Chapter Twenty-Four
Lex
Ilean down and devour her mouth.
I hadn’t realized how badly I wanted this until the door opened and suddenly there was no part of me willing to stay on the other side.
I kiss my alpha the way I’d read a sentence I’d waited my whole life to understand.
Slowly.
With reverence.
Without looking away.
She makes a small sound against my lips, like a held breath finally getting out. She fists my cardigan and pulls me closer and she tastes like coffee and something uniquely her. Hmm, delicious.
I slide my hand into her hair. Her curls give and spring back against my fingers. Denser than I imagined, warmer, alive. Her scent goes straight into the base of my skull and hooks. Her body fits against mine like perfectly. She tilts her chin up only the smallest bit to keep her mouth on mine.
I press her back against the counter. Hard.
Both my thighs against hers, my chest crushing the soft give of her breasts through her shirt, my cock thick and obvious against her taut belly.
I want her to know how serious I am. I want her to feel exactly what she's doing to me.
She shifts her hips and a hot, slow pulse of heat rolls through me.
Gods. Don't. Don't lose it. Stay with her.
I find her tongue and she meets me. Properly meets me. She slides her tongue against mine, slick and hot, and she tastes the way her scent tastes, and I tighten my grip on her hair. She makes another small sound against my mouth. Lower. Hungrier.
With her other hand she digs harder into my chest, knuckles right over my sternum like she's trying to hold me there.
The muscle in her thigh, where she's pressed against me, releases.
Softens against my leg. She's strong. I feel it in the pure compact density of her against me, the lean alpha build of her shoulders under my hand.
She's strong and she's letting me hold her up against the counter like she's not.
The fact that she's letting me have this wrecks me. This strong female is giving for me. A rumble starts low in my chest. The moment it's out, Kev purrs for her too. A deeper note drawing closer. Ezra's scent shifts beside me. Woodsmoke gone darker. I know that one too. Approval. Yes.
I pull back. I have to. I'm breathing hard.
Her eyes are wide and her mouth is wet from mine, and the flush is high on her cheeks and down her throat, but her gaze hasn't softened.
She's still watching me. Still measuring.
Like she's waiting for the line that comes next, the one that lets us both off the hook.
Sorry, got carried away. Or worse, the laugh.
The laugh that says of course this wasn't real. She's bracing for this to end.
“Sera.” Her name leaves me hoarse. I have a doctorate in English and her name is the only word I find.
Ezra brings his hand up to her jaw and turns her face toward his.
His kiss is harder than mine. He catches her lower lip in his teeth and she gasps and he takes the gasp into his mouth and presses deeper.
I hear the shape of the question even though he doesn't speak.
Is this still all right. Is this. Is this.
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. Because of 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 think there 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.