I chuckle as my gaze roams over her body. She’s notcompletelycovered in my bites, but I definitely let myself get carried away, peppering her gorgeous skin with nips. “Anywhere in particular?”
Her right hand lifts from my chest, hovers briefly, then her fingers flutter over the left side of her neck, just above her pulse. “Here.”
A bite that visible could only mean…
All trace of amusement disappears. It’s somehow impossibly easier to ignore my cock throbbing inside her. “That sounds like…”
“A claiming bite,” she whispers.
Not all omegas have claiming bites on the throat, but most do. It’s as much about an alpha’s need for his omega to wear his mark as the physical evidence that this omega is taken.
“That would be permanent,” I warn her, despite my desire to push her onto her back and bite her before she has a chance to change her mind. Simon’s bite is on the right side of her neck, where it will always be. "There’s no undoing this, Rose. You need to be certain."
Being scent matched means a bond that fuses us forever, soul-deep. But a claiming bite is a choice. It’s like a marriage, but more. It’s the greatest sign of trust and commitment between an alpha and an omega. And it isn’t something I thought Rose would want from me for months, if I was lucky, years if I was not.
“The way I feel about you isn’t temporary, Murph,” she whispers. “I don’t know what the future holds, but I don’t want to face it without you by my side. Even before we slept together last night, I was yours, and you were mine.”
Cradling the nape of her neck, I draw her down to claim her lips in a bruising kiss. She wiggles, her body restless as our needs turn urgent.
As she bounces on my cock, I cup her breasts and play with her nipples. She loses her rhythm, her hips moving faster as I find her clit with my thumb and give it a nice, firm rub.
She gasps, her nails digging into my shoulders as her orgasm hits.
I roll her onto her back and spread her thighs, my needs taking over.
With my mouth fused to hers to swallow her moans, I slam into her again and again, every thought in my head centered on the pleasure building between my legs. Rose is whimpering under me, her pussy pulsing around me as another orgasm rips into her.
It’s all too much.
I thrust into her one last time, groaning as my knot locks us together.
Only then do I press a kiss to her throat. Her body tightens around me. I kiss her again, waiting for her to tell me to stop. She wraps her arms around me, her long, curvy limbs enveloping me as she tips her head back, giving me more room.
Still, I need her to be sure. This—Rose, us—isn’t something I want to fuck up.
I lift my head and meet her gaze. “Are you sure, Rose?”
She frames my jaw with a tender smile. “I love you, Murph. I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.”
“I love you too, sweetheart.” I don’t deserve this. Don’t deserve her. But I revel at the treasure the universe has givenme, kiss my beautiful mate one last time, then put my mouth to the left side of her throat.
I bite hard enough to leave a mark, hard enough to claim her as mine. Her breath hitches. She lets out a sigh as I pull my teeth from her neck, and I lick her skin, soothing the sting and drawing her close, tucking her flush against me.
And as my beautiful, perfect mate drifts off to sleep, I whisper into her ear, not knowing if she’ll hear me but hoping she feels how much she means to me. “You’re mine, Rose Hayes. For now, for tomorrow, for always, and I will always love you and keep you safe.”
I slip out of Rose’s bedroom with a smile.
She’s sleeping, and I have work today, so staying with her wasn’t an option. Even if I had a day off, Ben likes to crawl over her in the morning. Rose is kissing me, Win, and Joel in front of Ben, but I’d like to avoid having him find us in bed together for now. And probably so would Rose.
I gently close the door behind me, turn around, and slam to a stop.
Now I know exactly how Win felt when I ambushed him in the coat closet, demanding that he tell me how to speak to my scent match without putting my size-12 foot in my mouth.
Ben, wearing navy blue pajamas with red fire trucks on them, smiles innocently up at me. “Hi, Murph. Is Mommy sleeping?”
After everything we did last night and this morning, damn right she’s still sleeping.
A flush creeps up my neck as I rake a hand through my hair. “Hey, little man. Um. Yeah. I was just…” I hunt for a PG-ratedreason as to why I’m slipping out of his mom’s bedroom at 6 a.m. “I was just checking on her to make sure she was sleeping.”
