I can’t be sure, but I know there is no denying it.
“I’m sorry, I?—”
His arms tighten around me.
“There’s no need to apologize, Emily. You can’t fight your omega any more than I can fight my damn alpha,” he grumbles.
The tone, the words, his warm, comfortable hold… I can’t help but laugh.
“What is so funny?” He holds me out, looking at me in question. “Have you gone daft?”
“Probably,” I say with another chuckle as I look up at him, the truth of thisenergybetween us undeniable.
“I mean, we’re in the middle of a damn courtyard and I’m having the worst heat stroke of my life and you?—”
Luke shifts his stance, and I don’t miss the way headjustshimself. I realize there’s no one around us, as we’re in some private part of the courtyard flanked by topiaries and rock fountains.
“Are experiencing the worst knot of my life,” he grunts as he tenses. “But I promise you I will not?—”
“You want to knot me?” I ask, realization hitting me.
Luke lets out a heavy sigh.
“That does not matter. What matters is?—”
“Yes or no, Lucas.”
His eyebrows furrow at my use of his full name.
“It’s a simple question.”
It feels like forever until he speaks.
“Yes,” he says, quickly adding, “But it doesn’t make a difference, I?—”
“If I asked you to knot me right now, would you?” I ask.
He licks his lips, letting out a heavy sigh.
“Emily…”
“Yes or no.”
He swallows hard. “Of course, if it was what you wanted.”
“Even though we are not mates.” I know his next answer will be my undoing.
Because if he says yes, I’ll know. I’ll be ruined forever because I don’t think my omega will ever feel for any other alpha what I feel for him.
I brace for it like a heavy brick, but his answer is not what I expect.
“No,” he says carefully. “I would knot you because it is what youneedand I would never deny you what you need.Because you are my mate, Emily Marie Gardner. And I think you know that.”
I look up at him with tears in my eyes as that one word settles between us.
Mate.
“But I’m irritating, and I piss you off, and I?—”
