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Mia’s fingers were still rubbing rapid circles over her clit, her passage fluttering around my spent dick, milking every last drop. I moaned as my knot started to swell, growing and growing andgrowinguntil her body felt like a hot vise around me.
Her mouth opened as she felt it, too, and a wavering cry escaped her throat as the fluttering became a strong, rhythmic squeeze. Her body jerked once, twice, three times, four times, her eyelids fluttering. Then she slowly went limp, her upper body folding forward to drape over mine—all her muscles turning to Jell-O except the ones that clamped around my knot, tying us together.
It felt like someone had poured contentment and wellbeing over my head from a bucket. I wanted to spend the rest of my life right here, knotting Mia while she lay against my chest making a contented little kitten purr.
After a moment, though, she roused herself—pushing up far enough that she could look down at me. She looked as dazed as I felt, but she asked, “Sweetheart, do you want me to take the gag off before we rest?”
I shook my head no, still not trusting my teeth anywhere near her throat.
“What about the cuffs?” she asked. “Can I take those off?”
I thought about it for a moment, and nodded yes. A slow, sunny smile broke out over her face, and she reached under the pillow where she’d stashed the key. A moment later, one cuff clicked open, followed by the other.
My shoulders were a little stiff, but wild alligators couldn’t have kept me from wrapping my arms around her and holding tight. With a deep sigh of happiness, she melted into my embrace, her sweet breath whuffling against the crook of my shoulder.
Cradling her against me, I knew none of the things that kept me from being part of a mated pack had really changed. The inside of my head was still a scary place... far too scary to let an innocent like Mia see it. And yet, in that moment, I would have shifted heaven and earth to make that mating bond a reality. I just needed to find a big enough lever to change my orbit.
FORTY-NINE
Luca
IT WASN’T TOO SURPRISINGthat Mia hadn’t come back to the nest last night. After all, it wasn’t the first time she’d ended up sleeping in Emiel’s arms, now that he was starting to open himself up to her.
Tous, if I was being honest.
That part, on its own, wouldn’t have had me pacing back and forth inside my office at the Hope Project, trying to talk myself out of marching downstairs to corral Emiel and ask him ‘what the actual fuck’? I wasfinewith them cuddling up. It was sweet, in its way.
But that was a world away from listening to the unmistakable sound of them fucking like wildcats, loud enough that I sincerely doubted anyone in the house had managed to miss it. Except maybe—hopefully—Mia’s not-so-estrangedhusband, down in the first-floor guest room with his less than acute beta hearing.
Okay. That was it. I couldn’t handle this for another goddamnedsecond.
The clock ticked over to nine a.m., when I knew Emiel would be between sessions with the kids. I marched downstairs and found him alone in the staff room, chugging the world’s largest cup of coffee and looking like he’d been up most of the night.
“Goddamn it, Emiel.What the actual fuck?” I demanded.
Emiel froze with the coffee half-raised to his lips, looking as though I’d caught him stealing the crown jewels rather than mainlining caffeine. Which was good, because it meant he knewexactlywhat I was talking about, and why I was freaking out.
His eyes darted around the room like he expected someone to be hiding in the supplies closet, eavesdropping on us.
“Not here,” he said, putting the half-finished cup on the cluttered counter next to the sink. “Let’s go outside.”
It was fuckingfreezingoutside. Still, I didn’t protest—confident that my rampaging nerves would do a more than adequate job of keeping me warm. He grabbed his coat from the rack and led the way to the alley door where he usually escaped when he needed a few minutes alone.
I let him usher me through ahead of him and,yep... freezing. Before I could rethink this plan, he draped his wool coat over my shoulders, enveloping me in warmth and the smell of cinnamon. Startled, I clutched it around myself. I could have swum in the damned thing; it was so big on me. He retreated a step and crossed his arms, clad only in shirtsleeves.