Page 64 of Knot Her Beta

“Yeah…”

With a growl, I grab his collar and pull him back in.

This kiss swallows me whole. His mouth is slick and urgent, tasting of the coffee he drank after dinner and, beneath it, a flavor unique to my Omega. My stomach drops, and when I lean into him, he whines with need, nothing like the man who asked permission only moments ago.

The bond flutters behind my sternum, reaching for him the way it always does, and I let it, our racing pulses falling into alignment. His pheromones thicken, cedar warming as his hands find my hips and haul me onto my toes.

“Popcorn’s ready,” Jared calls. “Who picked the movie?”

Leif and I break apart, both of us breathing hard. Pink flushes his cheeks, moisture glistens on his lips, and the look he gives me could melt steel.

“You can pick,” I call back, my throat thick with desire.

“Load the one with the spaceships.”

Leif laughs and steps back to pick up the first of the cushions. I follow, and we quickly have the couch set back to rights.

Jared leans in the kitchen doorway, watching us move around with a smirk. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you guys weren’t cleaning up out here.”

I cast him a dirty look while Leif blushes harder.

We settle on the couch the way we used to, before everything fell apart, with Jared on my left, his long frame taking up more than his share of cushion, his arm draping over my shoulders. His fingers find the collar of my flannel and toy with the top button, idle and affectionate.

Leif sits on my right, his thigh resting alongside mine from knee to hip, warm through the material of our pants. He takes my right hand between both of his, palm up, and his thumb traces slow circles over my knuckles.

The popcorn bowl balances on my knee, made the way I like it. Not too greasy, with plenty of kernels left unpopped at the bottom for me to crunch through.

Jared hits play on the movie, and I have no idea what happens in the first twenty minutes. Something about a spaceship. A planet. A crew arguing. The screen flickers blue and orange across the dark living room, and Jared’s breathing evens out beside me, his chest rising and falling in a rhythm I know by heart.

Leif’s thumb continues to rub slow circles over my knuckles, over and over. Our shoulders touch, and every few minutes he shifts, his body adjusting to find a more comfortable angle that somehow always ends up with us closer than before.

My pulse refuses to settle. It thrums in my wrists, in my throat, behind my ribs where the bond reaches for both of them. Jared’s salt air and driftwood pheromones mingle with Leif’s cedar and linen, the combination messing with my nervous system.

Jared’s fingers find the back of my neck under my hair, rubbing slow circles at the base of my skull, his purr rumbling through his chest and into my shoulder.

On my right, Leif’s breathing has gone shallow. His thumb pauses on my knuckle. When I glance over, his eyes are on my mouth, not the screen.

The spaceship explodes. Or doesn’t. I couldn’t say.

Not with my two bondmates so close, both smelling of desire.

When the knock comes, I think it’s part of the movie at first. But the way Jared freezes puts me on alert.

Jared pauses the movie, and Leif’s hand stills on mine.

“Expecting someone?” Jared asks.

“No.”

I rise and cross to the door, shivering as the chill of the cottage creeps in, replacing the comfort of being surrounded by my bondmates’ warmth.

As I open the door, all the happiness of the moment vanishes.

Auren stands on my porch in a soft plum coat that probably costs more than my monthly mortgage. His lavender hair catches the porch light, swept to one side in that perfect, careless way that takes forty minutes to achieve. His amethyst eyes are wide, purple shadows forming hollows beneath them.

He appears lost, a little disheveled, and vulnerable.

Then his crushed violets and honeyed cream pheromones sweep over me, once so desired and now only cloying.