Page 125 of Lyric & the Heartbeats

He tasted like everything she expected him to. Like late nights and bad decisions that were oh so good.

His hands dropped from behind her head to her sides, his thumbs caressing the skin he could reach as he burrowed them under her shirt. It sucked her further under his spell, and she’d never been so goddamned happy to break a stupid rule in her life.

“Table,” she muttered into the kiss, and Henry was moving before she even finished the word. She gripped his arms to feel his muscles flex and shift as he dropped his hands below her ass and lifted.

After being tossed around the room by Adra and Emerson, Lyric thought being lifted so effortlessly would’ve gotten old.

She was wrong.

It was still hot as hell. But even hotter than carefully placing her on the table, cautious not to disturb her new ink?

Was the way he pulled her to the very edge of it, his hands smoothing over her skin, her inner thighs. The places she’d been hoping he’d touch her for the last hour.

She tilted her head up to him, a flower seeking the sun, and he met her halfway, nipping at her bottom lip before soothing the sting away with softer presses. “Forgive me for asking, but do your suppressants double as birth control?”

His fingers tightened around her thighs just slightly, but she eased his worries with, “No. I take that separately, a shot every three years so I don’t have to think about it.”

“Good,” he said, his voice dark and more dangerous than she’d ever heard it, but only dangerous to her sanity. Because that look in his eyes, the heat flickering there said he wanted to drive her crazy. “But before we do anything, I need to make sure you’re okay with this. The suppressants—”

Lyric lifted a hand and placed it over his mouth to keep him from finishing the thought, question, suggestion, whatever. His breath was warm against her hand, his lips pursing in a soft kiss. “I’m fine. I’m ready. I should probably be asking you that question. I’m the one who stopped taking the suppressants, so my scent is stronger and—”

Henry nipped her palm, then gripped her wrist gently and lowered it so he could speak. “Lyric, I’ve been attracted to you since I first saw you. Smart mouth and all of your sass included. Your suppressants have nothing to do with how much I want you.”

Her heart stuttered in its tracks, skipping a beat as her breath caught. The truth of what he said shined out of the wheatfield swirl in his gaze.

“Okay,” Lyric said, dazed and totally, definitely aroused.

“Okay?” he questioned, breathing the word beside her ear. “That’s all?”

Lyric huffed, her nails clawing into his sides. “What, you want a handwritten invitation?”

His chuckle was deep and low, vibrating right above her skin, making chills spread out and trickle down her body. “A simple, ‘I want you too,’ would suffice,” he murmured.

Lyric swallowed. “Henry, I want you,” she breathed in response, barely able to catch her breath to even voice it.

This was a slow burn that had been sparking and flickering to life over the past hour—no, the past few weeks.

Henry’s annoying attention to detail, his stern voice as he told her to drink water or make it back to the bus or telling her to eat. The side glances as she flirted with the other alphas. Was it jealousy? Or just plain observation?

She guessed it didn’t matter, at least not at the moment. Because Henry was consuming her every thought, had been for the last hour.

Henry touching and teasing without meaning to. His fingers on her skin as he’d worked the needle back and forth, so close to the hem of her shorts she’d been close to begging him to touch her where she wanted it most. She’d spent the last hour imagining all the things he could do to her on this very same fucking table, and now…

Lyric gasped as he fixed two fingers in the waistband of her shorts and tugged, stripping them off her legs in one smooth move as he nipped at her neck.

The cool air played between her legs because… yeah. She hadn’t been wearing panties.

Henry growled. “You’re telling me I sat there scenting you the whole time because you weren’t wearing panties?”

Lyric gulped, but nodded, her smile pulling up at the corners of her lips. A girl couldn’t wait forever.

“You wanted this the whole damned time… just as much as I did,” he muttered.

He framed her hips on the table, leaned down, and nudged her chin up with his nose before sliding his lips left to kiss her.

“Good. We have forty-seven minutes before the others return,” he murmured against her lips.

“How do you even keep track of that?” she asked, her words trailing off into whispers.