"I love you," she says against my lips.
"I love you too," I say, and I mean it with every fiber of my being. "I have since the moment you walked into my studio looking terrified and overwhelmed."
I move my hands down to her pants and she lifts her hips so I can slide them off. She's still wearing her bra, but her lower half is completely exposed. The knot tattoo on her ribs catchesthe light, and I run my fingers over it carefully, feeling the slight puffiness of fresh ink.
Sharon reaches down and helps me out of my pants. My cock is already hard, already ready for her. She positions herself over me, and I can feel the heat of her arousal as she starts to lower herself onto me.
The slide is perfect. Tight and warm and absolutely everything I've been craving since the first moment I smelled her. I grip her hips and let her set the pace, let her control the depth and the rhythm. This is about her pleasure first. This is about making sure she feels absolutely perfect.
She moves slowly at first, savoring each inch of me, her breath coming in shallow gasps. I watch her face as she works, watch the pleasure wash over her features as she finds the right angle, the right pace. Her head tilts back, exposing the long line of her throat.
"Yes," she moans, and she's moving faster now. "That's perfect. That's so perfect."
I let her ride me, let her take what she needs, but I'm building up to something more intense. My knot is starting to form, swelling at the base of my cock, and Sharon gasps as she feels it.
"Oh god," she says, her movements becoming more urgent. Her nails dig into my shoulders. "I can feel it. I can feel you getting ready to knot me."
"Are you ready for this?" I ask, even though her body is already answering that question. She's clenching around me, her breath coming in short, sharp gasps.
"Yes, I'm ready," she says. "I've been ready since I walked into your studio today."
I flip us so she's underneath me, and I'm controlling the pace now. The couch creaks beneath us. I push into her deep and hard, feeling her body adjust to accommodate me. The knot isswelling faster now, and I'm aware of how close I am to tying her to me completely.
Sharon's nails dig into my back, and her head is thrown back as pleasure washes over her. Her scent is overwhelming, intoxicating, calling to every primal instinct I have as an alpha.
"Now," she gasps. "Now, please, now."
I slide deep into her one final time as my knot expands completely, locking me inside her. The sensation is intense and overwhelming. She's clamped down around me, and I can feel her orgasm ripple through her entire body as my knot catches inside her, locking us together.
"Oh my god," she says, her voice shaking. "Oh my god, that's incredible."
I stay buried inside her, my knot keeping me locked in place as we both work through the intensity of what just happened. My forehead is resting against hers, and I can feel her heartbeat gradually slowing to match mine. Our breaths mingle in the small space between us.
She reaches up and touches the knot tattoo on my arm, tracing the line of it with her finger. "Everything is connected," she says softly. "You, me, the knot on my skin, the knot inside me."
"Yes," I agree.
We stay like that for as long as we can, locked together on the comfortable couch in the back of my studio. Eventually, the intensity of the knot fades, and I can slide out of her. She settles against my chest, her head resting over my heart.
"I want to get the phoenix next," she says sleepily. Her voice is drowsy and content.
"What?" I ask, running my fingers through her hair.
"When this one has healed," she says. "The phoenix. Something that shows I'm me. Who I am now. Rising from everything I went through."
I smile against the top of her head. "We can do that. We can design something different. The phoenix for you, the knot for us."
Sharon falls asleep on my chest, breathing slow and warm against my skin. I keep my arms around her and let the quiet settle over us. My whole studio feels different with her here, like every line of ink and every piece of art finally makes sense. I look at her and know one thing with absolute certainty. I will never get enough of this woman, and I don't want to. Not now, not ever.
27
SHARON
The office is chaos. Wedding planning binders are stacked three deep on my desk, fabric swatches are scattered across every available surface, and approximately seven thousand sticky notes have accumulated over the past week. Outside the window, Pine Hollow is dusted with snow that's somehow managed to stay pristine despite the December traffic.
Savannah gave birth earlier than planned to three boys. I'm not sure how she does it? I’m not sure how I would feel about living with three alphas who are losing their minds trying to figure out how to take care of newborns. The pack called yesterday to let me know that everyone was healthy and happy, but I could hear the exhaustion in their voices even through the phone.
"She's going to go crazy," Jessica says, looking up from the vendor spreadsheet she's been working on. Her blonde hair is pulled back in a practical bun, and she's wearing reading glasses that make her look simultaneously more serious and more adorable.
