me when I pull back to breathe.
Hollis makes a wounded sound somewhere to my left. “I suffered through double practice and returned to lap theft?”
I jerk back so fast Bishop has to tighten his arm to keep me from sliding off his legs. Hollis stands at the edge of the courtyard with his backpack over one shoulder, looking delighted and betrayed and exhausted all at once.
“I heard you were asleep in the dining hall,” I say.
“That was only for a little while I survived. Barely.” Hollis drops onto the grass in front of us and holds out both hands. “Come here, lap thief.”
I look at Bishop. He only lifts his brow like the decision is mine. I slide off him and let Hollis pull me down carefully, the Alpha starting purring before I settle, the sound rushing up like he’s been holding it in since he saw us.
“You’re ridiculous,” I say, but I’m already leaning into him.
“Deeply.”
His grin fades a little when I turn toward him. The purr keeps going, stronger now, vibrating through my ribs where his arm wraps around me. Hollis watches my mouth. “Can I?”
A smile creeps onto my face as I cup his cheek before pulling him down to meet me. Hollis goes still for one stunned second, then melts so hard I almost laugh into his mouth. His hand spreads carefully across my back, his purr breaking around the kiss.
When I pull back, Hollis looks wrecked.
I rest my forehead against his. “Don’t be weird.”
His purr jumps. “Too late.”
Bishop laughs, and I turn enough to catch his smile before Hollis kisses me again.
bishop
Judeshowsupatour room after dinner with his sleeves pulled over his hands and the pretty blush from the courtyard still sitting on his lips. Hollis goes rigid beside the desk the second he sees him, every inch of him fighting the urge to cross the room too fast. Jude’s gaze flicks over Hollis’ face, down to his hands shoved into his hoodie pocket, then back to me with the sharp little lift of his brow that usually means someone is about to become his problem.
“Handle your Alpha before he vibrates through the floor.”
Hollis makes a wounded sound under the purr already rumbling out of him, and Jude steps inside like he has every intention of pretending the sound doesn’t pull at him. He does a quick sweep of the room. Door, window, desk, bed, the drawer Hollis cleared for him, the blanket folded on Hollis' pillow. His blanket. The ugly heavy one from his nest this morning, stolen with no subtlety and even less shame.
Jude stops when he sees it. “You stole my blanket.”
Hollis looks at the blanket like he hoped it had become invisible. “Borrowed.”
“From my nest.”
“Borrowed with emotional intent,” Hollis says, then immediately looks at me because even he knows that sentence needs supervision.
I point at the chair before he can make it worse. “Sit, baby.”
Hollis drops into it with embarrassing speed. Jude watches him obey, interest slipping through the guarded set of his face. He doesn’t say anything else about the blanket. He climbs onto the bed and sits cross-legged near the middle, one knee touching the folded edge like he hasn’t noticed his body has already moved toward it.
I stay standing until Jude chooses where his eyes want me. When his gaze comes back to my face, I sit on the edge of the mattress, angled toward him. Close enough to be reached. Far enough that he has to decide. Hollis stays in the chair, purring low, his hands still tucked away like he doesn’t trust them.
Jude keeps worrying the blanket’s edge, his gaze moving from Hollis to me and back again like he’s trying to decide which one of us is safer to look at. Hollis stays in the chair because I put him there, but his purr has gone low enough to feel through the room. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this,” Jude says finally.
