“Knox won’t die.” Gage said it like he could shape reality to his own desires by force of will alone. “He’s gonna get better, and then all of us together can figure out what we’re supposed to do.”
“Knox won’t die,” I repeated unsteadily. “Knox won’t die.”
“Damn right he won’t,” Gage agreed. “Now, like you said—it’s the middle of the night. Come back to bed. I looked at the weather radar; there won’t be any more storms tonight.”
With a sudden, desperate longing, I remembered what it felt like to fall asleep with Gage’s arm tucking me close and safe against his big body. We’d stopped pretending for a few minutes, but maybe we could start again. Gage didn’t want me to be locked in the attic. He wanted me to stay with them of my own free will.
I wanted to stay with him tonight. I wanted to be safe in my alpha’s arms, knowing that I could sleep and nothing would hurt me while my guard was down.
“Okay.” My voice was a rasp.
Gage quickly cleaned up the mess in the kitchen, putting pots and pans in the dishwasher and efficiently wiping down the countertop. I let him herd me back to his bedroom, to the soft blankets and the pillow that smelled like both of us together.
This time, he stripped down to a white tank top and climbed beneath the covers with me, still wearing his tailored pants. My stomach was full, and my body was warm and contented. I fell asleep once more with our bodies fitting together like spoons nestled safely in a drawer.
When I woke the next time, it was still dark... but the darkness held that hint of gray that said it was closer to dawn than not. Somehow, I’d wriggled around while I was asleep, and I was now sprawled half across Gage’s large body with my leg thrown between his.
My brain felt like slow molasses, with my nose pressed to the juncture of his neck and shoulder where his scent was thestrongest. The crease of his trousers pressed between my legs, at the sensitive apex of my thighs. Without a single thought in my head, I rolled my hips to rub myself against that small point of friction, moaning softly as the movement set off fireworks behind my closed eyelids.
Gage, still fully asleep, let out an answering moan as his hips curled, rubbing his huge, hard length against my hip. A longing I’d never felt before trembled through my body, centering low in my belly with heavy, liquid heat. My tongue darted out, licking a stripe up the side of my alpha’s neck—tasting that tangy spark of citrus I’d wondered about earlier.
A deeper groan spilled from Gage’s lips and he shuddered awake. As though his return to consciousness had somehow rebooted my own brain, I froze abruptly, realizing what I was doing.
He went still as well, his breath catching.
“Jez?” he asked, his voice so low and deep that it sent shivers through me.
FIFTEEN
Jez
CHRIST, WHAT WAS IDOING? And more importantly, why did I want so badly to keep doing it? I pushed away with a gasp, putting space between us.
“S-sorry,” I stammered, immediately missing the warmth of Gage’s body against mine.
“You don’t need to apologize forthat, kitten,” he said, still in that delicious low rumble. “Think I might’ve rubbed on you while I was still half out of it, though. So, I guess we can both be sorry. Say the word, and none of it every happened.”
The sultry miasma of pheromones in the bedroom made it very clear that ithadhappened, though. So did the damp patch between my thighs. I was guessing there was a matching patch on the thigh of his trousers, too. The thought made heat rise to my cheeks.
I shook my head sharply. “It’s just... I don’t do this kind of thing.”
Enough gray light was filtering through the window that I could make out his frown.
“What, never?” he asked.
