They’re sweet words, unnecessarily emphasized by cinnamon-flavored kisses that quickly dissolve into something entirely different. He only stops when the headlights hit us like a spotlight. His smile is coy, the heat in his eyes, not so much.
“You better get off my lap, Quinny. Those two have the shortest fuses when it comes to you. Roshka is even worse.”
He lifts me off his lap, and his hand slides around my tummy and then he leaves it there. Kade’s touch is possessive, and I can’t say I have any issue with his obvious showmanship.
Aleksei is driving, and perhaps because he’s so used to the space or he’s just being impatient, but he comes racing through the narrow space, braking hard only inches from us. His eyes are locked on mine, a small grin on his face. He’s such a good-looking Alpha, and like with Kade, one glance at him and my heart races. But the giddy happiness they make me feel extends to Santiago too.
He’s already out of the car, pulling the door open for Roshka but not watching what he’s doing. All his focus is on me.
It’s such a strange place to be, completely enthralled by three very different men. It’s a heady reality, one that I’m positive I couldn’t walk away from. I want it all with them. There’s no “I like him more.” They’re each equally attractive and offer me something similar but different from the others.
Santiago walks until our toes are touching, and then he stops when there’s barely any space between us and closes his eyes, taking a long, deep inhale and holds his breath a little while before exhaling slowly.
His scent fills my lungs, too, and it’s another reminder of how scent matching works because I feel more energized, healthier, and steadier as I breathe him in. And when he opens his eyes, they’re different from how they were when he got out of the car. The mild anxiety and barely concealed panic are still there, shining bright, but in the amber color, there’s relief too.
“We should not do that again. That was torture,” he says, his eyes moving to follow his hand as he brushes the hair off my face.
Behind him, Aleksei finishes parking the car, and he makes a beeline for us. Roshka rushes around like a puppy, drawn to our huddle, putting Nalla right into the thick of it.
“At long last,” Aleksei says, but where Santiago was going gently in terms of our reunion, Aleksei uses one hand to push Santiago’s head out of the way, and with the other hand, he hooks my neck to draw me close. He’s smiling way too much when he presses our mouths together. “You look very nice in my clothes, by the way,maya.”
He stops smiling and kisses me in a very Aleksei way; like we’re out of time, but also like the world can wait until we’re ready. His tongue traces my lips, my teeth, then it flicks over mine. His taste is as good as his scent.
And then he disappears, laughing at Santiago. “You snooze, you are not the winner.”
Kade laughs at Aleksei’s jumbled-up attempt. “We would say,you snooze, you lose.”
“Both works, though, right? All I was doing was pointing out to Santiago, he could have been me.”
Santiago doesn’t bite back at Aleksei’s ribbing; he just picks me up, like we’re not surrounded by other people and two giant-sized dogs. He carries me to the far side of the car, sits me on the trunk, then proceeds to invade my space. In a very nice way.
Sounds rumble from him as he kisses me, his eyes open like always. And I see his frustration and how exhausted he is. But I see his enjoyment at our moment of solitude as well. It burns everything else out.
Santiago leaves a hundred kisses over my lips, making it so the only thing I can taste is how he makes me feel: warm, safe, and very much brimming with sensuality. His amber scent settles around me like expensive perfume as his mouth burns a trail from my lips to up under my ear, which is the very spot he stops kissing and starts nibbling.
A soft groan spills from my mouth as I crane my neck, giving him more room to claim.
“Bebe, life doesn’t make a lot of sense if you’re not next to me. I can’t think properly. I’m constantly close to ripping heads off people. It actually hurts if you’re not near.”
“Such a smooth talker,” I whisper as he makes his way back to kissing me again.
I go to step away, but Santiago grabs me by the throat, squeezing hard, stealing me away from the rest of the world. His scent chokes me as much as his hold does. His voice is deeper, dipped in heat when he speaks in between nipping at my mouth. “All I want to do is strip you out ofhisfucking clothes, cover you in my claim. I need your snatch twisting my knot while I demand you tell me when I can bite your throat and make you mine.”
I guess I moan a little because he freezes. In the next breath he takes, he shows me how close he is to doing all those things. He’s barely hanging on, his fingers trembling around my throat.
Except, it is Santiago, and while he’s not hiding exactly what he wants to do, he also shows me he’s an Alpha with control. An Alpha who’s equally driven by other just-as-important needs.
The feral edge to his expression and the push of his designation feathers down. “My designation is riding my ass, bebe. I’m torn between tasting your slick and caring for you in every conceivable way. So, I need you to know, I desperately want to get you naked, but you’ll have to wait until I’ve seen you eat and I’ve heard your voice and I’ve watched you laugh. It makes no sense, because I can see you are very much okay, but I need time next to you for that to register.”
He pulls me back to his mouth, and while his words are softer, his touch is still hard and ravishing. I melt. All my stress at us being separated, all my gnawing worries get razed to nothing but yesterday’s problem.
Santiago groans as he pulls back a couple of inches, then he growls louder again as he steps further away, his hand up and pointing away.
“Inside, bebe. I’ll grab everything out of the car, but please, get your ass inside. It’s killing me you’re out here in the fucking icy night.”
I’m pretty sure I float inside. Well, right up until I’m climbing the last step inside and Roshka decides it’s time for our private reunion. He purposely tangles himself in my legs, and I start falling and laughing at the same time.
Aleksei shouts at Roshka, but the dog literally pretends he doesn’t hear anything. He makes it his job to cover me in his slobber. I have to curl up in a ball to escape his attention.
