Heat flooded my face. "I was in heat. Not thinking clearly," I defended.
"You were thinking clear enough when you said you'd wanted me since the first day," he pointed out.
Denial began to build, "I didn't..."
"You did. Right before you came the third time," he reminded me.
My phone buzzed on the coffee table. A text from Mark Richards had come through:Whole hotel's talking about the noise from your floor last night. Everything okay?
The blood drained from my face.
"What?" Knox moved closer, concern in his voice.
I showed him the text. His expression darkened.
"They heard us," I whispered. "Everyone heard us."
"So?" Knox shrugged his shoulders.
"So?" I stared at him, wanting to slap the shit out of him. "My reputation is ruined. No one will take me seriously now."
"Fuck them!" he exclaimed.
"Easy for you to say! You're not the Omega who just proved every stereotype right," I shot back.
"What stereotype?" he asked.
"That omegas can't control ourselves. That we're ruled by our hormones. That we'll spread our legs for any Alpha who looks our way in the hopes of being claimed," I explained bitterly.
Knox's eyes darkened as he stalked toward me, each step erasing inches between us until his chest pressed against mine. His fingers curled around my waist, hot through the thin towel. When his mouth crashed down, my protest died somewhere between my brain and lips. The taste of him gave hints of coffee and cinnamon and something wild flooded my senses as my fingers found their way up his neck and into his hair, nails scraping his scalp, tugging him impossibly closer.
"Stop doing that," I gasped when we broke apart.
"Doing what?" he asked innocently.
My eyes rolled. "Kissing me to win arguments."
He raised a brow. "Is it working?"
Yes, I thought before replying. "No."
His hand cupped my face, thumb tracing my jaw. "Your scent spikes every time I touch you," he murmured.
Dismissively, I sighed, "Biological response."
"Your pupils dilate," he continued.
"Residual hormones," I countered.
"You produced slick," he stated bluntly.
I jerked back. "You can't just say things like that!"
"Why? It's true," he said simply.
"Because we need boundaries!" I insisted.
"We're bonded, Harper. We don't get boundaries anymore," he declared.
